Tide of Sentiment Shifts in Water War: Agricultural Interests Challenged

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Tide of Sentiment Shifts in Water War
Traditional Favoritism to Agricultural Interests Is Challenged as Demand Increases
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 15, 2006; Page A03

....From Montana to Arizona to California and beyond, alliances of environmentalists, fishermen and city dwellers are challenging the West's traditional water barons -- farmers and ranchers -- who have long controlled the increasingly scarce resource.

The West largely depends on its rivers and snowmelt for its water supply, and a combination of recent urban growth and prolonged drought has resulted in demand greatly outstripping supply. Under longstanding federal and state policies reinforced by farmers' historic political clout, agriculture has laid claim to about 80 percent of those scant resources -- at rock-bottom prices -- on the grounds that water is critical to the survival of crops and livestock.

Now, however, other users are arguing that this system is unfair, uneconomical and a threat to many delicate ecosystems, and not only in the West.

Farmers typically pay less for their water than nearby cities: In California's Central Valley, they get their water from the federal government at below-market prices, a subsidy that amounts to $416 million a year, according to the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. And unlike cities getting the same water, farmers are paying back the cost of the region's giant irrigation system without interest....

***

Such battles have spread nationwide as groups from Florida to Nebraska squabble over farmers' voracious water use, but nowhere are the stakes higher than in the fast-growing West. Rivers and streams there occupy just 5 percent of the land but sustain nearly half of the fish and wildlife species....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011400820.html

[dusmcj]

1. now if only it would spread to south america

where chickenshit white assholes from El Norte make the poor folks pay the corporation for access to water. I think these folks would charge for eating their own shit in front of an audience, what do you think ?

[aquart]

2. The Romans built aqueducts. Why can't we?

Our nation has areas that receive too much rain in some years, and others that receive too little. What would be bad (serious question) about a national interstate system of aqueducts which could be channeled to whichever area was in need, pulling it away from areas with too much?

Are we engineering challenged? Are we less capable than the Romans of building a national system? Water is becoming a huge issue. Why are we wringing our hands instead of remembering we are one nation and taking care of it?

Just at a glance, how many jobs would such a system create?

[fed-up]

3. some farmers waste a ton of water by watering midday or w/sprinklers n/t

[Kali]

4. Um, what do farmers do?

That "voracious water use" IS producing something besides careers for environmentalists and lawyers.


Is the answer to outsource food production?