"Wayne.B" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:23:36 -0500, wrote:

The same is true now in the central valley of California right now.
We were there a few years ago and there were miles of brown fields
next to some green ones, simply because of water rationing.

===

Stop me if I'm wrong but I believe the central valley depends on snow
melt for their irrigation water, which in turn is influenced by
cyclical ocean temperature patterns in the Pacific.

This is the same issue which is causing low water in the Colorado
River reservoirs which in the case of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are
down about 60 feet from their maximum levels.

The problem is we have allocated more water than is available. The Central
Valley farmers get subsidized water and lots are reselling those water
rights they got for 40 years from the Federal Government for huge profits.
They pay from $6-9 an acre foot and resell it to Los Angeles for $200+.
More profit than growing crops. Plus the biggest user in the valley is
growing subsidized cotton, which is a huge water hog. As the book said the
"Cadillac Dessert". One cotton Farmer in Kern County sold water to the city
of Mojave for $1500 an acre foot. Nice profit.
http://stopcanal.org/node/71
The Colorado river is about 140% of normal water flow allocated. There is
not enough flow to meet the contracts on average. We have farmers here who
are on State Water and on Federal Water. All comes from the same place, but
the Federal water users get to resell the water they do not use in
agricuture, where as those getting State Water (Delta Mendota Canal) can not
resell.