Have you ever noticed how the land barons of the west side and their allies behave like petulant children demanding candy when it comes to water?
As conservatives, they are demanding that nanny government seize and redistribute the water rights of California’s fishing industry, other Valley farmers and urban water users so they can luxuriate in their un-earned water lucre.
One of the largely unknown secrets of the Westlands Water District barons is that roughly half of their vast domain is facing an ecological disaster. Because they have farmed for half a century or more using irrigation from over-drafted groundwater and imported water via the California Water Project, their land is becoming saline and unusable for agriculture.
They stand not only to wreck havoc with the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with their demands to expropriate that water, but they are wrecking their own land. They are like someone in denial about the consequences of their substance abuse. They refuse to change their ways. They can’t irrigate their way out of the problem that irrigation is causing.
Maybe they do know they have to retire their land. Will they expropriate Delta water simply for resale to Southern California for huge unearned profits?
Berl Jay Hubbell
Fresno
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