By Dennis Lund
GOV, JERRY BROWN AND HIS WATER GURU, Jerry Meral, deputy director of California Natural Resources, want to build a $23 billion tunnel under the Delta to send water south. There was a bit of a kerfuffle last week when Mr. Meral — who let the cat out of the bag at a meeting in mid-April — said Brown’s plan “is not about, and has never been about, saving the Delta. The Delta cannot be saved.”
This did not sit well with our local representatives:
“The poorly named Bay Delta Conservation Plan is not really designed to save the Delta, but is primarily focused on exporting more water from the North to the South,” state Sen. Lois Wolk said.
Congressman Mike Thompson, in a new release available at his website, stated: “If (the) BDC Plan is not about restoring the Delta, then it’s all about shipping water to the south at the expense of our farming families, fishing families, wildlife and the environment. Meral and his friends are trying to rob families of their water and livelihoods.”
In a recent editorial, the Contra Costa Times called the plan a “boondoggle” and a “classic water grab” whose goal was “channeling as much Northern California water as possible to Central Valley Big Ag and Southern California urban sprawl.”
The animosity between North and South over water has long struck me as more than hypocritical, since water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir has long been the major source of water for the Peninsula. So by the logic of this long-running feud, transmitting water from east to west is acceptable, while moving water from the north to the south is not.
Yes, there is much more to it than that — but the fact remains that many in the North feel the South does not deserve “our water” and should “get their own.”
It often seems that a split of the state would be a good idea. The logical border line would be Monterrey-San Luis Obispo County, with Inyo and Mono counties being allocated to the South.
Water in the Making — As for SoCal getting their own water, they are about to — some of it, anyway. After years in the funding, planning and permitting stages, construction is under way in Carlsbad, near San Diego, on a $1 billion desalination plant that will produce enough water per day for 125,000 families (assuming a consumption rate of 400 gallons per day for four people).
One factor in the delays of this plant, beyond the predictable environmental objections, was the removal of U.S.-based Tetra Tech as the engineers, who were then supplanted by IDE Technologies, a company based in Israel.
The decision to make this replacement was based on many factors, but the long and short of it means that many of the economic side benefits of a project of this magnitude have been shifted overseas. This will also give European-based manufacturing companies of equipment — such as pumps, which alone are estimated to cost $20-24 million — an advantage in the procurement phase currently under way.
If the $23 billion for the second Moonbeam boondoggle — the train to nowhere being the first – were to be used instead for desalination, enough water would be produced to meet the needs of Solano County and the Southern California counties of Inyo, Mono, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The combined population of these seven counties is a little less than 3 million.
Shifting gears to the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they were in the news recently over New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was caught on tape in a horrible act of animal cruelty. It seems the governor, while visiting at his daughter’s elementary school, was caught on tape in what PETA describes as an “insect execution.”
You see, Christie killed a spider in front of the children. This was unacceptable to the animal lovers.
PETA, though, is apparently very fair, as they also objected to a similar act committed by President Obama when he had the temerity to terminate the life of an innocent fly in 2009. At that time PETA posted on its website:
“Believe it or not, we’ve actually been contacted by multiple media outlets wanting to know PETA’s official response to the executive insect execution. In a nutshell, our position is this: He isn’t the Buddha, he’s a human being, and human beings have a long way to go before they think before they act.”
The spider execution brought to mind a Huffington Post story I saw last month regarding the good people at PETA, which publicly claims to “represent the best interest of animals.” Quoting from the April 2 article:
“… approximately 2,000 animals pass through PETA’s front door every year and very few make it out alive. The vast majority — 96 percent in 2011 — exit the facility out the back door after they have been killed …”
Ouch. So much for the “best interests of the animals.”
PETA’s killing of animals is not an inexpensive operation, however, so they often seek financial support for such things as the $9,730 freezer used to store the bodies of the executed animals before they are turned over to a contracted disposal company. Again quoting from the HuffPo article, the money for the freezer came from “the donations of animal lovers who could never have imagined that the money they donated to help animals would be used to end their lives instead. In fact, in the last 11 years, PETA has killed 29,426 dogs, cats, rabbits, and other domestic animals.”
Well, rest easy, because at least the spiders and flies are safe from the web of the animal lovers at PETA.
Dennis Lund graduated from California State University-Long Beach with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1981 and has resided in Benicia since 1992.
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Dennis I do think we should be promoting more desalination as it is necessary for the future of this state and much of the southwest. The Nor Cal politicians always play the finger pointing game at So Cal and the brainwashed masses eat it up “it’s our water” shame on them.
As for PETA I’d like to see them train all the rats to pick up trash
Desalination is not commercially viable. Say what you want, but Southern California is part of OUR State and deserves the water just as much as we do. The Delta is indeed dying anyway. Time to open up the taps.
I agree we are one state and all deserve water. The “it’s our water ” quote is one I often hear in the bay area.
Danny stated: Desalination is not commercially viable.
Technology has improved considerably in recent years. For example the pressure required to drive seawater through the RO membranes has been reduced considerably. The pressure impacts both the operating costs and the costs of the required pumps. A second area is desalination system efficiencies. RO historically was about 60-40% (100 gallons of sea water produces 60 gallons of fresh water). Today systems as high as 90-95% are achieved in small scale systems.
Given more time those capabilities will be expanded.
RKJ said: I do think we should be promoting more desalination
You are correct, we should be, But RO does have some issues, such as waste disposal. At Carlsbad they are mixing the brine with discharge from a power plant so that the salt content is reduced.
With high efficient systems (95%) the waste is more like a sludge or cake consistency and would require to be disposed of in landfills.
These issues are all solvable though and I believe given time the water question will be solved.
There would be little discussion on the matter of shipping water south were it not for questions about the health of the Delta. Interestingly, the City of Sacramento just agreed to spend money to meet a challenge regarding its discharges into the system. Apparently there was enough evidence to suggest that these contributed to the decline in the Delta and so they agreed to spend the money. I think this was significant but it does suggest that before we act to solve a problem (ANY problem) we need to find out what it is. We can’t afford to allow our leaders, regardless of intent, to rush to fix problems in the meantime and then say, oh well, you know “sh..t happens”. That is inexcusable.
Yes, Reg, that’s what a conservative attitude should be: not Luddite or backward, but carefully circumspect.
So Cal will not let the Delta fight stop them from getting water. They have already started and are now buying water rights from the Colorado River from adjoining states. Those states need the money and are willing to take it and give up some water for the moment. So Cal will also look to Mexico for water. After all those canals do leak and it flows right into Mexico. Just dig a hole and ship it back to So Cal. Very easy. So Cal will also look into capturing water in a much more aggressive way just like the Central Valley will do to keep their ag business going very strong. The Delta issue is a minor issue in So Cal but a big issue in No Cal. No Cal will end up with it and eventually will beg big ag and So Cal to take some water. Guess what happens to the price? Down Down. Good move for So Cal bad move for No Cal. The folks are right it is one state and we must work together. Big ag reduced water consumputiuon in one year more than the total residential use for one year. Drip irrigation. They are using less water with advanced tech. This war will go on till my beloved No Cal starts to cooporate. I have lived in So Cal and I liked it very much. Do not under estimate the folks in So Cal. It is important that we work together to solve this problem.
good article
http://features.peta.org/petasaves/?utm_campaign=0313%20PETA%20Saves%20Feature&utm_source=PETA%20Google%20Ad&utm_medium=CPC&gclid=CLjdisGJjLcCFUHe4Aodwg4AKQ
Thanks for the link RA, which serves to confirm that PETA does in fact kill animals, though justification for the killing may be questionable.
The Huff Po article I used as my source has some pictures that serve to bring question to the veracity of PETA’s claim. Though likely much of the time their decision may be appropriate.
PETA has never denied it their euthanization program, though they put up that page in response to demagogues who misinform by omission and out-of-context calumny. I urge everyone to click the link and get the real story.
RA Stated :I urge everyone to click the link and get the real story.
Below is a link to the HuffPo article used in the column posted.
PETA Kills puppies – By Nathan Winograd.
I would urge everyone to read both pieces then decide.
Ideally the reader will also remember PETA’s long and laudable stewardship of animals and take with a healthy grain of salt sensationalistic accounts lacking context.