I know that getting California water from the Central Valley to the Los Angeles basin is just not a matter of turning on a faucet. I came by this knowledge in a visceral way.
In my misspent youth, I financed my education by working in heavy construction. I was once working on building Interstate 5 in in the Tejon Pass region, which is the summit of the route between the Central Valley and LA.
This route is also used by the California Water Project, which transports water from the north of the Central Valley down to LA. Nearby our freeway project, water is stored in two reservoirs, connected by a tunnel.
The tunnel was constructed with reinforced concrete and was egg shaped which was supposed to be the best way to distribute the stress. Unfortunately, it didn't work and the walls were crumbling in. To solve this the tunnel was being reinforced by steel I beams. The space between the I beams and the tunnel sides had to be filled by concrete. My construction company was doing the filing as a side job. My part in this was to work inside the tunnel for two weeks, mixing sand, rock, cement, and water, using a shovel, hoe, and wheelbarrow. The work was physically hard and boring. The experience brought home to me the fact that building a water transportation system from the north of California to the South was not just a matter of turning on a faucet.
Trump started out with $500 million; I started out with the work ethic and zero dollars. I did get a boost from the fact that my uncle was the project manager of the freeway job. In return for hard physical work and some danger, I was making a lot of money.
But Trump had the experience that things are as easy as turning on faucets. The people who voted for him somehow feel that their grocery prices would go down if Trump just turns on the right faucets
A bunch of California Central Valley voters also seem to believe something like this. It is a very popular conspiracy theory among rural Republicans that there’s actually still plenty of water, all the water restraints are a conspiracy theory, and Democrats are dumping water into the Pacific, to save the Delta Smelt or whatever.
> **Auros**: 'A bunch of California Central Valley voters also seem to believe something like this. It is a very popular conspiracy theory among rural Republicans that there’s actually still plenty of water, all the water restraints are a conspiracy theory, and Democrats are dumping water into the Pacific, to save the Delta Smelt or whatever... <https://braddelong.substack.com/p/one-video-donald-trump-and-the-very/comment/84349939>
Have you driven down Route 5 any time in the last decade or so? There are tons of signs posted (I assume with the cooperation of the farms that own the land along the road) about how Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom are turning the valley into a dustbowl. How much they actually believe, vs how much is just propaganda, I have no idea. But that's part of the deal with fascist parties -- they don't care that much whether stuff is factual, just whether it "feels true" or "points to some larger truth".
This line of attack has been getting recycled for decades. Here's a conservative kid at a student paper back in 2011 ( https://mustangnews.net/the-congress-created-california-drought/ ) blaming "Senators" Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer (somebody didn't do his homework). And his coda basically implies he thinks the fish might be a convenient excuse for the hidden agenda of secretly _wanting_ to hurt farmers.
I live in the Central Valley and hear stuff like this all the time (as well as UC Merced turning students into Communists). The water distribution and access in California are overly complex, so it is both contentious and easy to see why conspiracy theories abound. Even in Silicon Valley, Republican friends would claim that the Democrat-run state favors fish (e.g. Salmon) over people.
As most of the water in CA is used for farming, and farming supplies most of the fresh fruit and vegetables to the rest of the US, could California find some way to reduce food exports out of the state [and/or demand the rest of the country pay for desalination plants and more efficient irrigation equipment to compensate for the drain on our increasingly limited water supply? Payment in water shipments would be nice too. ;-) ]
I go to Austria. The head of Austria tells me—you know—“we have trees that are much more flammable than what you have in California. We never have forest fires”. Because they maintain their forests.
"
Are we sure he knows the distinction between Austria and Australia?
Seriously, though Austria definitely has trees, are they (largely hardwood, I believe) much more flammable than the conifer forests of California? No way.
Australia, though, had monstrous wildfires just a few years ago. Wiped out a lot of koalas.
One almost gets the impression that the guy doesn't really know what he's talking about.
Trump is an ignoramus. The problem with transporting water long distances is cost. It has been considered for centuries, and even towing icebergs from the Antarctic to California was considered in the 1960s. It would need a huge reduction in cost to make use of Canadian water. Far cheaper to recycle water, use it more efficiently, and even desalinate seawater for potable water. BTW, the canal system in the UK created all sorts of biological problems from invasive organisms, and I believe similar problems occurred in the Eastern US. Trump knows nothing about water, any more than he does about running a casino.
A few Californians I know, graduate degrees and all, think that water from the Great Lakes should be transported to CA. I note the expense of lifting water from the Mississippi River Valley to CA is prohibitive and that it would be cheaper if they just moved to a place with water.
Faucets
I know that getting California water from the Central Valley to the Los Angeles basin is just not a matter of turning on a faucet. I came by this knowledge in a visceral way.
In my misspent youth, I financed my education by working in heavy construction. I was once working on building Interstate 5 in in the Tejon Pass region, which is the summit of the route between the Central Valley and LA.
This route is also used by the California Water Project, which transports water from the north of the Central Valley down to LA. Nearby our freeway project, water is stored in two reservoirs, connected by a tunnel.
The tunnel was constructed with reinforced concrete and was egg shaped which was supposed to be the best way to distribute the stress. Unfortunately, it didn't work and the walls were crumbling in. To solve this the tunnel was being reinforced by steel I beams. The space between the I beams and the tunnel sides had to be filled by concrete. My construction company was doing the filing as a side job. My part in this was to work inside the tunnel for two weeks, mixing sand, rock, cement, and water, using a shovel, hoe, and wheelbarrow. The work was physically hard and boring. The experience brought home to me the fact that building a water transportation system from the north of California to the South was not just a matter of turning on a faucet.
Trump started out with $500 million; I started out with the work ethic and zero dollars. I did get a boost from the fact that my uncle was the project manager of the freeway job. In return for hard physical work and some danger, I was making a lot of money.
But Trump had the experience that things are as easy as turning on faucets. The people who voted for him somehow feel that their grocery prices would go down if Trump just turns on the right faucets
Allen Kamp
.
A bunch of California Central Valley voters also seem to believe something like this. It is a very popular conspiracy theory among rural Republicans that there’s actually still plenty of water, all the water restraints are a conspiracy theory, and Democrats are dumping water into the Pacific, to save the Delta Smelt or whatever.
> **Auros**: 'A bunch of California Central Valley voters also seem to believe something like this. It is a very popular conspiracy theory among rural Republicans that there’s actually still plenty of water, all the water restraints are a conspiracy theory, and Democrats are dumping water into the Pacific, to save the Delta Smelt or whatever... <https://braddelong.substack.com/p/one-video-donald-trump-and-the-very/comment/84349939>
References? -B.
Have you driven down Route 5 any time in the last decade or so? There are tons of signs posted (I assume with the cooperation of the farms that own the land along the road) about how Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom are turning the valley into a dustbowl. How much they actually believe, vs how much is just propaganda, I have no idea. But that's part of the deal with fascist parties -- they don't care that much whether stuff is factual, just whether it "feels true" or "points to some larger truth".
This line of attack has been getting recycled for decades. Here's a conservative kid at a student paper back in 2011 ( https://mustangnews.net/the-congress-created-california-drought/ ) blaming "Senators" Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer (somebody didn't do his homework). And his coda basically implies he thinks the fish might be a convenient excuse for the hidden agenda of secretly _wanting_ to hurt farmers.
Carly Fiorina also repeated variations of the claim in her campaign. ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/21/carly-fiorinas-claim-that-californias-drought-is-a-man-made-disaster/ )
I've heard variants of the idea from local conservative / MAGA types in my town, as well.
I live in the Central Valley and hear stuff like this all the time (as well as UC Merced turning students into Communists). The water distribution and access in California are overly complex, so it is both contentious and easy to see why conspiracy theories abound. Even in Silicon Valley, Republican friends would claim that the Democrat-run state favors fish (e.g. Salmon) over people.
As most of the water in CA is used for farming, and farming supplies most of the fresh fruit and vegetables to the rest of the US, could California find some way to reduce food exports out of the state [and/or demand the rest of the country pay for desalination plants and more efficient irrigation equipment to compensate for the drain on our increasingly limited water supply? Payment in water shipments would be nice too. ;-) ]
I lucky me!!!! I am at 1500 ft above sea level. Safe from all that water that will flood the state.
"
I go to Austria. The head of Austria tells me—you know—“we have trees that are much more flammable than what you have in California. We never have forest fires”. Because they maintain their forests.
"
Are we sure he knows the distinction between Austria and Australia?
Seriously, though Austria definitely has trees, are they (largely hardwood, I believe) much more flammable than the conifer forests of California? No way.
Australia, though, had monstrous wildfires just a few years ago. Wiped out a lot of koalas.
One almost gets the impression that the guy doesn't really know what he's talking about.
Trump is an ignoramus. The problem with transporting water long distances is cost. It has been considered for centuries, and even towing icebergs from the Antarctic to California was considered in the 1960s. It would need a huge reduction in cost to make use of Canadian water. Far cheaper to recycle water, use it more efficiently, and even desalinate seawater for potable water. BTW, the canal system in the UK created all sorts of biological problems from invasive organisms, and I believe similar problems occurred in the Eastern US. Trump knows nothing about water, any more than he does about running a casino.
Yeah but "he knows how to deal with the 'illegals' and he's easier on the pocketbook" say his voters.
And the crops will rot as he deports the state’s farmworkers.
A few Californians I know, graduate degrees and all, think that water from the Great Lakes should be transported to CA. I note the expense of lifting water from the Mississippi River Valley to CA is prohibitive and that it would be cheaper if they just moved to a place with water.
I am pretty certain of I started speaking like this family would ... ummmmm ... sign commitment papers.
At the very least.
Yes indeed... -B.