Governor Brown's California Water Crisis

     The irrigation system of California water uses flumes that gather water from the mountains to retain in dams before being distributed through canals and channels for use on the agricultural fields.  That's the system I've known the state has in place since the 1920s!  I assume it's still in use, though may have been augmented and changed to some degree over the years.


     Now, I don't know what system the Israelis use, but that country is foremost in irrigation technology.  I can't believe it would rely on this method, which I regard as antiquated to say something kind about it.  Water evaporation is horrendous because the flumes and canals are exposed to the sun; it simply supplies a modicum of the original water flow to the fields.  California is partly desert and to think otherwise is to mistake the regional geography.  I think the Israeli methods should be deployed in California in its basic structural irrigation system.

    Add to this is the possibility of creating pipelines from distant locations, even as far north as Alaska, to carry water to the California farms.

    Instead, the state agricultural community has threatened water rationing as a means to handle the desert conditions in the state.  It will thereby raise the prices of its crops to consumers to enrich its own coffers rather than find additional means to increase its water reserves.  That is an affront to the nation; and Governor Brown is a party to this conspiracy of rationing.   While not claiming in any way to hold back the natural flow of water to the farms, he is implicitly granting California agriculture the rationale for raising prices for its produce--arid conditions in the state.  Moreover, he is attempting to hold in check the state's further development and growth for the same reason. 

     Personally, I don't think the United States will tolerate a state's threat to restrain future development in order to preserve what once was.  He's toying with the nation's well-being, even as some Republicans have attempted to check immigration into the country.  Such maneuvers are not in keeping with the country's position as leader of the world!  It must move ahead; and refrain from longing for the past!  In terms of California agriculture, new methods and modern techniques must replace the technology in irrigation of the 1920s.