www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20210624-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf?_t=1624657203
I shall skip a “Feature” this week and instead call your attention to an event on Tuesday, June 29 at 7:00pm, in which I shall be one of the panelists putting questions to some of the candidates running to replace Gavin Newsom, whom, of course, is the subject of a recall election to be held in the next two or three months.
The announcement of, and links to that event begin on page 10 of this report.
As usual, we shall begin the report with the U.S. Drought Monitor, to be followed by a couple articles that underline the increased alarm, at least among some reporters, in regard to the drought that now encompasses about 90 percent of the territory of the western states.
The second of those articles I preface with a warning about some who attribute the drought to the environmentalist policies of the the governor and past governors and legislators. Not only is that scientifically absurd, it is also politically misleading and irresponsible. Without repeating what I have written below, it is clear to any honest observer that 40 years of not building water infrastructure by both Democratic and Republican administrations, and not just the environmentalist policies of recent office holders, is where the problem lies. I do think some will be surprised to learn that the first governor who began shutting down the building of water infrastructure was the Republican Ronald Reagan.
One more word on that article. It does make clear that while the Delta and the delivery systems of the major projects (the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project) are major elements of the entire California water management system, still very large portions of that system are in no way connected to the Delta and water from the two major projects.
Adding to all the problems that accompany drought, we now have a major grasshopper infestation throughout the areas of drought. Not unexpected though, as such is a regular affect accompanying drought.
Last year swarms of locusts ate crops in a wide region of northeast Africa, the Middle-east and even in Pakistan and India. Well, we now have grasshoppers infesting broad regions of the west. They thrive in dry climates, so the western states drought has put out the welcome mat for them. Grasshoppers and locusts are closely related insects belonging to the Acrididae family. Locusts are actually grasshoppers that develop gregarious behaviors under optimum environmental conditions which involve the presence of large populations of grasshoppers.
The grasshoppers are followed by the announcement of the event on June 29 for the candidates vying to replace Governor Newsom.
