In the wake of devastating fires this year in California, many Americans were perplexed to find out that fire hydrants in Los Angeles ran dry. The reservoirs were empty. And, why does one of our largest coastal states have so little water? California’s water problems are long-standing and self-inflicted.
More than a decade ago in 2014, Californians enacted Proposition 1 by a landslide vote of 67% to create new reservoirs to supply more water to the arid Los Angeles basin. Billions were allocated for these promised new reservoirs, and Congress kicked in hundreds of millions of dollars more at American taxpayer expense. Yet no new reservoirs have been built in California since 1979. Environmentalists file lawsuits to delay or stop construction, while liberal California judges too often rule in their favor. These reservoirs certainly could have doused the devastating fires earlier this year. Rainfall poured down on Southern California in late January, but nearly all of it flowed into the ocean because of the lack of reservoirs.
Currently there are only three routes to bring water to southern California, which has very little of its own. The Los Angeles Aqueduct built in the 1900s brings water from the Owens River valley on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Colorado River Aqueduct built in the 1930s brings water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu (but that diminishing water supply is also needed by fast-growing Arizona). Finally the California Aqueduct built in the 1960s is the only route to bring water from north of Sacramento where water is abundant, however that must be shared with the enormously productive farms in California’s fertile Central Valley.
Despite these limited options, and no new reservoirs, liberal coastal cities continue to embark on expensive, nonsense environmental proposals that keep California at the mercy of uncontrollable wildfires. It’s time for Californians to give the boot to bad state officials that perpetuate their own natural disasters.
