will there be water riots when Sacramento goes dry?

[ensho]

http://counterpunch.com/sandronsky05312008.html


Going Dry in Sacramento
Will There be Water Riots?


-snip-

In mid-Feb., the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sent letters to cities from Bakersfield to Redding, its water customers in the federal Central Valley Project. The CVP was begun in 1935 partly to move water from the northern Central Valley to its southern part to help agribusiness.

The BoR letter to Roseville said to brace for an annual cut of 25 percent in the city’s 2008 water supply from Folsom Lake, based on its annual forecast of historical rain fall and snowpack data from California’s Dept. of Water Resources, said BoR spokesman Jeff McCracken.

-snip-

Roseville is the first community in the Sacramento region to pursue a policy of voluntary water conservation. The city’s residential customers, 89 percent of consumers, use half the water supply, Amaral said. The city’s nonresidential water users are 11 percent and consume the other 50 percent of the resource.

-snip-

“It cracks me up when municipalities ask users to cut back on their water usage,” he said. “That’s only makes sense if agriculture, which uses 80 percent of the developed water in California, does its fair share, too. Otherwise, agriculture sounds like a sacred cow.”

And a cash cow? Over-all agricultural activity accounted for $57.7 billion of California’s $1.5 trillion economy in 2005 versus $53.6 billion of $1.4 trillion in 2004, the California Dept. of Finance's said. Two of the Central Valley’s top water-intensive crops were alfalfa and cotton in 2006, according to the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture.

-snip-

Downstream from Roseville is the city of Sacramento. Its charter prohibits residential water meters. That’s a factor in the misuse of water by residents of the city, which has legal rights to water from the American River, Stork said.
-snip-
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yes, thirsty people will riot and think of ways to steal water.

maybe everyone will have to leave the area except agro people.

[tjwash]

1. The reason that they are growing more cotton and alfalfa in the central valley...

...is because states that historically grow these water intensive crops, such as Tennessee and Mississippi are switching to corn for this disastrous bio-diesel fiasco, that the oil companies are pushing on everyone.

[Warpy]

2. Uh, there has also been a massive drought

in the southeast, so it's not all an ethanol boondoggle.

A 25% cut will mostly affect crop yields. Other than that, you'll see water police coming around to make sure lawn sprinklers aren't watering sidewalks and driveways and that sprinkling is done early in the morning or at twilight. They will also discourage washing your car at home, since commercial carwashes typically use far less water. It will get much more expensive to fill the swimming pool.

Water restrictions were a way of life on Cape Cod so it wasn't a big shock to come out to the desert southwest and face them.

A 25% cut won't produce riots. It will produce grumbling.

[LeftyMom]

5. This article isn't talking about the desert southwest.

The area they're talking about, in Northern California, is flood-prone, riddled by rivers and creeks, and gets absolutely drenched in seasonal monsoon-type rain. The mountains to the east frequently get snow up over a person's head in the winter.

The problem is that water winds up headed south, to areas that are more arid, but mostly natural grasslands.

[Warpy]

6. My comparison with the desert southwest

was for information about what a 25% shortfall in water supplies is likely to do and what it is not.

[LeftyMom]

7. The thing is, due to the ongoing joy of water rights negotiations

It's hard to say that there would be a 25% shortfall. The result could be less diversions, in which case most or all of the cutbacks would be downstate. It really all depends on state politics at the time of crisis.

[Warpy]

8. Tell me about it

because a lot of water falls on Colorado, goes through here and ends up in Texas.

People back east don't have a clue how water rights are such a big issue out west.

[XemaSab]

10. Whiskey's for drinking

and water's for fighting over. :D

[HawkerHurricane]

3. No.

There will be water riots in Los Angeles when Sacramento cuts off thier water.

[XemaSab]

9. .

:toast:

[LeftyMom]

4. Sacramento is on TWO rivers.

Frequently, in the winter, one or the other decides to route itself through some unfortunate neighborhood. We have no shortage of water, even with so much going south.

Every now and then somebody proposes splitting the state in two north and south. The reason is mostly water politics, long established as the third rail of California politics. Right now a lot of the north state's water goes south without any compensation.

[HawkerHurricane]

12. Water flows south, money flows north...

[wvbygod]

11. Why riot?

Sure, steal, beg or borrow water but what possible excuse could be created for rioting? How would
rioting help solve the water issue? Why even bring up the subject of riots?

[pitohui]

14. people dying of thirst become delusional but i agree, it's a silly threat

the idea that they would then riot tho is far-fetched, there's a lack of energy there when you're talking about dehydration

the older people who died of exposure after hurricane katrina in new orleans, because of the lack of safe drinking water, did not riot, if that's a data point

cynic that i am, i'm sure that while this nation is happy to let southerners go without water in a crisis, i don't see it refusing to provide drinking water to people in need in california, i'd have to see some historical precedent for that and i don't -- instead my understanding that at all costs water will be diverted to them, not that i resent it, but i feel that some of the generosity should go toward others in need as well

the need in new orleans could have probably been addressed by dropping supplies from durn helicopters, had they bothered to equip and stage any within reach, the need in california requires much more in the way of long term and permanent planning

[omega minimo]

13. watch out for water privatization