[env-trinity] Thirsty Billionaires File Complaint Alleging Illegal Diversions of "Their" Water

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/21/1395294/-Thirsty-Billionaires-File-Complaint-to-Raid-Delta-Farmers-Water

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/06/22/18773827.php

meet_the_resnicks_1.jpg

Thirsty Billionaires File Complaint Alleging Illegal Diversions of  
"Their" Water

by Dan Bacher

The phrase “No good deed goes unpunished,” originally attributed to  
playwright Clare Boothe Luce, could accurately the current situation  
of farmers on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Three weeks after the State Water Resources Control Board approved a  
voluntary proposal by Delta farmers to voluntarily reduce their water  
use by 25%, the State Water Contractors (SWC), including powerful  
billionaire and millionaire corporate growers in the San Joaquin  
Valley, filed a complaint with the same board on June 16. The group  
requested the board to take action to “protect” State Water Project  
(SWP) releases from what it claimed were “unlawful diversions” in the  
Delta.

The group accused diverters south of the San Joaquin River - Delta  
farmers - of “substantial, unlawful diversions” that would “increase  
the burden on limited stored water supplies, affecting both the  
environment and other water users.”

“These landowners in the Delta have long-standing water rights that  
entitle them to water when nature provides it—but those rights do not  
entitle them to stored water paid for by others and intended for the  
environment. If nature ran its course, the Delta would not be suitable  
for drinking or farming this summer,” said Stefanie Morris, acting  
general manager of the State Water Contractors, in a press release.

She further alleged that landowners that continue to divert water from  
within the Delta are "taking" the stored state and federal water  
project supplies needed to meet water quality requirements.

“We’re depending on stored water to meet environmental needs, but  
without action from the state, keeping the Delta water fresh this  
summer will be like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom.  
We’ll be depleting reservoirs to make up for what diverters south of  
the San Joaquin River are taking out,” concluded Morris.

The California Sportfishing Alliance (CSPA) responded to the complaint  
by pointing out the irony of the water contractors claiming that Delta  
farmers, senior water rights holders, are “stealing” water that  
“belongs” to the contractors.

“State and Federal contractors, who have been illegally storing water  
that belongs to others for years, should not accuse Delta farmers of  
stealing some of their stolen water, on the basis of a seriously  
flawed study, with a long list of unsupported assumptions,” said Bill  
Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection  
Alliance.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta  
(RTD), noted that “the pumps for the State Water Project have yet to  
be turned off one day during the drought while water quality standards  
are being violated in the Delta each and every day this year,  
impacting Delta urban water users and family farms.”

“We are perilously close to losing Delta smelt, and our iconic salmon  
fisheries, and despite Delta family farms already taking a voluntary  
25 percent reduction in water use, the State Water Contractors believe  
the Delta should be made into a complete sacrifice zone for their  
water exports,” she said.

At the same time that the water contractors are demanding that Delta  
farmers stop raiding “their water," water-intensiver almond acreage in  
the San Joaquin Valley has increased dramatically in recent years, in  
spite of water contractor claims that protections for Delta smelt and  
salmon have made the Valley into some sort of modern-day “Dust Bowl.”

In fact, growers statewide expanded their almond acreage by 150,000  
acres during the current drought. (http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/05/15/californias-thirsty-almond-acreage-grows-by-150000-acres-during-record-drought

Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills billionaire agribusiness tycoon,  
owner of Paramount Farms, and one of the biggest California  
contributors to both Democratic and Republican Party candidates,  
revealed his current plan to expand pistachio, almond, and walnut  
acreage during the drought at this March's annual pistachio conference  
that Paramount Farms hosted. Resnick is the co-owner with his wife,  
Lynda, of "The Wonderful Company," formerly Roll Global.

During the conference, Resnick gloated about the industry's 118  
percent increase in pistachio acreage, 47 percent increase in almonds  
and 30 percent increase in walnuts over the past ten years, according  
to the Western Farm Press.

Resnick also told the publication that their 2020 goal is “150,000  
partner acres ” and “33,000 Paramount acres.” (http://westernfarmpress.com/tree-nuts/paramount-farms-touts-record-pistachio-return-future? 
)

Under pressure by the Metropolitan Water District and the Kern County  
Water Agency that serves Resnick and other wealthy growers, the  
Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Bureau of Reclamation  
(BOR) mismanaged the Bay Delta Estuary and California’s reservoirs  
during the drought so that these agencies could continue to export as  
much water as possible, despite the devastating impacts on the Bay- 
Delta Estuary, according to Barrigan-Parrilla.

Barrigan-Parrilla said the Department and Bureau failed to hold back  
enough water for continued drought conditions despite warnings to do  
so by fishery and environmental water groups throughout the state.

“As the weeks go by, it becomes clearer and clearer that the only way  
to stop the over pumping of the SF Bay-Delta estuary, and Governor  
Brown’s planned tunnels project, is for an adjudication of the  
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed,” she said. “The problem is  
that we do not have the water to meet the insatiable demand of special  
interest growers in California, like those in the Kern County Water  
Agency, or the Metropolitan Water District, which used up the majority  
of its three-year stored water supply in 2014, and only began to get  
serious about conservation this year."

During 2013 and 2014, the state and federal water agencies  
systematically emptied Trinity Reservoir on the Trinity River, Lake  
Shasta on the Sacramento River, Lake Oroville on the Feather River and  
Folsom Lake on the American River, in spite of it being a record  
drought. The agencies delivered massive amounts of subsidized Delta  
water to corporate mega-growers, Southern California water agencies  
and Big Oil companies conducting steam injection and fracking  
operations in Kern County. (http://www.elkgrovenews.net/2014/02/state-and-feds-drained-northern.html 
)

Salmon, steelhead and a host of other fish species are being driven  
closer to extinction by low, warm water conditions on the Sacramento  
and Trinity River systems spurred by the draining of reservoirs during  
a historic drought. But as the Brown administration mandates that  
northern California urban water users slash their water use by 25  
percent and as Delta farmers voluntarily agree to a 25 percent in  
their water consumption, thirsty billionaire growers like Stewart  
Resnick brag about how they have expanded their almond, pistachio and  
walnut acreage during the drought. 
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