July 12, 2021
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20210712 Recall Bulletin %232a.pdf?_t=1626283577
As expected, the hot, dry weather combined with the drought, has set up the state (and the rest of the West) for large, dangerous and out of control wildfires. At least half-a-dozen are now burning in northern California, especially in the Mount Shasta area. One fire, actually burning in Klamath Falls County of Oregon, just north of the California border, is already more than 150,000 acres. Already this year, the number of fires and the acreage burned is almost double that of 2020 for this time of the year. Remember 2020 saw 4.2 million acres burn, more than twice the amount of any other year since records have been kept.
So, what does the governor do?
Last week, our embattled Governor,facing a recall election on September 14, finally extended the drought state of emergency to nine more counties on July 8, making the total 50 of the 58 counties in the state. At the same time, he advised the state’s population to voluntarily reduce water use by 15%. Pathetic! Even Jerry Brown had at least the courage to mandateeven larger cuts. But not Newsom. Not that such cuts will alleviate the disaster that the drought has already made. Why? Because about 90 percent of the state’s population consumes a mere 10% of the water consumed by humans. Do the math: 15% of 10% means nothing. The governor’s policy and press conference announcing it failed to mention that both the state and the federal government has already cut off all water deliveries to the farmers of the Central Valley. The farmers will not cut their consumption by 15%; it has already been cut by 100%.
What about the fires, Mr. Governor? It is true he allocated millions of more dollars to the fire fighting budget this year, but what he really wishes to avoid is the scandal that he lied about the number of acres of forest that has been treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns.
Here is a quote from Capitol Radio on June 26, 2021:
“An investigation from CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found the governor has misrepresented his accomplishments and even disinvested in wildfire prevention. The investigation found Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the very forestry projects he said needed to be prioritized to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities. Newsom has claimed that 35 “priority projects” carried out as a result of his executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. But the state’s own data show the actual number is 11,399.
“Overall, California’s response has faltered under Newsom. After an initial jump during his first year in office, data obtained by CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom show Cal Fire’s fuel reduction output dropped by half in 2020, to levels below Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office. At the same time, Newsom slashed roughly $150 million from Cal Fire’s wildfire prevention budget.”
We should not forget that in 2014, the voters of California approved an emergency drought measure that would allocate about $8 billion. Of that about $3 billion was to go to building new water infrastructure, especially expanded storage. Now, seven years later, none of that $3 billion has been allocated, and, of course, nothing has been built.
We have a few suggestions, Mr. Governor: Build some damn water storage. The Sites Reservoir, raising Shasta Dam, the Temperance Flat Reservoir– these projects would add about 2 million acre feet of storage. That would be a good start, even though it will take a few years to complete the projects.
