California stole water at gun point from Arizona back in the 1930s. Mulholland was water commish and he took workers and NG with machine guns across the line and built a pipeline from the Colorado to LA.
Then about 20 years back LA considered going North of Frisco to the Feather River and stealing that water. More recently the feds decided a fish was more important than farms and shutoff the water to farms in central CA.
Yep, that's how it went down.
Regarding the farming thing...there's some legitimacy to picking on the farmers...at least a little.
What makes CA the ideal farming mecca goes well beyond just climate. On a list of the top 20 largest aquifers in the world, something like 6 or 7 are in CA. Farmers have always had access to that water at no charge. But as population increases, and farming increased, now you have to take that policy into question. Especially when you consider the absolutely MASSIVE water needs of farms. I'm not saying cut the farmers off, not at all. But when a commodity becomes rare then you have to address it on an economic scale. The free water has to stop or CA is in BIG trouble. Those aquifers are running out, and they're not being replenished; so when they're out, CA won't be able to support it's massive population, or it's massive farming industry…CA will see the biggest exodus in North American history. I fully expect this to happen in the lifetime of my children, or perhaps grandchildren.
I know no one on this forum even believes climate change is even happening, but CA is certainly feeling it. If you're a climate change denier, I dare you to invest in companies that own ski resorts. The skiing seasons are amost 50% of what they were when I was a kid. My son who is on a ski team, was bragging about Heavenly Valley's 12 foot base, and how nice it is to ski. I told him in my day we didn't even show up unless there was at least an 18 foot base, and normal for my day was 22-24ft.
