Lake Shasta is the states largest resevour. It was built in the 30s and 40s to keep salt water intrusion out of the Sacramento River during times of low flows. Ag has signed on to pay for the non funded part of the lake, while the funded part is payed for with tax dollars. The funded part is for the public and in the last ten years the environmentalist have carved out a large chunk of that water for delta and fish issues. In a short period the environmentalist have drastically reduced the size of the water pie.
To add insult to injury these environmentalist are the same groups that have held the state hostage as far as any new water storage projects are concerned. They seem to find plenty of uses for CA water, and then they tell everyone else to conserve.
The worst offender in this whole movement just might be the NRSDC National Resourse Defence Council. This group is led by a bunch of environmental lawyers and they seem to be compleatly economically driven.
These ass holes litigate litigate litigate and offer no real solution to the problem. In short they are just agitators and use the environment as their cover.
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You are well informed on the state of water in California. Especially the financial damage caused by the interference of the NRDC and the Sierra Club. They are not conservation organizations anymore. They are self perpetuating law firms begging for donations.
Even in good water years there isn't enough to meet all filed Water Rights. The only practical additional water storage is to raise the Shasta Dam, and to recharge the various aquifers. Intelligent water allocation is a neccesity. Cities have the votes to get whatever water they need. Agribusiness is going to have to adjust.
No water will be imported from the Klamath River. That's only magical thinking on a few people's part. Governor Brown's water diversion tunnels proposal for the Delta are quite literally "pipe dreams". There is no money for it. Nor will Congress agree to Ah Pah Dam even if it's entirely funded by California.
The Delta Smelt is essentially extinct in the Sacramento Delta. The only healthy populations are in large aquariums. Whether any Salmon and Steelhead runs can survive this drought is debatable. Those issues will likely go away on their own. But the outflow of the Delta does need to be maintained to prevent saltwater intrusion. And that water comes from Shasta and Oroville dams. If not then the California Aqueduct will send no water South, and the Delta's farms will go out of production.
On a national scale consider that their is a chance, or a probability, that California will be transfered to Mexico. The State history is of encouraging illegal aliens to migrate and stay. Illegals and Mexican-Americans will soon enough be the State majority. Soon California may revert back to Mexico. For two reasons. The desire by Democrats for votes lead to a policy to prevent deporting illegals. And the greedy desire of agribusiness for cheaper farm labor causing the scraping of the Bracero temporary farm worker program in 1964. Get used to the idea of Mexico as a mexican State, Americans...
