Steve, as a Conservative I am very conservative and environmentally sensitive. I recycle extensively. I expended significant amounts of my savings to build an efficient solar designed home, insulate, and reduce my monthly electrical consumption. I grow vegetables and fruits and can/preserve them. Your comment is just plain ignorant.

As for water, we have the ability to capture/store 1 million acre feet of water but liberals who claim to support the environment (yes, the poor little fishies need their water) used deceit and delay to prevent the Auburn Dam from being built so they can have thousands of tourists come urinate in the river for cash.

If you ever saw the rafting company vans belching their black smoke as they haul a payload out of the canyon, you would know that they could care less about the environment. Its all about the cash and using our river as a free recreational park.

If you can figure a way to stop 10,000,000 Mexicans from coming into California and stressing our ecosystem, please let me know because we are feeding/clothing/watering 10 million illegal residents every day. That takes a lot of water.

Steve, I am a conservative and I will bet you that I conserve more than you do. Of course if you had not written your letter you could not have taken a jab at conservatives, now could you? Why not be honest and just write a short note stating how much you despise conservative, you don't even have to go into detail. It would save you and everyone else a lot of time.

Y-S, I have never taken a ride in a raft from a commercial rafter, I do kayak the river and I want to mention that the canyon is not just the river, there are trails that are used by many users in a variety of disciplines. Fishermen and hunters also use the canyon and vicinity. That said, I oppose the Lake, that is just a ploy to open flood plain for development. More development will further tax our existing infrastructure such as roads, water, utilities, etc. Look at the mess developers have created in Elk Grove, Lincoln, Roseville, Rocklin, etc. That is the only purpose of the Auburn Dam, to open more for the developers to rape, plunder and pillage. Oh yes, there will be those that will point out at all the jobs that construction will create. These jobs will last only as long as the land that the houses are being built in, once all the houses are built, the jobs are gone but the damage by uncontrolled development will last forever.

Loomis: I understand that the canyon is not JUST for rafting companies, but they are the ones that shut down the dam.

I also understand the cynicism with regard to expanding development if the water supply is increased. We are damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Perhaps, when things get to the breaking point, we can get conditions put on the Auburn Dam that restrict development down-stream to prevent the consumption of the benefits and leave us with more electricity, water and recreation rather than just more people?

Perhaps the natural function is that the price of land, water, vegetables, beef, electricity and life in general are going to just keep going up in California until the quality of life is so low that everyone moves to Nevada or Arizona? At that point, we will reach equilibrium with our environment.

If farmers in the central valley don't get enough surface water they can't grow crops. Grocery prices will skyrocket and we will wonder what happened. Pumping water from wells is very expensive and would also increase food prices.

"The farmers would deplete all our rivers and streams if left alone." How would they do this? Does the writer mean that eventually water would suddenly vanish from the earth?

If global warming exists we better start building more water storage facilities.

J.Steve:

It is very apparent that you know nothing about conservatives or moderates like me. Yes, by God we do practice conservative measures, recycle as much of our garbage as we can. We plant vegetable gardens and harvest the fruit from our trees. We drive as little as possible and do not drive gas guzzling Hummers. We raise our own chickens and beef and pork for our own and our extended family's consumption. Darn, those few cows and pigs are contributing to global warming......And we get a good laugh from you who choose to open their mouths without knowing some basic facts. You see Steve, you have bought into the liberal scam... that only Democrats and Green Party members care about the environment which is far, far from the truth.

One of the dumbest LTE I’ve read in awhile

the population of California is just shy of 36 million. how can anyone assert that there are 10 million illegal Mexicans in California--that makes it roughly one out of three people that you see walking down the street.

just another fun fact for the fact free

There are other ways to get water to the fields without using flood irrigation. More farmers need to practice water conservation and use modern methods for watering their crops. But this really isn't about crops is it? It's all about power trips. PCWA doesn't stand a chance of retaining it's water rights.

Remember the men that made the most money from the gold fields were not miners. They were the ones that bought water rights or killed for them.

"If farmers in the central valley don't get enough surface water they can't grow crops. Grocery prices will skyrocket and we will wonder what happened. Pumping water from wells is very expensive and would also increase food prices."

As I have said before, grow drought tolerant crops, growing corn, rice and other high water useage crops in a desert environment never made any sense. And prices will go up, so we will have to deal with it. Meddling with nature never works out in the long run...

P4V... try hanging out in the central valley, LA or anywhere south of Fresno. You are getting a very slanted view up here in Placer County.

YS,

Just because someone looks hispanic doesn't mean that they are illegal. Anyway, the only effective way to stop illegal immigration is to make it illegal to hire them--

there was a wonderful special on the roots of the CCC. on PBS.

there are a lot of young men who could repay their debt to society by learning how to do a lot of things instead of how to pump iron in jail.

Onwards

p4v,

It already is illegal to hire non-citizens of the U.S.

If you were to go out and get a new job you would be filing out at least two forms. One is the W-4 that I'm sure you're familiar with. The other is the I-9 form that makes you prove you are eligible to work in this country. I've got stacks of them in my files from people who came to work for my company.

Conservation is the way to go, but, it hasn't been pushed by the water agency nearly enough. It looks like the State is going to come in and force people to become actively interested in it. Our average water bill could easily go up to somewhere in the $200 per month range without watering a yard.

We have water we just need to take better care of how we use it.

I agree with you that putting youthful offenders to work in a CCC type system is much better than letting them achieve a PHd in crime while attending the local state prison.

Conservative, moderate, liberal; eco-correct; "people have a place in the wrold too" types and those who don't even consider it when they turn on a water tap are all in the same boat. And the water's drying up around it. PCWA lost 2 million acre feet of water rights not long ago.

LA and East Bay are actively looking for water sources. If they come up here and build Auburn Dam you won't have enough money to stop them with lawsuits. When the dam's built, we'll be in the same situation as towns and cities next to the Colorado who can't touch a drop because the water's bound for mega-cities. Cities that use almost all the electricity...and take revenues from dams they own. Neat package isn't it?

Meantime, the Legislature's spending for levees (which store not one drop of water, nor generate one erg of energy.) And they're voting for another canal (so an activist judge can shut the water tap on that body of water just like they did CVP.)

We're living on Shasta, Folsom, Oxbow, French Meadows, Hell-Hole, Rollins, Drum, New Melones and other dams. They're the cleanest, cheapest source of power known to man. They're also accomplishments of our fathers and grandfathers.

Instead, we'll leave our kids broke, owned by special interests who solemnly say "we're protecting the environment!" While they sue everyone in sight and they, their attorneys and "clubs" pocket billions in legal fees, "mitigation and impact fees" studies and legislative perks.

We'll be hungry, in the dark...

Here is Rep. McClintock's response....

A recent letter (Nov. 3, Value water as dearly as gold) claims that regulations are not the cause of California’s drought and that “farmers would deplete all our rivers and streams if left alone.” The farmers are the VICTIMS in this crisis, not its cause.

The truth is regulatory actions diverting water to fish have cut off the water to many farmers, turning hundreds of thousands of acres of once lush farm fields into dust bowls. 40,000 families remain unemployed in the Central Valley due to this deliberate diversion of some 200 billion gallons of water to “save” the Delta Smelt. The unemployment rate is 40% in some areas, and farmers and laborers are forced to line up to receive hand-outs. This policy would be disastrous enough if it was achieving any measurable result; recent surveys by the state Department of Fish and Game show there has been no increase in Delta Smelt due to these diversions.

It should be the principal object of the federal government’s water policy to ensure abundance, and not use selective data to justify cutting off water to users, rationing water shortages, or imposing wildly expensive recycling or desalination projects at a time when a renewed commitment to public works would produce a new abundance of clean and cheap water.

I have called for a Congressional field hearing on California’s water crisis to hear from all sides about the true impact of this policy. There’s no time to waste on reversing the plight …