1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:02,002 --> 00:00:03,837 In many ways, the growth problems 3 00:00:03,879 --> 00:00:06,798 and the conservation problems of California 4 00:00:07,132 --> 00:00:09,885 are the same kind of problems that our country faces. 5 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 6 00:00:13,597 --> 00:00:15,641 We surmount these growth problems 7 00:00:15,682 --> 00:00:17,434 only if we work together. 8 00:00:19,811 --> 00:00:21,772 It is a pleasure for me to permit us 9 00:00:21,813 --> 00:00:24,358 to look at this valley and others like it 10 00:00:24,399 --> 00:00:27,736 across the country where we can see the greenest 11 00:00:27,778 --> 00:00:31,156 and most richest earth producing the greatest 12 00:00:31,198 --> 00:00:32,741 and richest crops in the country. 13 00:00:37,871 --> 00:00:40,707 And then a mile away see the same earth 14 00:00:41,667 --> 00:00:45,629 and see it brown and dusty and useless and all because 15 00:00:45,671 --> 00:00:48,131 there's water in one place and there isn't in another. 16 00:00:59,977 --> 00:01:02,813 Water supply issues are among the most important 17 00:01:03,230 --> 00:01:05,732 and least understood issues around the world. 18 00:01:07,943 --> 00:01:10,821 Satellite images captured over the last few decades 19 00:01:11,113 --> 00:01:14,908 indicate that our freshwater supplies are rapidly changing. 20 00:01:16,702 --> 00:01:20,831 Dry areas are getting drier, as wet areas are getting wetter. 21 00:01:21,915 --> 00:01:23,917 Some are at risk of losing access 22 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:26,336 to the water we need to survive. 23 00:01:29,381 --> 00:01:32,342 It took 200,000 years for the world's population 24 00:01:32,384 --> 00:01:33,552 to reach 1 billion. 25 00:01:35,095 --> 00:01:39,808 In the last 200 years, it has expanded to 7.7 billion. 26 00:01:40,392 --> 00:01:44,271 As human populations explode, many places are already 27 00:01:44,313 --> 00:01:47,399 seeing their demand for water outstrip supply. 28 00:01:47,858 --> 00:01:49,484 It's a worldwide phenomenon. 29 00:01:49,860 --> 00:01:52,946 It's why China's building dams in the Tibetan plateau, 30 00:01:52,988 --> 00:01:55,824 so they won't have to send water to Cambodia, Laos. 31 00:01:55,866 --> 00:01:57,576 It's just played out here 32 00:01:58,452 --> 00:02:01,163 in a different venue and different set of circumstances. 33 00:02:01,204 --> 00:02:02,623 It's the same game. 34 00:02:02,664 --> 00:02:05,042 Get me water first. 35 00:02:06,710 --> 00:02:08,795 The hell with the other people. 36 00:02:08,837 --> 00:02:12,049 Water is a big problem. There's conflict over water. 37 00:02:12,090 --> 00:02:15,010 There's violent conflict over access to water worldwide. 38 00:02:15,052 --> 00:02:17,512 We have the reality of climate change, 39 00:02:17,554 --> 00:02:19,848 which is fundamentally a water issue. 40 00:02:19,890 --> 00:02:22,559 As humans take more water out of the natural environment, 41 00:02:22,601 --> 00:02:25,437 the ecosystems on which we also depend 42 00:02:25,854 --> 00:02:27,314 are increasingly suffering. 43 00:02:27,356 --> 00:02:29,274 We're seeing our fisheries die. 44 00:02:29,316 --> 00:02:30,859 We're seeing our rivers dry up. 45 00:02:30,901 --> 00:02:33,487 We're seeing our wetlands disappear 46 00:02:33,528 --> 00:02:36,657 and the birds that migrate thousands of miles every year 47 00:02:36,698 --> 00:02:39,701 that depend on those ecosystems perish as well. 48 00:02:39,993 --> 00:02:42,996 We have to figure out a way to provide water for human uses, 49 00:02:43,038 --> 00:02:45,916 but also for the natural ecosystems that depend 50 00:02:45,957 --> 00:02:47,376 on the same water resources. 51 00:02:49,044 --> 00:02:52,798 It's hard to explain why California, 52 00:02:52,839 --> 00:02:54,633 as a supposed leader in, 53 00:02:54,675 --> 00:02:58,220 many, many things in the world, can't address these issues. 54 00:02:58,679 --> 00:03:03,392 California in particular has really overallocated 55 00:03:03,433 --> 00:03:05,477 our supplies for a long time. 56 00:03:07,562 --> 00:03:10,524 There's no basic ethic in water. 57 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:12,943 Unless you're strong enough 58 00:03:12,984 --> 00:03:15,654 to stop them from doing things, they just do it. 59 00:03:15,696 --> 00:03:17,280 Power matters. 60 00:03:17,614 --> 00:03:20,200 And you know, I think one of the central themes of Chinatown 61 00:03:20,242 --> 00:03:24,663 is that, you know, the powerful get to take what they want. 62 00:03:25,247 --> 00:03:28,625 Water is so valuable that you're going to fight over it. 63 00:03:28,667 --> 00:03:31,586 You're going to fight for every last drop. Everybody is. 64 00:03:31,628 --> 00:03:35,424 The water wars is the reference to everybody fighting each other 65 00:03:35,465 --> 00:03:38,677 to keep their share or take someone else's share. 66 00:03:38,719 --> 00:03:41,805 And it gets a little bitter and nasty sometimes. 67 00:03:41,847 --> 00:03:44,307 California is not unique in its water challenges. 68 00:03:44,349 --> 00:03:47,352 We are unique perhaps in the sense 69 00:03:47,394 --> 00:03:50,313 that we have the money, we have the institutions, 70 00:03:50,355 --> 00:03:53,442 we have the brainpower to solve our water problems 71 00:03:53,483 --> 00:03:55,235 and we haven't solved them yet. 72 00:03:55,277 --> 00:03:56,987 But if we can't solve them here, 73 00:03:57,028 --> 00:03:58,780 it will be difficult to think about 74 00:03:58,822 --> 00:04:01,283 how we will solve water challenges around the world. 75 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,975 The drought from 2012 to 2016 76 00:04:27,017 --> 00:04:29,144 was California's worst on record. 77 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:32,355 The state of California is resorting 78 00:04:32,397 --> 00:04:34,983 to drastic measures tonight to combat its severe drought. 79 00:04:35,567 --> 00:04:38,236 Op-eds in the la. Times questioned if people 80 00:04:38,278 --> 00:04:39,780 would soon run out of water. 81 00:04:40,989 --> 00:04:42,657 Homes and businesses were asked 82 00:04:42,699 --> 00:04:44,910 to significantly cut back their water use. 83 00:04:45,952 --> 00:04:47,954 We're in a historic drought 84 00:04:48,330 --> 00:04:51,291 and that demands unprecedented action. 85 00:04:51,708 --> 00:04:55,045 It's for that reason that I'm issuing an executive order 86 00:04:55,378 --> 00:04:59,674 mandating substantial water reduction across our state. 87 00:04:59,716 --> 00:05:04,471 The mandatory rules are designed to reduce water use by 25%. 88 00:05:05,055 --> 00:05:07,265 Homeowners pulled out their lawns 89 00:05:07,307 --> 00:05:09,476 and replaced them with artificial turf. 90 00:05:09,518 --> 00:05:11,621 I'm here today to show you and we've got some 91 00:05:11,645 --> 00:05:14,731 of the graphics behind me, the new character, lawn dude, 92 00:05:14,773 --> 00:05:16,858 something that we think will be appealing 93 00:05:16,900 --> 00:05:19,027 to a variety of customers. 94 00:05:19,611 --> 00:05:23,323 Drought shaming became a popular form of vigilantism. 95 00:05:23,365 --> 00:05:28,078 Mikey barnum wrote, "way to hose down your entire sidewalk... twice." 96 00:05:28,745 --> 00:05:30,789 Are you okay with being called a water snitch? 97 00:05:30,831 --> 00:05:32,457 I am. I totally am. 98 00:05:34,376 --> 00:05:35,853 Meanwhile, the media narrative was that agriculture 99 00:05:35,877 --> 00:05:37,546 was suffering across the state. 100 00:05:38,171 --> 00:05:39,965 California farmers are losing 101 00:05:40,006 --> 00:05:43,718 billions of dollars every year that we have this drought. 102 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:45,262 While that's happening, 103 00:05:45,303 --> 00:05:48,056 the acreage of nut crops is skyrocketing. 104 00:05:49,307 --> 00:05:53,812 These crops are tremendously valuable on the export markets. 105 00:05:54,271 --> 00:05:58,024 The San Joaquin valley is now the nut supplier to the world. 106 00:05:58,066 --> 00:05:59,943 And so we're delivering water 107 00:05:59,985 --> 00:06:02,529 that belongs to the California public 108 00:06:02,571 --> 00:06:04,948 and that is needed by the fish and wildlife 109 00:06:04,990 --> 00:06:06,950 and water quality that we rely on 110 00:06:06,992 --> 00:06:09,536 to the San Joaquin valley to grow a lot of crops 111 00:06:09,578 --> 00:06:11,955 that are being exported out of the country 112 00:06:11,997 --> 00:06:14,082 to China, the middle east, et cetera. 113 00:06:18,670 --> 00:06:21,423 When Jerry brown went up onto the mountain top 114 00:06:21,464 --> 00:06:24,050 to declare California in the worst drought 115 00:06:24,092 --> 00:06:27,012 in along, longtime and asked people 116 00:06:27,053 --> 00:06:30,640 to change their behaviors, there was a caveat. 117 00:06:30,682 --> 00:06:33,435 Urbanites were supposed to change their behavior, 118 00:06:33,476 --> 00:06:35,979 but the central valley agricultural districts 119 00:06:36,021 --> 00:06:38,607 were not, they were voluntary. 120 00:06:38,648 --> 00:06:40,275 We were required. 121 00:06:40,317 --> 00:06:42,402 And that tells you everything about the power of ag. 122 00:06:42,444 --> 00:06:46,740 Because after all, ag uses 80% of all water in California 123 00:06:46,781 --> 00:06:49,659 and Nevada and Arizona and every other state, 124 00:06:49,701 --> 00:06:51,328 and they're going to hold that water 125 00:06:51,369 --> 00:06:52,829 because the law says they can. 126 00:06:55,373 --> 00:07:00,795 We've had the highest grossing agricultural years on record 127 00:07:00,837 --> 00:07:03,048 during this drought and during the last drought. 128 00:07:03,340 --> 00:07:07,844 And that kind of money buys influence. 129 00:07:08,178 --> 00:07:12,015 It buys lawyers, lobbying firms. 130 00:07:12,057 --> 00:07:14,559 We could never flush our toilets again. 131 00:07:15,101 --> 00:07:16,895 And never let the water run again 132 00:07:16,937 --> 00:07:18,980 while we're brushing the teeth for what, 133 00:07:19,022 --> 00:07:20,899 for 4% of water savings 134 00:07:20,941 --> 00:07:22,692 on all that water that we're saving 135 00:07:22,734 --> 00:07:25,153 has already been sold to the irrigators 136 00:07:25,904 --> 00:07:27,822 so that they can grow their export crops 137 00:07:27,864 --> 00:07:31,910 and ship them to Europe or China and make a buck on it. 138 00:07:31,952 --> 00:07:33,954 And that drop of water that you save 139 00:07:33,995 --> 00:07:38,708 by not flushing your toilet or by shutting down the water 140 00:07:38,750 --> 00:07:40,502 while you are brushing your teeth, 141 00:07:40,543 --> 00:07:41,795 it didn't amount to nothing. 142 00:07:43,380 --> 00:07:45,507 During the drought, the governor's 143 00:07:45,548 --> 00:07:47,300 water restrictions applied only 144 00:07:47,342 --> 00:07:49,761 to communities, not to agriculture. 145 00:07:51,179 --> 00:07:54,265 Many believed the drought put a spotlight on destructive 146 00:07:54,307 --> 00:07:56,601 government policies, prioritizing 147 00:07:56,643 --> 00:07:59,771 agricultural conglomerates over its citizens. 148 00:08:00,605 --> 00:08:03,900 For half a century, we've been managing water resources 149 00:08:03,942 --> 00:08:06,861 in the state of California in a very unsustainable way. 150 00:08:18,206 --> 00:08:20,083 Trillions of gallons of water 151 00:08:20,125 --> 00:08:22,210 from the snowpack of the Sierra nevadas 152 00:08:22,669 --> 00:08:24,504 travel down streams and rivers 153 00:08:24,546 --> 00:08:26,214 to support life in California. 154 00:08:29,926 --> 00:08:31,511 The state sees an influx 155 00:08:31,553 --> 00:08:33,596 of a truly incredible amount of water. 156 00:08:36,141 --> 00:08:39,019 Before there was a big population in California, 157 00:08:39,060 --> 00:08:41,563 before we had our 40 million people 158 00:08:41,604 --> 00:08:44,858 and an enormous economy, we had two great rivers. 159 00:08:44,899 --> 00:08:47,235 The Sacramento river and the San Joaquin river. 160 00:08:47,277 --> 00:08:51,239 And they flow together to create the California 161 00:08:51,281 --> 00:08:53,950 Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, sort of 162 00:08:53,992 --> 00:08:56,786 the heart of California's rich environment, 163 00:08:56,828 --> 00:08:58,580 but also the heart of our water system. 164 00:08:59,164 --> 00:09:01,374 And the water of those two rivers forms the delta 165 00:09:01,416 --> 00:09:03,960 and then they flow out into San Francisco bay 166 00:09:04,252 --> 00:09:05,879 and then out under the golden gate. 167 00:09:08,339 --> 00:09:10,759 When Americans come to California, 168 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:13,011 the California delta is probably 169 00:09:13,053 --> 00:09:16,264 the most mysterious landscape in the state. 170 00:09:17,474 --> 00:09:19,309 If you look at the old land survey maps, 171 00:09:19,350 --> 00:09:21,061 they survey the rest of the state 172 00:09:21,102 --> 00:09:22,937 and the delta remains this blank spot. 173 00:09:22,979 --> 00:09:24,814 They don't even draw township lines. 174 00:09:24,856 --> 00:09:26,691 The reason they can't draw the lines is 175 00:09:26,733 --> 00:09:27,984 they can't get into it. 176 00:09:28,026 --> 00:09:30,028 It's going to be heavily tule land. 177 00:09:30,070 --> 00:09:32,072 It's hard to say, depends on the time of day 178 00:09:32,113 --> 00:09:34,199 whether it's going to be land or water. 179 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:35,784 It's absolutely immense. 180 00:09:35,825 --> 00:09:37,535 It's full of mosquitoes. 181 00:09:37,577 --> 00:09:39,913 It's a place you just can get lost in. 182 00:09:39,954 --> 00:09:43,041 You can travel through it if you know the way through the sloughs, 183 00:09:43,083 --> 00:09:44,918 but it's constantly changing. 184 00:09:45,376 --> 00:09:50,256 Some of the early sailing ships would find so much fresh water 185 00:09:50,298 --> 00:09:54,135 flowing out the bay, out the golden gate into the ocean 186 00:09:54,177 --> 00:09:57,430 that they could draw fresh water in the middle of the ocean. 187 00:09:58,014 --> 00:09:59,641 Today, that's not the reality. 188 00:09:59,682 --> 00:10:02,894 Today, because of human demands on the delta, 189 00:10:03,228 --> 00:10:05,730 we take so much water out of the Sacramento 190 00:10:05,772 --> 00:10:08,650 and the San Joaquin rivers and out of the delta itself, 191 00:10:08,691 --> 00:10:11,945 that the natural flow has been dramatically reduced. 192 00:10:22,038 --> 00:10:24,082 Today, California has the largest 193 00:10:24,124 --> 00:10:26,960 and most complicated water system in the world 194 00:10:27,544 --> 00:10:31,047 because massive cities and agricultural corporations 195 00:10:31,089 --> 00:10:32,799 were built away from fresh water. 196 00:10:33,967 --> 00:10:35,927 Building more than 1400 dams 197 00:10:35,969 --> 00:10:39,305 across the state, the largest conveyance system 198 00:10:39,347 --> 00:10:42,767 to move water from the north where it is more plentiful 199 00:10:42,809 --> 00:10:44,853 to the central valley in the south 200 00:10:44,894 --> 00:10:46,312 where the demand is highest. 201 00:10:46,855 --> 00:10:49,440 We have an incredible plumbing system. 202 00:10:49,482 --> 00:10:52,485 I mean, it's really a remarkable engineering feat regardless of, 203 00:10:52,527 --> 00:10:55,530 you know, what you think of it from a philosophical standpoint, 204 00:10:55,864 --> 00:10:58,199 from a practical standpoint, you have to admire it. 205 00:10:59,868 --> 00:11:02,162 It was developed before more modern 206 00:11:02,203 --> 00:11:05,206 environmental sensibilities, and as a result of that, 207 00:11:05,248 --> 00:11:08,334 we've simply taken more water out of the ecosystem 208 00:11:08,376 --> 00:11:11,212 than any ecosystem anywhere has been able to survive. 209 00:11:13,089 --> 00:11:16,885 It's very likely that in the not too distant future, 210 00:11:16,926 --> 00:11:18,178 we'll be at the river's end. 211 00:11:20,513 --> 00:11:22,724 The California bay delta is located 212 00:11:22,765 --> 00:11:24,475 east of San Francisco bay. 213 00:11:24,976 --> 00:11:28,062 It is the largest inland estuary on the west coast. 214 00:11:28,897 --> 00:11:31,024 This means California's major rivers 215 00:11:31,065 --> 00:11:32,525 meet the pacific ocean here 216 00:11:33,109 --> 00:11:35,320 and it serves as a crucial habitat 217 00:11:35,361 --> 00:11:38,823 for about 500 different plant and animal species. 218 00:11:39,991 --> 00:11:43,328 However, since the delta is flush with fresh water, 219 00:11:43,870 --> 00:11:45,663 it also serves as the hub 220 00:11:45,705 --> 00:11:47,624 of California's water infrastructure. 221 00:11:48,583 --> 00:11:50,501 Two-thirds of the state's residents 222 00:11:50,543 --> 00:11:51,836 get water from the delta, 223 00:11:53,504 --> 00:11:56,174 including the residents of Los Angeles, San Diego, 224 00:11:56,216 --> 00:12:00,261 silicon valley, San Francisco, and the San Joaquin valley. 225 00:12:01,095 --> 00:12:03,806 Three quarters of californians don't know where the delta is, 226 00:12:04,265 --> 00:12:07,185 and for most people, the water that comes out of their tap 227 00:12:07,518 --> 00:12:09,145 comes out of a black box. 228 00:12:09,187 --> 00:12:11,314 It rains some place, and then there's a big black box 229 00:12:11,356 --> 00:12:13,566 and you turn on your tap and water comes out. 230 00:12:13,608 --> 00:12:15,652 It is that ignorance, that lack of knowledge 231 00:12:15,693 --> 00:12:18,988 about where our water come from and the effects that that has 232 00:12:19,030 --> 00:12:22,909 on the delta and communities there and salmon fishermen 233 00:12:23,243 --> 00:12:26,704 that really aids and abets what has happened over 234 00:12:26,746 --> 00:12:29,457 the last several generations in terms of the decline 235 00:12:29,499 --> 00:12:31,876 of the delta and our native fish and wildlife. 236 00:12:51,980 --> 00:12:54,274 Water from all the rivers 237 00:12:55,191 --> 00:12:57,652 that flow out of the Sierra Nevada, 238 00:12:57,694 --> 00:13:00,780 north and south, flows into the central valley 239 00:13:00,822 --> 00:13:04,784 all flow here and then the water 240 00:13:04,826 --> 00:13:11,582 for 20 million people at least leaves here, goes south. 241 00:13:11,624 --> 00:13:14,085 This provides water for the entire state. 242 00:13:15,628 --> 00:13:19,007 I mean it's a, it's a remarkable place. 243 00:13:19,882 --> 00:13:23,344 The bay delta is the big story in California. 244 00:13:23,386 --> 00:13:25,638 I think it is emblematic of lots 245 00:13:25,680 --> 00:13:27,849 of stories like it across the planet, 246 00:13:27,890 --> 00:13:29,684 not just in the United States, 247 00:13:29,726 --> 00:13:31,602 particularly in the anthropocene, 248 00:13:31,644 --> 00:13:33,688 this world in which the human beings have 249 00:13:33,730 --> 00:13:38,067 so dramatically shaped nature that we're now having to think 250 00:13:38,109 --> 00:13:41,738 about how we exist within nature if we want to exist at all. 251 00:13:43,781 --> 00:13:46,034 Caught between the competing interests 252 00:13:46,075 --> 00:13:48,703 of cities, agriculture, and the environment, 253 00:13:49,329 --> 00:13:51,205 the delta has become the battleground 254 00:13:51,247 --> 00:13:54,000 of California's latest water wars. 255 00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:07,305 But where are you are is the far south delta. 256 00:14:09,349 --> 00:14:10,850 This is the San Joaquin river. 257 00:14:11,309 --> 00:14:14,520 This is old river. It goes to the pumps by Tracy. 258 00:14:14,562 --> 00:14:17,106 And this is reclamation district 544. 259 00:14:18,107 --> 00:14:19,901 This is undine road and this is here. 260 00:14:19,942 --> 00:14:22,487 This is where we live. We're just on 2 acres right here. 261 00:14:23,988 --> 00:14:25,948 The delta is an estuary. 262 00:14:26,699 --> 00:14:31,329 It is a beautiful patchwork quilt 263 00:14:31,371 --> 00:14:34,707 of farms and waterways. 264 00:14:35,041 --> 00:14:37,377 Most of our families have been out here 265 00:14:37,418 --> 00:14:41,255 since the late 1880s or the early 1900s. 266 00:14:42,173 --> 00:14:46,719 Family farming here is production agriculture, 267 00:14:46,761 --> 00:14:48,471 but on a small scale, 268 00:14:48,513 --> 00:14:50,932 smaller than the southern San Joaquin valley. 269 00:14:51,808 --> 00:14:56,437 The delta is quiet, the delta is productive. 270 00:14:57,897 --> 00:15:00,525 It's home to a lot of people 271 00:15:00,566 --> 00:15:03,277 who are committed to keeping it as beautiful as it is. 272 00:15:03,319 --> 00:15:04,404 It's home. 273 00:15:06,322 --> 00:15:10,159 The delta naturally flows to the pacific ocean, 274 00:15:10,201 --> 00:15:12,745 but as more fresh water is diverted from the delta, 275 00:15:13,121 --> 00:15:15,581 salty ocean water is sucked in. 276 00:15:18,292 --> 00:15:20,878 Water diversions are hurting the ecosystems 277 00:15:21,170 --> 00:15:23,297 and economies of the delta. 278 00:15:24,132 --> 00:15:30,763 It really is an existential problem for us. 279 00:15:30,805 --> 00:15:34,934 We either get to live here with good water 280 00:15:34,976 --> 00:15:37,353 or we end up having to leave. 281 00:15:37,395 --> 00:15:39,647 We being, I'm talking about the farming community. 282 00:15:39,689 --> 00:15:42,442 We have to leave because the salt has ruined the land. 283 00:15:44,026 --> 00:15:46,696 That's it. That's what all the fuss is about. 284 00:15:48,364 --> 00:15:51,075 But this is our, this is absolutely our lifeline. 285 00:15:51,117 --> 00:15:53,369 This is what sustains us. 286 00:15:55,079 --> 00:15:58,124 If somebody comes up to you and says, "give me your wallet," 287 00:15:58,416 --> 00:16:01,169 and you might laugh them off, but if they come back 288 00:16:01,210 --> 00:16:03,045 with a knife, they come back with a gun 289 00:16:03,337 --> 00:16:05,006 and say, "hey, give me your wallet," 290 00:16:05,047 --> 00:16:07,258 you know, it's an entirely different situation 291 00:16:07,884 --> 00:16:10,803 and we feel very much in that sort of a situation 292 00:16:10,845 --> 00:16:13,389 where our livelihoods, our way of lives, 293 00:16:13,431 --> 00:16:15,683 what we know what we feel are 294 00:16:15,725 --> 00:16:17,894 is rightfully ours is being threatened 295 00:16:17,935 --> 00:16:20,313 because somebody stands to make a buck from it. 296 00:16:23,274 --> 00:16:25,735 25 million californians are getting 297 00:16:25,776 --> 00:16:27,570 some of their drinking water from here. 298 00:16:27,612 --> 00:16:29,405 They get it from the Colorado river. 299 00:16:29,447 --> 00:16:31,240 They get it from elsewhere. 300 00:16:31,282 --> 00:16:34,285 It's not everything to anybody, but it's something to everybody. 301 00:16:44,170 --> 00:16:46,923 If you look at all the fish overall, 302 00:16:46,964 --> 00:16:51,302 populations across the board have dropped in in my lifetime 303 00:16:52,053 --> 00:16:55,640 and I think if you look at the amount of water 304 00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:57,767 that's been exported from the delta, 305 00:16:57,808 --> 00:16:59,894 they correlate almost perfectly. 306 00:17:02,188 --> 00:17:04,941 Family farmers who call the bay delta home 307 00:17:04,982 --> 00:17:07,485 farm responsibly to protect native fish 308 00:17:07,527 --> 00:17:09,904 and wildlife, but they cannot stem 309 00:17:09,946 --> 00:17:11,697 the tide of water diversions. 310 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:15,826 Fish and wildlife in the delta are disappearing daily. 311 00:17:17,245 --> 00:17:21,832 The delta is really a microcosm of a lot of other problems. 312 00:17:21,874 --> 00:17:24,252 We've got six endangered species 313 00:17:24,293 --> 00:17:26,504 in the delta and of course globally 314 00:17:26,546 --> 00:17:29,549 we're in an extinction crisis, but here, 315 00:17:29,590 --> 00:17:33,469 in the backyard of San Francisco in the heart of a state 316 00:17:33,511 --> 00:17:35,763 that prides itself on being, you know, 317 00:17:35,805 --> 00:17:38,140 the center of environmentalism. 318 00:17:38,182 --> 00:17:41,727 We have six endangered species in this ecosystem. 319 00:17:41,769 --> 00:17:46,566 Delta smelt, iongfin smelt, spring run chinook salmon, 320 00:17:46,607 --> 00:17:50,778 winter run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and migratory 321 00:17:50,820 --> 00:17:53,573 rainbow trout, which are called central valley steelhead. 322 00:17:54,782 --> 00:17:58,578 Those six species have very different ecological needs 323 00:17:58,619 --> 00:18:01,414 and very different behaviors, and the fact that all of them 324 00:18:01,455 --> 00:18:03,749 are on the precipice of disappearing 325 00:18:04,041 --> 00:18:06,794 from an ecosystem that they've inhabited for millennia 326 00:18:07,295 --> 00:18:11,257 really speaks to the damage that we've done to this ecosystem. 327 00:18:11,632 --> 00:18:14,510 But it's under constant, constant political pressure 328 00:18:14,552 --> 00:18:18,180 and tension to try to move more of those water resources 329 00:18:18,222 --> 00:18:21,851 year-round, drought or no drought, 330 00:18:21,892 --> 00:18:23,519 into the central valley mainly. 331 00:18:23,561 --> 00:18:25,229 And then into southern California. 332 00:18:26,689 --> 00:18:30,109 It's a little hard to understand why we're completely screwing up 333 00:18:30,151 --> 00:18:34,155 this western environment and lavishing these subsidies 334 00:18:34,196 --> 00:18:37,783 so that very successful corporations can grow 335 00:18:37,825 --> 00:18:40,328 a highly profitable crop and ship it overseas 336 00:18:40,369 --> 00:18:43,497 without paying mitigation for the impacts they are causing. 337 00:18:46,125 --> 00:18:48,252 The fall run chinook salmon 338 00:18:48,294 --> 00:18:50,755 are spawning right now, so chinook salmon 339 00:18:50,796 --> 00:18:52,381 are also known as king salmon. 340 00:18:52,423 --> 00:18:54,342 They're the biggest of all the salmon species. 341 00:18:58,304 --> 00:19:00,848 I think they're hanging on, but in most places they're 342 00:19:00,890 --> 00:19:03,643 hanging on by a thread and if you remove the hatcheries, 343 00:19:03,684 --> 00:19:08,147 they would probably blink out in some fairly short time period. 344 00:19:13,527 --> 00:19:15,279 California takes so much water 345 00:19:15,321 --> 00:19:18,658 out of the environment that if it weren't for fish 346 00:19:18,699 --> 00:19:22,620 hatcheries north of the delta, salmon would go extinct. 347 00:19:30,836 --> 00:19:32,963 This has decimated the fishing communities 348 00:19:33,005 --> 00:19:34,757 surrounding San Francisco bay. 349 00:19:35,716 --> 00:19:37,343 Here's how bad it is. 350 00:19:37,635 --> 00:19:43,432 If you come over here and look, this represents somebody fishing 351 00:19:43,474 --> 00:19:49,855 for four days all up and down the marin coast for four days. 352 00:19:50,314 --> 00:19:51,816 This is what they caught. 353 00:19:53,150 --> 00:19:54,902 Seven fish. 354 00:19:56,696 --> 00:19:59,198 They're beautiful, they're tasty, they're delicious. 355 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:00,324 But... 356 00:20:03,077 --> 00:20:07,832 I've done those four days for 250 fish not that long ago. 357 00:20:10,167 --> 00:20:11,353 That's what happens when you take 358 00:20:11,377 --> 00:20:12,795 the water out of the equation. 359 00:20:13,629 --> 00:20:17,967 The numbers get so low that you can't make a living. 360 00:20:20,094 --> 00:20:22,555 When I started fishing, there was 5,000 361 00:20:22,596 --> 00:20:24,265 salmon boats in California. 362 00:20:24,974 --> 00:20:27,184 Now there's about 300 left. 363 00:20:28,811 --> 00:20:31,814 You know, families, families and families lost their livelihoods. 364 00:20:31,856 --> 00:20:33,941 Guys are blowing their brains out. 365 00:20:33,983 --> 00:20:36,235 You know, I can tell a million stories about guys 366 00:20:36,277 --> 00:20:38,654 that, you know, because fishermen 367 00:20:39,071 --> 00:20:40,448 don't just fish for a living. 368 00:20:41,031 --> 00:20:43,451 Fishing is who we are. 369 00:20:44,285 --> 00:20:46,287 It's not like you can, you know, retrain us 370 00:20:46,328 --> 00:20:49,039 to go do something else any more than you can retrain 371 00:20:49,081 --> 00:20:51,584 a farmer or retrain somebody that had been doing 372 00:20:51,625 --> 00:20:53,586 that four or five generations, you know? 373 00:20:55,796 --> 00:20:57,423 So the salmon 374 00:20:57,465 --> 00:21:00,468 that spawn in the watershed and then migrate 375 00:21:00,509 --> 00:21:02,595 through the estuary, go out into the ocean 376 00:21:02,636 --> 00:21:06,724 where they feed orca whales and marine mammals 377 00:21:06,766 --> 00:21:08,934 and bird life and other fish. 378 00:21:09,894 --> 00:21:13,397 The decline in salmon production from the central valley 379 00:21:13,731 --> 00:21:16,108 is evident in this starvation 380 00:21:16,150 --> 00:21:18,527 really of orca whales in the ocean. 381 00:21:18,944 --> 00:21:20,488 And that's just one example. 382 00:21:20,529 --> 00:21:25,242 The estuaries are really this nursery for things 383 00:21:25,284 --> 00:21:27,203 in the near shore ocean environment. 384 00:21:27,495 --> 00:21:31,373 And when we decimate the delta and the rest of the estuary, 385 00:21:31,415 --> 00:21:34,001 we're really harming those resources as well. 386 00:21:39,757 --> 00:21:43,511 The thirst for water from the delta cannot be quenched. 387 00:21:43,552 --> 00:21:45,304 The demand from large cities 388 00:21:45,346 --> 00:21:47,890 and agriculture corporations south of the delta 389 00:21:47,932 --> 00:21:49,266 is growing. 390 00:21:51,811 --> 00:21:54,271 Lawyers, p.R. Agencies, 391 00:21:54,313 --> 00:21:56,690 and former high-ranking government officials 392 00:21:56,732 --> 00:21:58,901 are employed to take as much water 393 00:21:58,943 --> 00:22:00,653 as possible from the delta. 394 00:22:01,570 --> 00:22:05,115 It's all about the money honey or the water. 395 00:22:06,033 --> 00:22:10,079 And yeah, James Dean has that quote, you know 396 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:11,413 why they robbed banks, right? 397 00:22:11,455 --> 00:22:12,873 Cause that's where the money is. 398 00:22:13,457 --> 00:22:16,168 My grandfather told me, my grandfather told me 399 00:22:16,210 --> 00:22:17,670 a couple things about water. 400 00:22:17,711 --> 00:22:19,505 He said, "there may come a day son, 401 00:22:19,547 --> 00:22:22,216 when you'll have to go sit on that pump with a shotgun." 402 00:22:32,476 --> 00:22:34,520 California's water war is heating up. 403 00:22:34,562 --> 00:22:36,063 The governor just unveiled 404 00:22:36,105 --> 00:22:38,899 a new 14 billion plan to build two tunnels 405 00:22:38,941 --> 00:22:41,193 underneath the delta, transferring water 406 00:22:41,235 --> 00:22:44,363 from northern California to southern California. 407 00:22:44,655 --> 00:22:47,616 The governor says his plan will create a reliable water supply 408 00:22:47,658 --> 00:22:50,744 and still maintain a healthy ecosystem in the delta. 409 00:22:50,786 --> 00:22:53,914 This proposal balances the concerns of those 410 00:22:53,956 --> 00:22:55,457 who live and work on the delta, 411 00:22:55,916 --> 00:22:59,169 those who rely on it for water and those who appreciate 412 00:22:59,211 --> 00:23:02,965 its beauty, its fish, waterfowl and wildlife. 413 00:23:03,007 --> 00:23:06,176 Breaking news. Now the metropolitan water district has approved 414 00:23:06,218 --> 00:23:08,429 nearly 11 billion dollars in funding. 415 00:23:08,470 --> 00:23:11,307 When Jerry brown was governor of California, 416 00:23:11,348 --> 00:23:13,726 he proposed a new method of water conveyance 417 00:23:13,767 --> 00:23:18,856 from the delta known as the water fix or twin tunnels. 418 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,151 Do you have a stance on the twin tunnels project? 419 00:23:23,611 --> 00:23:25,571 Can we turn off the camera for a second? 420 00:23:25,613 --> 00:23:27,489 Is that possible? 421 00:23:27,531 --> 00:23:29,691 If you feel comfortable talking about it, 422 00:23:30,701 --> 00:23:34,079 we hear lots of different opinions about the twin tunnels project. 423 00:23:34,413 --> 00:23:36,040 I'm not allowed to talk about it. 424 00:23:36,081 --> 00:23:37,541 - You're not allowed? - Yeah. 425 00:23:37,583 --> 00:23:41,378 Is westlands a supporter of the project? 426 00:23:48,761 --> 00:23:50,596 The simple answer to that question is yes. 427 00:23:52,097 --> 00:23:53,937 Earlier plan of the delta, I found out my house 428 00:23:56,393 --> 00:24:00,230 was going to be a location of a, what they call a muck pond, 429 00:24:00,272 --> 00:24:05,110 which is essentially a 300 acre pond full of about 430 00:24:05,152 --> 00:24:07,529 20 feet full of mud that came out of the tunnels. 431 00:24:07,571 --> 00:24:11,784 I found out about it first in the newspaper. 432 00:24:12,618 --> 00:24:14,411 The tunnels project 433 00:24:14,453 --> 00:24:17,289 is one of the most controversial in California's history. 434 00:24:18,999 --> 00:24:22,836 The project was proposed to fix a variety of complex issues, 435 00:24:22,878 --> 00:24:26,882 one of which is to reduce the environmental impacts 436 00:24:26,924 --> 00:24:29,259 of the powerful pumps in the south delta. 437 00:24:30,427 --> 00:24:33,389 Currently we have giant pumps in the south delta 438 00:24:33,430 --> 00:24:35,975 that just pull water across the delta 439 00:24:36,016 --> 00:24:38,394 from the Sacramento river, which is very damaging. 440 00:24:38,435 --> 00:24:41,605 It disrupts the migration of fish. 441 00:24:41,647 --> 00:24:45,192 It makes the lower San Joaquin river run backwards 442 00:24:45,901 --> 00:24:50,406 and it destroys millions of fish each year at these pumps. 443 00:24:52,032 --> 00:24:54,034 One of the bypasses, one of the fixes, 444 00:24:54,076 --> 00:24:57,121 another technical fix is to bore these two tunnels 445 00:24:57,162 --> 00:24:59,748 underneath the delta, move water through. 446 00:24:59,790 --> 00:25:02,584 And so you can let the river maybe become 447 00:25:02,626 --> 00:25:06,422 more like a river it once was if that's the case, 448 00:25:06,463 --> 00:25:08,882 despite the billions that would be spent on it. 449 00:25:08,924 --> 00:25:12,344 The question we'll have to ask is whether it's worth the cost 450 00:25:12,386 --> 00:25:13,470 to do it that way, 451 00:25:15,139 --> 00:25:17,420 But the project is seen by many as destructive. 452 00:25:19,101 --> 00:25:22,730 The creation of these tunnels or mismanagement of these tunnels 453 00:25:22,771 --> 00:25:25,315 could spell the end of the delta as we know it. 454 00:25:26,734 --> 00:25:29,374 The water supply up here in the delta is limited, 455 00:25:29,403 --> 00:25:31,864 but they've over-pumped that supply 456 00:25:32,448 --> 00:25:34,366 and the issue of the tunnels 457 00:25:34,408 --> 00:25:38,912 is that they will have an even deeper straw 458 00:25:38,954 --> 00:25:41,540 into the delta and we will have no control 459 00:25:41,582 --> 00:25:44,001 over how much finally gets taken out of here. 460 00:25:44,043 --> 00:25:45,586 The system is broken. 461 00:25:46,211 --> 00:25:48,047 The question is what do we do about it? 462 00:25:48,088 --> 00:25:52,259 And the idea that we would find a new point of diversion higher 463 00:25:52,301 --> 00:25:55,429 up on the Sacramento river and then make that facility 464 00:25:55,471 --> 00:25:58,557 so huge that it could take the entire flow of the river 465 00:25:58,599 --> 00:26:01,310 is pretty scary, to people like me. 466 00:26:01,351 --> 00:26:04,980 The twin tunnels are posed as this dual solution that can 467 00:26:05,022 --> 00:26:07,775 make southern California happy by delivering more water 468 00:26:07,816 --> 00:26:10,652 to southern California, but supposedly they're 469 00:26:10,694 --> 00:26:13,530 also going to help rescue the environment of the delta. 470 00:26:14,281 --> 00:26:18,160 People with very good reason have a great deal of skepticism 471 00:26:18,202 --> 00:26:20,412 that it will help the environment of the delta. 472 00:26:20,454 --> 00:26:24,625 Hey, hey, ho, ho, the tunnel's gotta go! 473 00:26:24,666 --> 00:26:26,752 We need to become more water independent 474 00:26:26,794 --> 00:26:30,214 and stop destroying the very sensitive delta, 475 00:26:30,923 --> 00:26:34,843 stop destroying the way of the American Indians, fisheries. 476 00:26:34,885 --> 00:26:37,096 We have to stop destroying 477 00:26:37,429 --> 00:26:40,349 our native habitat and let us support 478 00:26:40,390 --> 00:26:43,560 local water projects and local jobs 479 00:26:43,602 --> 00:26:45,354 here in la. And orange county. 480 00:26:45,395 --> 00:26:46,480 - Thank you. - Alright. 481 00:26:47,940 --> 00:26:50,359 The bigger issue is that we just take 482 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,486 too much fresh water out of the ecosystem, 483 00:26:52,528 --> 00:26:55,823 so we need to let more flow down 484 00:26:55,864 --> 00:26:57,741 from the rivers out into the bay 485 00:26:58,075 --> 00:27:01,161 and the tunnels do nothing to mitigate that. 486 00:27:01,203 --> 00:27:04,123 You know, we don't want to turn the delta into lake erie 487 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:07,668 and have it shut down because it's not suitable to drink 488 00:27:07,709 --> 00:27:10,129 and your dog dies if it goes swimming in it. 489 00:27:10,504 --> 00:27:12,422 But that's what's going to happen 490 00:27:12,464 --> 00:27:15,384 if they operate this the way they plan to. 491 00:27:15,425 --> 00:27:17,928 That led us to where we are now, they think they can 492 00:27:17,970 --> 00:27:21,390 build these tunnels and just take water out of northern California. 493 00:27:21,431 --> 00:27:23,559 You can drive greyhound buses through these. 494 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:27,229 This was way larger than I guess the English channel, 495 00:27:27,604 --> 00:27:30,232 you know, so we're talking about major traffic going down 496 00:27:30,274 --> 00:27:33,402 these tunnels or all the water in northern California. 497 00:27:33,443 --> 00:27:36,405 But they're sold as an environmental remedy 498 00:27:36,446 --> 00:27:38,323 by taking the water out higher up 499 00:27:38,365 --> 00:27:40,075 than dumping it down the aqueduct. 500 00:27:40,117 --> 00:27:42,578 Later on, you will actually be able to regulate 501 00:27:42,619 --> 00:27:45,998 the flows in the delta better than you can now, 502 00:27:46,039 --> 00:27:49,668 and environmental considerations help San Francisco bay. 503 00:27:50,002 --> 00:27:51,795 But there's another consideration, 504 00:27:51,837 --> 00:27:55,465 a lot of the drinking water in northern California, 505 00:27:55,507 --> 00:27:58,802 especially around the bay area, comes from the delta. 506 00:27:58,844 --> 00:28:01,054 So if you have salt intrusion there, 507 00:28:01,096 --> 00:28:04,016 you're screwing up the sources of drinking water. 508 00:28:04,349 --> 00:28:07,728 So you're really pitting now two major urban areas, 509 00:28:07,769 --> 00:28:12,649 San Francisco and Los Angeles, and you're pitting together two 510 00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:16,236 agricultural areas, the delta and the San Joaquin valley. 511 00:28:16,278 --> 00:28:20,824 So you have huge players on both sides coming into battle. 512 00:28:20,866 --> 00:28:22,951 And it is a story, as you well know, 513 00:28:22,993 --> 00:28:25,829 with twists and turns that nobody can ever predict. 514 00:28:25,871 --> 00:28:28,081 Every time you think you know what will happen, 515 00:28:28,123 --> 00:28:29,833 the twin tunnels had been defeated. 516 00:28:29,875 --> 00:28:31,293 It rises up again. 517 00:28:31,335 --> 00:28:34,004 It is unkillable in one sense, 518 00:28:34,046 --> 00:28:37,007 at least so far what will happen on 519 00:28:37,049 --> 00:28:39,343 that is something I would never predict on film 520 00:28:39,384 --> 00:28:42,012 because I would be wrong within 24 hours 521 00:28:42,054 --> 00:28:43,847 the way things are turning out. 522 00:28:44,473 --> 00:28:48,810 Then in 2019 Gavin newson was sworn in as 523 00:28:48,852 --> 00:28:50,479 the next governor of California. 524 00:28:51,063 --> 00:28:54,733 I do not support the water fix as currently configured, 525 00:28:54,775 --> 00:28:57,736 meaning I do not support the twin tunnels. 526 00:29:07,371 --> 00:29:10,707 We can, however, build on the important work 527 00:29:10,749 --> 00:29:13,085 that's already been done and that's why I do 528 00:29:13,126 --> 00:29:15,295 support a single tunnel. 529 00:29:29,017 --> 00:29:30,811 So this is our war room. 530 00:29:30,852 --> 00:29:33,313 This is where we have our monthly water agency meetings. 531 00:29:33,355 --> 00:29:34,940 We've got all kinds of wonderful 532 00:29:34,982 --> 00:29:38,527 color maps of the delta about every which way 533 00:29:38,568 --> 00:29:42,197 you could draw it and we have the most 534 00:29:42,239 --> 00:29:44,992 recent rendition of the delta water fix. 535 00:29:45,033 --> 00:29:47,577 It might've still been called bdcp at that point in time 536 00:29:48,495 --> 00:29:51,915 and it looks very familiar 537 00:29:51,957 --> 00:29:57,587 to this 1965 rendition 538 00:29:57,629 --> 00:30:00,632 of the hypothesized plan 539 00:30:00,674 --> 00:30:03,802 for a peripheral canal so you can see not much 540 00:30:03,844 --> 00:30:08,265 has changed in their minds and we're still fighting over 541 00:30:08,307 --> 00:30:10,809 some of the same issues that have been fought over 542 00:30:10,851 --> 00:30:14,938 and will continue to be fought over for generations, lifetimes. 543 00:30:14,980 --> 00:30:17,274 The tunnels project has been around 544 00:30:17,316 --> 00:30:19,735 in various forms for over half a century. 545 00:30:20,527 --> 00:30:23,447 In the 1940s it was the peripheral canal. 546 00:30:24,156 --> 00:30:26,283 In the past decade it has gone through 547 00:30:26,325 --> 00:30:28,535 numerous names and proposals. 548 00:30:29,202 --> 00:30:31,997 Newsom's single tunnel plan 549 00:30:32,039 --> 00:30:34,416 is not half the size of the twin tunnels. 550 00:30:34,833 --> 00:30:37,544 A single tunnel would be much larger than 551 00:30:37,586 --> 00:30:39,129 one of the two tunnels. 552 00:30:39,546 --> 00:30:41,882 For many, this distinction just serves 553 00:30:41,923 --> 00:30:44,343 to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. 554 00:30:44,384 --> 00:30:46,928 The water fix is a good case study 555 00:30:46,970 --> 00:30:50,015 for the problems of both California water and the delta. 556 00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:53,852 And that's because it's the most recent iteration 557 00:30:54,269 --> 00:30:56,188 of that ongoing water fight, 558 00:30:56,229 --> 00:30:58,357 the wars that we've been talking about. 559 00:30:58,398 --> 00:31:01,193 Those who need water are supposed to be bound 560 00:31:01,234 --> 00:31:03,570 by restrictions that say you can have water, 561 00:31:03,612 --> 00:31:05,947 but it has to be surplus to the other areas. 562 00:31:06,448 --> 00:31:09,493 The amount of surplus when it's available 563 00:31:09,534 --> 00:31:12,788 and the amount they can take is insufficient for their needs. 564 00:31:13,163 --> 00:31:15,791 And so they have to keep trying and they've been trying 565 00:31:15,832 --> 00:31:18,210 for 50 years to get additional water 566 00:31:18,627 --> 00:31:20,837 through I'll say any means necessary. 567 00:31:23,715 --> 00:31:28,220 I describe it as a dog that kills chickens, 568 00:31:28,261 --> 00:31:32,849 this institution, which is really guided in major part 569 00:31:32,891 --> 00:31:35,477 by metropolitan water district of southern California. 570 00:31:37,104 --> 00:31:38,939 And we look like chickens. 571 00:31:40,524 --> 00:31:45,779 That dog is not a terrible dog, but he's a chicken-killing dog. 572 00:31:47,614 --> 00:31:49,491 The tunnel project will almost 573 00:31:49,533 --> 00:31:52,327 certainly be paid for by a powerful organization 574 00:31:52,369 --> 00:31:57,290 in southern California known as the metropolitan water district. 575 00:31:58,125 --> 00:32:00,335 Yeah. Metropolitan is a water wholesaler 576 00:32:00,377 --> 00:32:02,212 which means we provide water 577 00:32:02,254 --> 00:32:05,340 to the cities that provide water to people. 578 00:32:05,382 --> 00:32:07,050 We represent six counties, 579 00:32:07,509 --> 00:32:11,221 ventura county, Los Angeles, San Diego, orange county, 580 00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:14,015 parts of riverside and San Bernardino. 581 00:32:14,641 --> 00:32:16,977 What's pretty amazing about that six-county area 582 00:32:17,018 --> 00:32:19,229 is there is 19 million people in there. 583 00:32:19,271 --> 00:32:21,148 One out of every two californians, 584 00:32:21,523 --> 00:32:23,275 or looking at it another way, 585 00:32:23,316 --> 00:32:26,278 one on every 16 Americans lives in southern California 586 00:32:26,736 --> 00:32:29,364 and our mission is to provide water to them. 587 00:32:29,406 --> 00:32:32,617 Metropolitan staff has supported this project for the last decade. 588 00:32:32,659 --> 00:32:35,912 This project is a necessity for the state of California. 589 00:32:36,663 --> 00:32:38,290 The metropolitan water district 590 00:32:38,331 --> 00:32:41,084 is certainly the 800-pound gorilla 591 00:32:41,126 --> 00:32:43,628 in California water politics. 592 00:32:43,670 --> 00:32:47,132 They're rich. They can buy all the, 593 00:32:47,174 --> 00:32:50,218 all the influence and all, all the talent they want. 594 00:32:50,260 --> 00:32:52,137 Their business model is based on selling 595 00:32:52,179 --> 00:32:53,889 imported water from the delta 596 00:32:53,930 --> 00:32:57,350 and if they can shore up and make that more reliable 597 00:32:57,392 --> 00:33:00,228 or increase the amount of water they're willing to do it. 598 00:33:01,062 --> 00:33:03,231 Those who fear the tunnels point to history. 599 00:33:03,940 --> 00:33:06,943 Southern California has a terrible track record. 600 00:33:06,985 --> 00:33:10,280 We tend to flow water towards money 601 00:33:10,322 --> 00:33:12,091 regardless of whether it's uphill or downhill. 602 00:33:12,115 --> 00:33:13,468 It really doesn't matter. It's going to go 603 00:33:13,492 --> 00:33:15,577 to where the capital is located. 604 00:33:15,619 --> 00:33:19,164 So, yes, L.A. has prospered mightily 605 00:33:19,206 --> 00:33:22,209 because of the la. Aqueduct, the state water project 606 00:33:22,250 --> 00:33:24,336 and the Colorado river aqueduct. 607 00:33:24,753 --> 00:33:27,380 But that has also despoiled landscapes 608 00:33:27,422 --> 00:33:29,758 and limited the possibilities of the places 609 00:33:29,799 --> 00:33:31,468 from which that water has come. 610 00:33:33,345 --> 00:33:34,864 Many in the delta believe that if you want to 611 00:33:34,888 --> 00:33:37,474 understand their story, you have to know 612 00:33:37,516 --> 00:33:39,184 the story of the Owens valley, 613 00:33:39,726 --> 00:33:43,355 the story that inspired the film Chinatown. 614 00:33:44,397 --> 00:33:46,066 Gonna it be a lot of irate citizens 615 00:33:46,107 --> 00:33:48,235 when they find out they're paying for water, 616 00:33:48,276 --> 00:33:50,987 - they're not going to get. - That's all taken care of. 617 00:33:51,571 --> 00:33:54,950 See Mr. Gittes, you bring the water to la. 618 00:33:55,784 --> 00:33:58,078 Or you bring la. To the water. 619 00:33:58,745 --> 00:34:00,914 The Owens valley case is, 620 00:34:01,248 --> 00:34:04,000 is sadly the precursor to where we are now. 621 00:34:04,376 --> 00:34:08,171 And there was a slight lull between that and the modern day 622 00:34:08,213 --> 00:34:10,215 destruction of various areas. 623 00:34:10,257 --> 00:34:11,841 But nothing's changed. 624 00:34:11,883 --> 00:34:13,009 It's the same fight. 625 00:34:13,051 --> 00:34:14,844 It's the same arguments. 626 00:34:15,428 --> 00:34:18,807 And in my view it's the same avoidance of the law. 627 00:34:23,645 --> 00:34:25,814 The Owens valley, like the delta, 628 00:34:26,231 --> 00:34:28,567 gets its water from the Sierra Nevada mountains. 629 00:34:30,819 --> 00:34:34,614 It is located about 250 miles directly north of Los Angeles 630 00:34:34,948 --> 00:34:37,325 and over 200 miles east of monterey. 631 00:34:38,785 --> 00:34:43,081 As ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote, "there once were men capable 632 00:34:43,123 --> 00:34:45,875 of inhabiting a river without disrupting 633 00:34:45,917 --> 00:34:47,294 the Harmony of its life." 634 00:34:49,087 --> 00:34:51,756 For centuries, the Harmony of the Owens valley was preserved 635 00:34:51,798 --> 00:34:53,842 by the paiute native Americans. 636 00:34:54,134 --> 00:34:56,344 Our people have existed 637 00:34:56,386 --> 00:35:00,098 within this location for time immemorial we say. 638 00:35:00,140 --> 00:35:03,059 Because of all the resources available to us 639 00:35:03,101 --> 00:35:06,479 here in this valley, unlike our brothers and sisters 640 00:35:06,521 --> 00:35:08,398 to the north of us and to the south of us 641 00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,276 who really had to travel very long distances 642 00:35:11,318 --> 00:35:12,902 to be able to get what they needed, 643 00:35:13,486 --> 00:35:16,364 we had it right here within the Owens valley. 644 00:35:17,449 --> 00:35:18,867 As settlers came up, 645 00:35:19,868 --> 00:35:22,871 they looked at this land and, 646 00:35:22,912 --> 00:35:25,457 and they saw land that was open. 647 00:35:26,833 --> 00:35:33,590 Their thought is land is for humans, water is for humans. 648 00:35:34,007 --> 00:35:37,427 Therefore I'm going to make my peace 649 00:35:37,469 --> 00:35:42,265 and began taking hold of land within the valley. 650 00:35:42,766 --> 00:35:45,226 You know, I say putting up fences, 651 00:35:45,810 --> 00:35:50,231 blocking access and no longer then 652 00:35:50,273 --> 00:35:53,401 was the valley able to provide 653 00:35:53,443 --> 00:35:56,404 for the tribal people as it once did. 654 00:35:58,490 --> 00:36:01,951 And what that meant to our people is starvation. 655 00:36:04,454 --> 00:36:06,998 As ranchers moved in to take the water-rich lands, 656 00:36:07,457 --> 00:36:10,168 native Americans were evicted from the Owens valley 657 00:36:10,627 --> 00:36:13,380 in a bloody conquest with great loss of life. 658 00:36:14,673 --> 00:36:17,550 But the ranchers didn't have long to enjoy their spoils. 659 00:36:19,761 --> 00:36:21,971 Los Angeles was rapidly expanding 660 00:36:22,013 --> 00:36:23,723 at the beginning of the 20th century. 661 00:36:25,850 --> 00:36:28,436 City planners realized that for Los Angeles 662 00:36:28,478 --> 00:36:31,272 to sustain its growth, it would need to secure 663 00:36:31,314 --> 00:36:32,982 an additional source of water. 664 00:36:33,024 --> 00:36:36,986 And Mulholland and Fred eaton and all of these really 665 00:36:37,028 --> 00:36:40,490 interesting water engineers, water buffaloes, 666 00:36:40,532 --> 00:36:43,368 you might call them, started stalking the land, 667 00:36:43,410 --> 00:36:46,371 literally trying to find out where water was 668 00:36:46,413 --> 00:36:48,206 that they could purchase. 669 00:36:48,248 --> 00:36:51,042 Fred eaton and Mulholland and others began to recognize 670 00:36:51,084 --> 00:36:53,878 that one of the key places, one of the key environments 671 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:55,714 was the eastern Sierra, 672 00:36:58,341 --> 00:37:00,593 not that far from Los Angeles 673 00:37:00,635 --> 00:37:02,554 where the fabulous river, the Owens river 674 00:37:02,595 --> 00:37:04,347 that flows through that region. 675 00:37:06,391 --> 00:37:09,144 It had an agricultural industry and orchard industry. 676 00:37:09,853 --> 00:37:12,063 The native peoples had already been taken out 677 00:37:12,105 --> 00:37:15,191 through various warfares and expeditions, 678 00:37:15,233 --> 00:37:17,193 so there's not going to be that resistance. 679 00:37:17,235 --> 00:37:21,364 Proved to be, from a Los Angeles point of view, easy pickings. 680 00:37:21,406 --> 00:37:24,159 Mulholland sells this project which is going to be 681 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,746 very expensive to Los Angeles by telling Los Angeles, 682 00:37:27,787 --> 00:37:30,331 "if you don't take this water, you won't need it." 683 00:37:30,373 --> 00:37:33,376 By that, he means that in fact, if you don't get this water, 684 00:37:33,418 --> 00:37:34,753 Los Angeles will not expand. 685 00:37:36,588 --> 00:37:38,190 Frederick eaton, former mayor of Los Angeles 686 00:37:38,214 --> 00:37:41,176 went out to the Owens valley with j.B. Lippincott 687 00:37:41,217 --> 00:37:42,677 of the U.S. reclamation service. 688 00:37:43,553 --> 00:37:45,096 Because eaton and lippincott 689 00:37:45,138 --> 00:37:46,931 told ranchers they were working together 690 00:37:46,973 --> 00:37:49,726 to create a friendly federal irrigation project, 691 00:37:50,101 --> 00:37:53,146 most ranchers agreed to sell their land for what seemed 692 00:37:53,188 --> 00:37:54,939 above market value. 693 00:37:56,941 --> 00:38:00,111 And so he starts sopping up this area and buying water rights. 694 00:38:00,153 --> 00:38:02,071 He doesn't tell anybody what it's for. 695 00:38:02,113 --> 00:38:03,615 And ultimately Los Angeles 696 00:38:03,656 --> 00:38:05,784 will purchase his right and other's right 697 00:38:05,825 --> 00:38:07,619 and they won't tell them what it's for. 698 00:38:09,037 --> 00:38:11,581 Meanwhile, L.A.-based land speculators 699 00:38:11,623 --> 00:38:14,501 with secret insider knowledge bought up land 700 00:38:14,542 --> 00:38:16,211 in the San Fernando valley, 701 00:38:16,252 --> 00:38:17,962 the area intended to be the end 702 00:38:18,004 --> 00:38:20,131 of the Owens valley aqueduct to Los Angeles. 703 00:38:20,173 --> 00:38:22,634 This syndicate also worked hard 704 00:38:22,675 --> 00:38:25,345 to pass the bond that would pay for the aqueduct. 705 00:38:25,386 --> 00:38:28,640 Harrison Greg Otis, a central member of the syndicate 706 00:38:28,681 --> 00:38:32,602 was publisher of the la. Times and used his power to publish 707 00:38:32,644 --> 00:38:36,606 scare articles about a dire need for more water. 708 00:38:36,648 --> 00:38:38,149 The tactic was successful 709 00:38:38,191 --> 00:38:40,276 and a bond passed to begin construction 710 00:38:40,318 --> 00:38:42,529 on the world's largest aqueduct, 711 00:38:42,570 --> 00:38:45,532 designed to drain the Owens valley. 712 00:38:45,573 --> 00:38:49,160 And suddenly from the Owens river valley point of view, 713 00:38:49,202 --> 00:38:51,830 they had just been destroyed by la. 714 00:39:05,718 --> 00:39:07,470 The locals began to panic. 715 00:39:10,306 --> 00:39:12,892 There began to be some violence up here. 716 00:39:12,934 --> 00:39:14,644 Three or 400 people drove down 717 00:39:14,686 --> 00:39:17,981 from bishop and big pine and opened up the aqueduct 718 00:39:18,022 --> 00:39:19,941 and dumped the entire flow of the aqueduct 719 00:39:19,983 --> 00:39:21,359 back into the Owens river. 720 00:39:24,279 --> 00:39:27,615 They just wanted Los Angeles to talk. 721 00:39:27,657 --> 00:39:32,287 None of the negotiations went the way the locals wanted it. 722 00:39:32,328 --> 00:39:36,875 And suddenly a few nights there were explosions 723 00:39:36,916 --> 00:39:39,878 along the aqueduct where the wall 724 00:39:39,919 --> 00:39:41,629 of the aqueduct was blown out. 725 00:39:42,797 --> 00:39:44,883 So eventually by the mid-thirties, 726 00:39:44,924 --> 00:39:47,760 Los Angeles did the final buyout. 727 00:39:47,802 --> 00:39:50,972 About a fourth of the people moved away 728 00:39:51,014 --> 00:39:53,349 because everything had changed. 729 00:39:53,391 --> 00:39:55,476 And so even to this day, there's property 730 00:39:55,518 --> 00:39:57,729 in each of these towns that are owned 731 00:39:57,770 --> 00:39:59,105 by the city of Los Angeles. 732 00:39:59,147 --> 00:40:01,691 They own the entire valley floor. 733 00:40:02,650 --> 00:40:06,779 And so in most of the issues that deal with 734 00:40:06,821 --> 00:40:09,365 water have L.A. next to them. 735 00:40:12,452 --> 00:40:15,413 We called this place payahuunadii. 736 00:40:16,164 --> 00:40:19,500 The name embodies this idea that water is present, 737 00:40:19,542 --> 00:40:21,586 that water is flowing, that water is here. 738 00:40:22,253 --> 00:40:26,090 It was vastly different than what someone 739 00:40:26,132 --> 00:40:29,928 from Los Angeles driving up now would see out of their window. 740 00:40:31,638 --> 00:40:34,057 In just 13 years of operation, 741 00:40:34,557 --> 00:40:37,644 the Los Angeles aqueduct dried up Owens lake, 742 00:40:37,685 --> 00:40:40,355 thereby creating the single largest source 743 00:40:40,396 --> 00:40:42,774 of dust pollution in the United States. 744 00:40:46,402 --> 00:40:49,614 The city of Los Angeles is used as a model. 745 00:40:49,656 --> 00:40:52,033 The Los Angeles aqueduct is used as a model 746 00:40:52,075 --> 00:40:54,661 to move resources from one to the next. 747 00:40:58,498 --> 00:41:00,643 The Los Angeles department of water and power 748 00:41:00,667 --> 00:41:02,627 did not tell residents of the Owens valley 749 00:41:02,669 --> 00:41:04,671 that Frederick eaton was buying land 750 00:41:04,712 --> 00:41:07,507 on the city's behalf, nor that those purchases 751 00:41:07,548 --> 00:41:09,509 would end valley life as they knew it. 752 00:41:10,802 --> 00:41:12,929 Now, the metropolitan water district 753 00:41:12,971 --> 00:41:15,056 is not telling residents of the delta 754 00:41:15,098 --> 00:41:18,101 why the organization is buying their land, 755 00:41:18,142 --> 00:41:21,479 nor what those purchases mean for life in the delta. 756 00:41:21,521 --> 00:41:22,981 It's an interesting question 757 00:41:23,022 --> 00:41:25,775 as to why metropolitan water district 758 00:41:25,817 --> 00:41:27,610 purchased islands in the delta. 759 00:41:27,652 --> 00:41:31,364 The 10,000-plus residents who signed and sent 760 00:41:31,406 --> 00:41:34,325 letters and comments are a small sampling 761 00:41:34,367 --> 00:41:37,912 of the millions of people in the bay delta region 762 00:41:37,954 --> 00:41:41,791 who oppose met's purchase of the delta islands. 763 00:41:41,833 --> 00:41:44,269 The metropolitan water district of southern California 764 00:41:44,293 --> 00:41:48,131 voted Tuesday to purchase five islands, bouldin island, 765 00:41:48,172 --> 00:41:51,884 bacon island, webb tract, most of Holland tract 766 00:41:51,926 --> 00:41:53,845 and the western tip of chipps island. 767 00:41:54,679 --> 00:41:56,889 It's probably true that the reason 768 00:41:56,931 --> 00:41:59,809 they bought those islands is to make sure 769 00:41:59,851 --> 00:42:03,271 that they could facilitate the building of the tunnels 770 00:42:03,312 --> 00:42:06,065 because you need large areas to dump all the muck 771 00:42:06,107 --> 00:42:08,317 they dig out, you need staging areas, 772 00:42:08,359 --> 00:42:09,861 trucking, all sorts of things. 773 00:42:15,491 --> 00:42:17,076 It has been 774 00:42:17,118 --> 00:42:20,246 an ongoing conversation for the two of us really, 775 00:42:20,288 --> 00:42:21,914 most of it has occurred on this porch 776 00:42:21,956 --> 00:42:23,833 or in that living room right there. 777 00:42:25,084 --> 00:42:28,004 They'd get these big pushes and each time we feel like 778 00:42:28,046 --> 00:42:30,131 it's an assault on our lifestyle and our life 779 00:42:30,715 --> 00:42:33,009 they want to take it, turn it back to nature 780 00:42:33,051 --> 00:42:34,802 and ship the water down to the desert. 781 00:42:34,844 --> 00:42:36,429 It doesn't make much sense to me. 782 00:42:37,096 --> 00:42:39,766 You know, and I don't care how many arguments 783 00:42:39,807 --> 00:42:42,310 they throw at me, they've just about ruined 784 00:42:42,351 --> 00:42:44,896 all the fishing in the delta already by over-pumping. 785 00:42:46,022 --> 00:42:47,523 I don't know what makes anybody 786 00:42:47,565 --> 00:42:48,900 in their right mind think if they 787 00:42:48,941 --> 00:42:50,651 take more water, that it'll get better, 788 00:42:50,693 --> 00:42:53,112 regardless of the point they take it. 789 00:42:56,949 --> 00:42:58,635 The people that live in the city 790 00:42:58,659 --> 00:43:03,790 that pride themselves on caring about people 791 00:43:03,831 --> 00:43:07,126 and wanting clean air and clean water. 792 00:43:07,585 --> 00:43:10,630 And do they, do they want to tolerate 793 00:43:10,671 --> 00:43:13,800 people living out in these, these working landscapes. 794 00:43:13,841 --> 00:43:18,096 The water titans are just out to, 795 00:43:18,888 --> 00:43:20,348 to crush what's ever in the way 796 00:43:20,389 --> 00:43:22,225 and to get as much water as they can. 797 00:43:22,266 --> 00:43:25,520 And that's, that's what they talk about. 798 00:43:25,561 --> 00:43:27,522 Often they'll be blunt enough to tell you. 799 00:43:29,065 --> 00:43:32,276 Some of what the bay delta folks are arguing 800 00:43:32,318 --> 00:43:35,613 is that this is simply an echo of earlier struggles 801 00:43:35,655 --> 00:43:37,824 over water including the Owens river valley. 802 00:43:37,865 --> 00:43:39,325 Los Angeles is implicated 803 00:43:39,367 --> 00:43:41,410 without question in this struggle. 804 00:43:41,452 --> 00:43:43,996 It's not the only player and it's not the only enemy. 805 00:43:56,259 --> 00:43:59,428 Delta farms, we have farms from, you know, five, 10 acres 806 00:43:59,470 --> 00:44:01,556 to a couple of hundred acres and some have 807 00:44:01,597 --> 00:44:03,683 over a thousand acres, but not contiguous. 808 00:44:04,350 --> 00:44:07,895 But when you have the water going down the canals, 809 00:44:09,021 --> 00:44:11,482 that encouraged large-scale operations. 810 00:44:13,359 --> 00:44:15,111 It's almost a different world. 811 00:44:15,153 --> 00:44:18,698 Thousands and thousands and thousands of acres. 812 00:44:18,739 --> 00:44:21,075 Again, that doesn't make them wrong or bad, 813 00:44:21,117 --> 00:44:24,620 but that just sort of increases the demand and the pressure 814 00:44:24,662 --> 00:44:28,082 on people running those large-scale operations 815 00:44:28,124 --> 00:44:32,170 to make sure that there's a return on the initial money. 816 00:44:32,211 --> 00:44:34,881 So it's the big guy versus the little guy story 817 00:44:34,922 --> 00:44:36,507 that's often times true. 818 00:44:38,009 --> 00:44:39,552 California is the number one 819 00:44:39,594 --> 00:44:41,512 food producer in the United States, 820 00:44:41,554 --> 00:44:43,222 more than doubling the farming output 821 00:44:43,264 --> 00:44:44,849 of the second and third states 822 00:44:44,891 --> 00:44:47,393 on the list and topping all other agricultural 823 00:44:47,435 --> 00:44:49,478 producing regions around the world. 824 00:44:50,062 --> 00:44:51,772 California owes the success 825 00:44:51,814 --> 00:44:54,233 to the production capacity of the central valley. 826 00:44:54,275 --> 00:45:00,656 The central valley has one of the best growing seasons, 827 00:45:01,199 --> 00:45:04,827 and land in the United States, 828 00:45:04,869 --> 00:45:07,163 the only thing it lacked was water. 829 00:45:07,747 --> 00:45:12,501 That's what the, our water projects in the 1950s, 830 00:45:12,543 --> 00:45:15,713 60's and 70's brought, and it produced an 831 00:45:15,755 --> 00:45:20,092 agricultural cornucopia that has not only supported 832 00:45:20,134 --> 00:45:23,137 many, many jobs, but also produced 833 00:45:23,179 --> 00:45:24,847 an abundant crop every year. 834 00:45:26,849 --> 00:45:31,062 Agriculture is an important part of the self-image of California 835 00:45:32,271 --> 00:45:36,817 and there's no question that it's an important and healthy 836 00:45:36,859 --> 00:45:40,112 and should be an important part of our economy. 837 00:45:40,154 --> 00:45:45,534 I think all of us are proud of the diversity of agriculture 838 00:45:45,910 --> 00:45:49,914 in California, but I think that folks in agriculture 839 00:45:49,956 --> 00:45:54,502 are also very good at selling that image. 840 00:45:54,543 --> 00:45:58,172 It's kind of a big marketing campaign. 841 00:45:58,214 --> 00:46:00,091 Everyone's trying to put out there 842 00:46:00,132 --> 00:46:02,009 as growing food, wasting water. 843 00:46:03,219 --> 00:46:06,347 I don't think it is, but let's make peace. 844 00:46:06,389 --> 00:46:10,393 Let's let people make that decision on their own. 845 00:46:10,434 --> 00:46:11,894 The place where agriculture 846 00:46:11,936 --> 00:46:14,021 stands out of course is in its water use. 847 00:46:14,063 --> 00:46:16,774 In California, the water that humans use 848 00:46:16,816 --> 00:46:20,361 is about 80% used for agriculture 849 00:46:20,695 --> 00:46:23,698 and about 20% for the rest of society. 850 00:46:24,699 --> 00:46:26,742 But at the same time, 851 00:46:26,784 --> 00:46:29,495 it's not a huge part of California's economy. 852 00:46:29,537 --> 00:46:32,623 It's a 50 billion dollar a year industry 853 00:46:32,665 --> 00:46:36,127 in a more than 2 trillion a year economy. 854 00:46:36,168 --> 00:46:39,255 And you know, they're very, very good 855 00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:44,093 at making the case that cutting 856 00:46:44,135 --> 00:46:46,429 their water supplies will be devastating for, 857 00:46:46,470 --> 00:46:49,473 for California agriculture, our food prices will rise. 858 00:46:49,849 --> 00:46:52,476 People will go hungry and you know, 859 00:46:52,768 --> 00:46:54,895 that's just really not the case. 860 00:46:55,479 --> 00:46:57,356 So what really is happening 861 00:46:57,398 --> 00:46:59,608 is not that we're running out of water 862 00:46:59,650 --> 00:47:03,195 for California agriculture, it's that California agriculture 863 00:47:03,237 --> 00:47:06,949 has been so successful that it's growing to the point 864 00:47:06,991 --> 00:47:10,745 where it constantly wants to expand its irrigated acreage 865 00:47:10,786 --> 00:47:13,414 to the point where it just is breaking the system. 866 00:47:14,999 --> 00:47:18,252 Farming south of the delta is described by local author 867 00:47:18,294 --> 00:47:21,339 Mark arax as the most industrialized 868 00:47:21,380 --> 00:47:23,341 farming in the history of man. 869 00:47:24,258 --> 00:47:27,678 California's top crop is not however fruits or vegetables. 870 00:47:27,720 --> 00:47:30,848 It is almonds and it takes a gallon of water 871 00:47:30,890 --> 00:47:32,391 to produce a single almond. 872 00:47:33,142 --> 00:47:34,769 Over a million acres of almonds 873 00:47:34,810 --> 00:47:36,520 are farmed in the central valley. 874 00:47:37,438 --> 00:47:40,858 Each year, almond farms use 35 times more water 875 00:47:40,900 --> 00:47:43,194 than the entire city of San Francisco. 876 00:47:45,488 --> 00:47:48,491 The majority of these almonds are exported out of the country. 877 00:47:49,033 --> 00:47:50,451 In fact, 80% of the world's 878 00:47:50,493 --> 00:47:53,037 almond supply comes from California, 879 00:47:54,622 --> 00:47:56,582 but the water to grow the world's almonds 880 00:47:56,624 --> 00:47:58,834 is diverted from the delta at the expense 881 00:47:58,876 --> 00:48:01,003 of native fish and wildlife. 882 00:48:02,213 --> 00:48:04,090 We don't necessarily need pistachios. 883 00:48:04,131 --> 00:48:05,800 We don't need almonds. 884 00:48:05,841 --> 00:48:08,677 We don't need all of this land to be in production. 885 00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:10,554 And in many cases, some of these crops 886 00:48:10,596 --> 00:48:12,056 can be replicated elsewhere. 887 00:48:12,098 --> 00:48:14,016 And this won't be popular with farmers. 888 00:48:14,058 --> 00:48:15,476 Farmers don't think that way. 889 00:48:15,518 --> 00:48:17,186 They think themselves forced into it. 890 00:48:17,228 --> 00:48:18,687 They think of promises made, 891 00:48:18,729 --> 00:48:20,189 but these promises were made 892 00:48:20,231 --> 00:48:21,857 because they solicited favors. 893 00:48:21,899 --> 00:48:24,151 They lobbied congress very heavily to get these 894 00:48:24,193 --> 00:48:25,903 and they have struck very good deals 895 00:48:25,945 --> 00:48:28,406 and they want to keep those deals in place. 896 00:48:28,447 --> 00:48:31,117 When you have the second longest river in the state 897 00:48:31,158 --> 00:48:35,871 of California going dry because of upstream diversions 898 00:48:35,913 --> 00:48:38,082 from the federal dam and other diversions, 899 00:48:38,124 --> 00:48:40,292 that gives you an idea of the magnitude 900 00:48:40,334 --> 00:48:42,711 of these exports and these diversions 901 00:48:42,753 --> 00:48:45,756 and the effect of course, to the ecosystem. 902 00:48:45,798 --> 00:48:47,842 This amazing bay delta ecosystem. 903 00:48:50,219 --> 00:48:52,179 Agriculture and the San Joaquin valley 904 00:48:52,221 --> 00:48:54,473 uses water from the San Joaquin river. 905 00:48:54,515 --> 00:48:57,309 So much of the San Joaquin river that it actually goes dry, 906 00:48:58,769 --> 00:49:00,771 but that amount of water has not been enough 907 00:49:00,813 --> 00:49:02,606 for the San Joaquin valley. 908 00:49:02,648 --> 00:49:06,110 And so they've also drained their aquifers to the point 909 00:49:06,152 --> 00:49:08,696 where the surface of the earth actually is collapsing. 910 00:49:09,238 --> 00:49:12,283 This well here was originally flush 911 00:49:12,324 --> 00:49:13,826 with the top of this concrete. 912 00:49:19,707 --> 00:49:22,376 This was where the dirt used to be flush here 913 00:49:22,835 --> 00:49:24,211 and it has dropped that much. 914 00:49:24,253 --> 00:49:25,921 It's actually more than that, 915 00:49:25,963 --> 00:49:28,924 but lot of this casing has dropped with the ground. 916 00:49:29,550 --> 00:49:33,596 That's a rate of sinking of about a foot per year 917 00:49:33,637 --> 00:49:34,847 in English units. 918 00:49:34,889 --> 00:49:36,640 So that's substantial. 919 00:49:36,682 --> 00:49:38,684 But that amount of water has not been enough 920 00:49:38,726 --> 00:49:40,728 for agriculture in the San Joaquin valley. 921 00:49:41,061 --> 00:49:44,940 And so they have giant export pumps in the delta 922 00:49:44,982 --> 00:49:47,276 that take water from the Sacramento system, 923 00:49:47,318 --> 00:49:49,111 from the northern part of the state 924 00:49:49,153 --> 00:49:52,323 and export it from the delta into the San Joaquin valley. 925 00:49:52,364 --> 00:49:54,241 And even that has not been enough. 926 00:49:54,283 --> 00:49:56,619 There's actually a tunnel 927 00:49:56,660 --> 00:49:59,038 that brings water from the Trinity river 928 00:49:59,079 --> 00:50:02,458 and that tunnel delivers water from the klamath watershed 929 00:50:02,958 --> 00:50:04,960 into the Sacramento, down the Sacramento 930 00:50:05,002 --> 00:50:07,087 into the delta, through the pumps to 931 00:50:07,129 --> 00:50:08,714 the western San Joaquin valley. 932 00:50:09,298 --> 00:50:14,136 So this is a voracious need for water for this one area 933 00:50:16,055 --> 00:50:19,600 Over the past century, family farms in the central valley, 934 00:50:19,642 --> 00:50:23,187 like those in the delta, have gone out of business. 935 00:50:23,229 --> 00:50:26,815 They have been replaced by vast agricultural corporations 936 00:50:26,857 --> 00:50:29,735 whose water use outstrips that of surrounding communities. 937 00:50:30,486 --> 00:50:33,072 Billions of dollars are made in the central valley 938 00:50:33,113 --> 00:50:35,824 and much of it from overseas exports. 939 00:50:35,866 --> 00:50:37,535 Consequently, agriculture here 940 00:50:37,576 --> 00:50:39,954 is represented by powerful water districts. 941 00:50:40,538 --> 00:50:43,582 These organizations not only support the tunnel project, 942 00:50:43,624 --> 00:50:45,960 but are working to weaken environmental protections 943 00:50:46,001 --> 00:50:48,462 to seize as much delta water as possible. 944 00:51:01,141 --> 00:51:04,270 Westlands is sometimes identified as the largest 945 00:51:04,311 --> 00:51:07,481 irrigation district in the country. 946 00:51:07,898 --> 00:51:12,069 In terms of gross acreage, that's not accurate. 947 00:51:12,111 --> 00:51:15,990 Imperial irrigation district in terms of gross acreage 948 00:51:16,031 --> 00:51:20,160 is larger than westlands, but in terms of irrigable acres, 949 00:51:20,995 --> 00:51:23,622 westlands is the largest irrigation district 950 00:51:23,664 --> 00:51:25,207 in the United States. 951 00:51:25,791 --> 00:51:28,502 Farmers in westlands are able to produce yields 952 00:51:28,836 --> 00:51:31,839 that exceed yields anywhere else in the world. 953 00:51:32,464 --> 00:51:36,010 But as water has become more expensive, 954 00:51:36,844 --> 00:51:40,472 it's been necessary for farmers to look to higher-value crops. 955 00:51:41,015 --> 00:51:44,351 And as a consequence, probably the most popular 956 00:51:44,393 --> 00:51:47,021 crop today is almonds. 957 00:51:47,605 --> 00:51:49,523 I don't have anything against westlands, 958 00:51:49,565 --> 00:51:53,652 but if they weren't 959 00:51:53,694 --> 00:51:56,697 creating this issue, it wouldn't be a problem. 960 00:51:58,240 --> 00:52:01,035 So the westlands water district is the nation's largest 961 00:52:01,076 --> 00:52:05,914 agricultural water district, covers about 600,000 acres. 962 00:52:05,956 --> 00:52:07,583 So it's larger than Rhode Island. 963 00:52:07,625 --> 00:52:11,253 Westlands water district is very large corporate 964 00:52:11,295 --> 00:52:13,589 agricultural operations. 965 00:52:14,256 --> 00:52:17,384 And it has been politically powerful for decades. 966 00:52:17,426 --> 00:52:20,346 Westlands has made its name suing just about everybody. 967 00:52:22,514 --> 00:52:25,893 They typically lose, but they spend millions 968 00:52:25,934 --> 00:52:28,812 of dollars on some of the highest-priced lobbyists. 969 00:52:28,854 --> 00:52:31,815 And you know, generally have the ear of politicians. 970 00:52:31,857 --> 00:52:36,070 Westlands was created to get surplus water from the delta. 971 00:52:38,405 --> 00:52:40,699 Their contract amount is more than twice the water 972 00:52:40,741 --> 00:52:44,244 used by the 4 million people in the city of Los Angeles. 973 00:52:46,914 --> 00:52:49,792 Harris farms, a typical westlands farm, 974 00:52:50,084 --> 00:52:53,504 is the largest cattle ranch in the western United States. 975 00:52:53,545 --> 00:52:56,215 But they don't only produce beef. 976 00:52:56,256 --> 00:52:58,175 This agricultural corporation 977 00:52:58,217 --> 00:53:01,220 is also one of the country's largest almond producers. 978 00:53:01,261 --> 00:53:03,806 It's truly amazing how productive 979 00:53:04,098 --> 00:53:05,891 this farmland is, where we're able 980 00:53:05,933 --> 00:53:10,771 to grow more with less land, with less water, less resources. 981 00:53:11,230 --> 00:53:13,899 It's truly incredible. 982 00:53:14,858 --> 00:53:17,194 And we're growing safe, affordable, 983 00:53:17,236 --> 00:53:22,741 nutritious food in abundance if allowed to, you know, 984 00:53:22,783 --> 00:53:26,412 one of our constraining factors is our water supply. 985 00:53:26,704 --> 00:53:29,581 It's how much the government decides to allocate us. 986 00:53:29,623 --> 00:53:34,628 And over the last few years, those allocations have dwindled 987 00:53:34,670 --> 00:53:37,256 for a variety of reasons, but primarily 988 00:53:37,297 --> 00:53:38,757 for environmental purposes. 989 00:53:40,968 --> 00:53:44,596 They typically get less water than they would like to get 990 00:53:44,888 --> 00:53:47,099 simply because we've overallocated 991 00:53:47,141 --> 00:53:50,602 the water in California, they've had to fight 992 00:53:50,644 --> 00:53:53,605 for getting more reliable water. 993 00:53:53,647 --> 00:53:55,733 They overdraft groundwater because they don't have 994 00:53:55,774 --> 00:53:59,361 reliable surface supplies and they've put a lot of money 995 00:53:59,403 --> 00:54:02,948 and effort into figuring out how to manage the political system 996 00:54:02,990 --> 00:54:07,327 in a way that helps them improve their ability to get the water 997 00:54:07,369 --> 00:54:09,204 when they want it and where they want it. 998 00:54:21,967 --> 00:54:24,887 I'm Sarah wolf and this is my dad, Allan Clark. 999 00:54:34,021 --> 00:54:35,832 There's never been enough water to go around 1000 00:54:35,856 --> 00:54:39,610 and the least we can do is manage what we have better 1001 00:54:39,651 --> 00:54:43,572 than we're doing now by sending most of it out to the ocean. 1002 00:54:43,614 --> 00:54:48,577 These disagreements around water in the delta have created 1003 00:54:48,619 --> 00:54:52,456 perhaps the greatest fault line in California water politics. 1004 00:54:54,583 --> 00:54:59,171 There is a misconception 1005 00:54:59,755 --> 00:55:02,508 that it's farmers versus fish 1006 00:55:02,549 --> 00:55:06,428 and that's not the situation at all. 1007 00:55:06,470 --> 00:55:09,473 Westlands, the same people that are trying 1008 00:55:09,515 --> 00:55:12,476 to get these twin tunnels built for the rate payers 1009 00:55:12,518 --> 00:55:15,312 to pay for them so they'd keep getting their free water. 1010 00:55:15,354 --> 00:55:17,189 We don't need almonds here. 1011 00:55:17,564 --> 00:55:20,859 They need money to make almonds to make more money. 1012 00:55:20,901 --> 00:55:22,152 That's why they're buying up 1013 00:55:23,111 --> 00:55:27,407 thousands of acres every year planting almonds. 1014 00:55:27,449 --> 00:55:31,411 We actually went to war right here in council 1015 00:55:31,453 --> 00:55:34,248 with the water resource lady. 1016 00:55:34,289 --> 00:55:37,876 She had said that they were sending 75% 1017 00:55:38,293 --> 00:55:40,712 of our fresh water that comes through the hills, 1018 00:55:40,754 --> 00:55:43,549 down to the delta, and it was being used as. 1019 00:55:43,590 --> 00:55:46,510 Our fresh water is being used as a salt water barrier 1020 00:55:47,010 --> 00:55:49,054 in order to protect a fish. 1021 00:55:49,096 --> 00:55:53,392 We had actually said yes to cutting the additional fish 1022 00:55:53,433 --> 00:55:55,894 flows and maintain flows that were essentially 1023 00:55:55,936 --> 00:55:58,772 to maintain what's known as salinity control 1024 00:55:58,814 --> 00:56:01,483 and had we not done those flows, 1025 00:56:01,525 --> 00:56:04,319 enough salt water would have intruded that it wouldn't have 1026 00:56:04,361 --> 00:56:08,073 been good for agriculture, urban use in the delta or for export. 1027 00:56:08,115 --> 00:56:10,868 Not that I was expecting a thank you note or anything, 1028 00:56:10,909 --> 00:56:13,787 but the dishonesty about it on the part of people 1029 00:56:13,829 --> 00:56:16,164 who should know better was really disappointing. 1030 00:56:17,332 --> 00:56:20,085 The delta smelt and where it fits into this discussion 1031 00:56:20,919 --> 00:56:25,215 is really a textbook example of a fairly cynical 1032 00:56:25,257 --> 00:56:28,468 but effective p.R. Campaign by the westlands water district 1033 00:56:28,510 --> 00:56:31,013 primarily and some other delta exporters. 1034 00:56:31,054 --> 00:56:33,098 They don't want to talk about salmon. 1035 00:56:33,140 --> 00:56:35,309 Well it's because their friends in the radical 1036 00:56:35,350 --> 00:56:37,686 environmental community have decided 1037 00:56:38,145 --> 00:56:41,189 that two-inch minnows are more important 1038 00:56:41,648 --> 00:56:43,817 than the people in my district. 1039 00:56:43,859 --> 00:56:45,694 Well, the truth is Mr. Speaker, 1040 00:56:45,736 --> 00:56:47,656 you'd have to have the brain of a three-inch fish 1041 00:56:47,696 --> 00:56:49,615 to believe that narrative. 1042 00:56:49,656 --> 00:56:52,367 Their p.R. Efforts are prolific. 1043 00:56:52,910 --> 00:56:55,787 They have a lot of allies in fox news 1044 00:56:55,829 --> 00:56:57,497 and other places that will come down 1045 00:56:57,539 --> 00:57:00,083 to westlands, you know, anytime. 1046 00:57:00,125 --> 00:57:01,668 Farmers in California, 1047 00:57:01,710 --> 00:57:03,378 they're losing their land, crops 1048 00:57:03,420 --> 00:57:07,090 and their livelihood, all because of a two-inch fish. 1049 00:57:07,132 --> 00:57:11,219 That Donald Trump statement a few weeks ago was in the heart 1050 00:57:11,261 --> 00:57:14,806 of the westlands water district and he was surrounded by leaders 1051 00:57:14,848 --> 00:57:16,725 of the westlands water district. 1052 00:57:16,767 --> 00:57:19,353 And I've heard this from other friends of mine in California 1053 00:57:19,394 --> 00:57:23,148 where they have farms up here and they don't get water. 1054 00:57:23,190 --> 00:57:24,858 I said, "oh, that's too bad. 1055 00:57:24,900 --> 00:57:26,544 Is it the drought?" "No, we have plenty of water. 1056 00:57:26,568 --> 00:57:29,071 I said, "what's wrong?" "Well, we shove it out to sea." 1057 00:57:29,112 --> 00:57:31,073 And I said, "why?" 1058 00:57:31,531 --> 00:57:32,866 And nobody even knows why. 1059 00:57:32,908 --> 00:57:34,701 The environmentalists don't know why. 1060 00:57:34,743 --> 00:57:37,496 Now they're trying to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish. 1061 00:57:40,999 --> 00:57:43,359 People say, "who cares about the delta smelt?" 1062 00:57:43,585 --> 00:57:47,047 It's the fact is that delta smelt was probably 1063 00:57:47,089 --> 00:57:50,884 the most common fish in the San Francisco bay delta estuary. 1064 00:57:51,259 --> 00:57:53,553 So it was a hugely important part of the ecosystem, 1065 00:57:53,595 --> 00:57:55,722 intimately tied with the food chain. 1066 00:57:55,764 --> 00:57:59,184 Now this is probably the rarest fish in the ecosystem. 1067 00:57:59,226 --> 00:58:00,852 In the course of a half-century, 1068 00:58:01,144 --> 00:58:04,815 we've taken the most abundant fish in this ecosystem 1069 00:58:05,107 --> 00:58:06,566 and we've made it the rarest. 1070 00:58:09,945 --> 00:58:12,864 They've tried every, every means possible 1071 00:58:13,198 --> 00:58:15,701 to hoodwink the public into believing 1072 00:58:15,742 --> 00:58:17,369 that they really care about 1073 00:58:17,411 --> 00:58:20,163 two things at the same time, the health of the delta, 1074 00:58:20,205 --> 00:58:23,500 the health of fish and wildlife and getting all of the water 1075 00:58:23,542 --> 00:58:26,044 under their political control they can possibly get. 1076 00:58:26,086 --> 00:58:28,588 Those two things are inconsistent with one another. 1077 00:58:28,630 --> 00:58:30,274 They're inconsistent in the central valley. 1078 00:58:30,298 --> 00:58:31,800 They're inconsistent in, 1079 00:58:31,842 --> 00:58:34,636 in southern California and northern California. 1080 00:58:35,345 --> 00:58:38,015 Westland's employees or consultants 1081 00:58:38,056 --> 00:58:39,933 suddenly get hired by the administration 1082 00:58:39,975 --> 00:58:41,685 and deal with the issue with westlands 1083 00:58:41,727 --> 00:58:43,854 and then when that administration is over, 1084 00:58:43,895 --> 00:58:45,981 they come back and work for westlands again. 1085 00:58:46,023 --> 00:58:50,193 Now that's not illegal, but from the outside 1086 00:58:50,235 --> 00:58:51,987 sometimes that stinks a little bit. 1087 00:58:53,405 --> 00:58:55,699 The connections between westland's leadership 1088 00:58:55,741 --> 00:58:58,827 and the U.S. department of the interior are well documented. 1089 00:58:58,869 --> 00:59:01,413 Take for example, Jason peltier, 1090 00:59:01,455 --> 00:59:03,790 former westlands deputy general manager 1091 00:59:03,832 --> 00:59:07,627 and former deputy secretary for the department of the interior. 1092 00:59:09,087 --> 00:59:10,922 You're not going to piss me off, right? 1093 00:59:12,299 --> 00:59:15,302 This isn't something where we're starting out even Steven. 1094 00:59:15,343 --> 00:59:17,721 We've given an awful lot of money and water, 1095 00:59:17,763 --> 00:59:20,098 to the environment over the last 20 years. 1096 00:59:20,140 --> 00:59:22,350 And are we willing to give more? No! 1097 00:59:24,644 --> 00:59:26,772 God, I wish. I do not know why westlands 1098 00:59:26,813 --> 00:59:30,192 is such a target by, 1099 00:59:30,233 --> 00:59:33,153 Mr. Huffman or people in the environmental community. 1100 00:59:33,195 --> 00:59:34,738 There are some environmentalists 1101 00:59:34,780 --> 00:59:36,448 that they measure their success, 1102 00:59:36,490 --> 00:59:38,450 not by how healthy the fishery is 1103 00:59:38,492 --> 00:59:40,035 and how healthy the ecosystem is, 1104 00:59:40,077 --> 00:59:42,120 but how much they hurt westlands. 1105 00:59:42,162 --> 00:59:44,122 It's sick, it's sick. Sad. 1106 00:59:45,207 --> 00:59:47,042 After his role as westlands' 1107 00:59:47,084 --> 00:59:50,045 deputy general manager, Jason peltier became executive 1108 00:59:50,087 --> 00:59:52,964 director of the coalition for a sustainable delta. 1109 00:59:53,256 --> 00:59:56,468 Often regarded as a thinktank, tax documents indicate 1110 00:59:56,510 --> 00:59:59,846 that this coalition is run by high-ranking employees 1111 00:59:59,888 --> 01:00:02,933 of the wonderful company, the largest farm in California. 1112 01:00:03,517 --> 01:00:05,852 The wonderful company, which produces almonds, 1113 01:00:05,894 --> 01:00:08,480 pistachios, clementines and pomegranate juice, 1114 01:00:09,064 --> 01:00:12,400 typically uses more water each year than all the homes 1115 01:00:12,442 --> 01:00:14,444 in the entire city of Los Angeles. 1116 01:00:20,951 --> 01:00:22,702 I should say, some of the challenges 1117 01:00:22,744 --> 01:00:26,873 in the delta that we face in trying to improve 1118 01:00:26,915 --> 01:00:28,834 water management, improve the ecosystem 1119 01:00:28,875 --> 01:00:31,711 are, I mean one of the biggest in my mind 1120 01:00:31,753 --> 01:00:36,299 is the fact that we have 95% of the aquatic biota is invasive. 1121 01:00:36,883 --> 01:00:39,511 Whether it's aquatic weeds from South America 1122 01:00:39,553 --> 01:00:43,557 or 40,000 Asian clams. 1123 01:00:44,141 --> 01:00:46,852 They've done little to address the invasives in there 1124 01:00:46,893 --> 01:00:48,603 and little to understand them. 1125 01:00:48,645 --> 01:00:50,647 I think people can be worried that 1126 01:00:51,022 --> 01:00:54,484 if the organization is funded by people in the delta 1127 01:00:54,818 --> 01:00:58,530 that they might be trying to find an excuse, 1128 01:00:58,572 --> 01:01:00,907 a different reason why there's decline. 1129 01:01:01,867 --> 01:01:04,786 I would sure love to understand why there's decline. 1130 01:01:04,828 --> 01:01:09,082 We understand, we've been told that our, 1131 01:01:09,124 --> 01:01:12,002 our water supply reliability is a function of the health 1132 01:01:12,043 --> 01:01:14,129 of the ecosystem in these fish populations. 1133 01:01:14,171 --> 01:01:18,133 I dare anyone to, to say we have the scientific proof 1134 01:01:18,175 --> 01:01:20,510 that this is the problem behind the fisheries. 1135 01:01:20,552 --> 01:01:22,512 There is no answer. 1136 01:01:22,554 --> 01:01:24,222 If we knew it, we'd fix it. 1137 01:01:24,264 --> 01:01:27,434 If it was simply more water, let's get on with it. 1138 01:01:27,475 --> 01:01:29,519 Let's get more water to the fish. 1139 01:01:29,561 --> 01:01:32,731 The science here is actually really clear. 1140 01:01:32,772 --> 01:01:35,275 It's really obvious that we cannot continue 1141 01:01:35,317 --> 01:01:39,237 to take half or more of the central valley's runoff 1142 01:01:39,279 --> 01:01:42,824 and divert it to agricultural and municipal uses 1143 01:01:43,200 --> 01:01:44,993 and still maintain the species 1144 01:01:45,035 --> 01:01:46,870 that have been here for millennia. 1145 01:01:46,912 --> 01:01:49,164 Jason peltier was in interior. 1146 01:01:49,206 --> 01:01:52,334 He left interior, came to work at westlands water district, 1147 01:01:52,375 --> 01:01:55,253 not because it's a revolving door, 1148 01:01:55,295 --> 01:01:57,547 but because Jason as a result 1149 01:01:57,589 --> 01:02:03,345 of his experience, was uniquely qualified 1150 01:02:03,386 --> 01:02:08,934 to help shape water policy 1151 01:02:10,894 --> 01:02:14,606 in California, and westlands took 1152 01:02:14,648 --> 01:02:19,110 advantage of his services just as metropolitan 1153 01:02:19,152 --> 01:02:23,114 water district took advantage of services of David Hayes. 1154 01:02:23,698 --> 01:02:27,535 A number of folks from the department of interior, 1155 01:02:27,577 --> 01:02:30,372 Jason peltier, have all come to work for westlands 1156 01:02:30,413 --> 01:02:33,667 and to lobby on their behalf and to sue on their behalf. 1157 01:02:35,001 --> 01:02:39,965 Today, westlands has no more powerful ally 1158 01:02:40,006 --> 01:02:42,676 than David bernhardt who has been nominated 1159 01:02:42,717 --> 01:02:44,094 as the interior secretary. 1160 01:02:44,135 --> 01:02:45,762 As I've discussed this week, 1161 01:02:45,804 --> 01:02:48,765 David bernhardt is no stranger to the department. 1162 01:02:49,266 --> 01:02:51,142 He's served twice before. 1163 01:02:51,559 --> 01:02:55,021 In fact, this body has confirmed him twice before. 1164 01:02:55,063 --> 01:02:58,024 His law firm earned more than 1.3 million dollars 1165 01:02:58,066 --> 01:03:00,694 from westlands for lobbying congress 1166 01:03:00,735 --> 01:03:02,487 to weaken environmental laws, 1167 01:03:02,529 --> 01:03:04,864 particularly endangered species act protections. 1168 01:03:04,906 --> 01:03:07,409 Now the trump administration under David bernhardt 1169 01:03:07,450 --> 01:03:11,788 is trying to greatly roll back our endangered species act 1170 01:03:11,830 --> 01:03:13,290 protections in the delta. 1171 01:03:13,331 --> 01:03:16,167 And if he's successful, it will mean the end 1172 01:03:16,209 --> 01:03:18,878 of delta smelts and the end of winter run chinook salmon. 1173 01:03:22,549 --> 01:03:25,010 Some argue that increasing westlands' water supply 1174 01:03:25,051 --> 01:03:27,971 from the delta would reduce rural poverty. 1175 01:03:28,430 --> 01:03:31,308 Another argument they made was that well, the, 1176 01:03:31,641 --> 01:03:34,686 the poorer communities that are near these big 1177 01:03:34,728 --> 01:03:36,938 irrigation districts would benefit. 1178 01:03:37,522 --> 01:03:40,525 Drought or no drought, the westlands' farm workers 1179 01:03:40,567 --> 01:03:43,403 have some of the worst living conditions in the country. 1180 01:03:44,237 --> 01:03:46,072 Oxfam found that westlands 1181 01:03:46,114 --> 01:03:48,908 was in the poorest congressional district in the u s. 1182 01:03:50,118 --> 01:03:53,246 Families of farm workers crowd together in shared homes, 1183 01:03:53,288 --> 01:03:56,458 while westlands farm owners often live outside 1184 01:03:56,499 --> 01:03:57,959 this poor congressional district. 1185 01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:01,338 Their tax money therefore goes elsewhere, 1186 01:04:01,796 --> 01:04:04,007 and farm workers do not have the schools 1187 01:04:04,049 --> 01:04:07,510 and other resources necessary to escape poverty. 1188 01:04:43,296 --> 01:04:45,673 They like to continue to be rich and they like to continue 1189 01:04:45,715 --> 01:04:47,634 to be successful, but they're doing it on 1190 01:04:47,675 --> 01:04:49,302 the backs of other communities. 1191 01:04:49,344 --> 01:04:50,946 They do it on the backs of the environment, 1192 01:04:50,970 --> 01:04:52,472 on the backs of immigrants, 1193 01:04:52,514 --> 01:04:54,140 on the backs of schoolchildren 1194 01:04:54,182 --> 01:04:56,017 because they clearly have the resources 1195 01:04:56,059 --> 01:04:57,811 to improve that life. 1196 01:04:57,852 --> 01:05:00,021 But what do they do? They put them all on a bus 1197 01:05:00,063 --> 01:05:02,774 and they send them to my office up here, a long bus ride. 1198 01:05:02,816 --> 01:05:04,275 Many didn't have water. 1199 01:05:04,317 --> 01:05:06,403 We had to go out and buy so they could rehydrate 1200 01:05:06,444 --> 01:05:08,029 and they couldn't quite explain 1201 01:05:08,071 --> 01:05:10,156 why they were in my office in Concord, California. 1202 01:05:11,116 --> 01:05:13,993 So that's, you know, that's their game. 1203 01:05:14,369 --> 01:05:16,121 That's their game. Send them up there 1204 01:05:16,162 --> 01:05:18,206 and they're just, they're pawns, 1205 01:05:18,498 --> 01:05:20,291 but they're pawns in the entire 1206 01:05:20,333 --> 01:05:22,502 agricultural structure in the central valley. 1207 01:05:23,253 --> 01:05:25,255 Agriculture in California 1208 01:05:25,547 --> 01:05:29,050 prioritizes agriculture at almost any expense. 1209 01:05:29,342 --> 01:05:33,221 The water in California is a shared resource 1210 01:05:33,263 --> 01:05:36,349 that is a public resource that is not a private resource. 1211 01:05:36,391 --> 01:05:37,934 So the management of that water 1212 01:05:38,268 --> 01:05:40,145 is something that needs to be considered 1213 01:05:40,186 --> 01:05:42,939 in the public interest and we need to do a betterjob 1214 01:05:42,981 --> 01:05:46,234 of making sure that the water that we need 1215 01:05:46,276 --> 01:05:48,361 is going to be there for future generations. 1216 01:05:50,405 --> 01:05:51,573 People have said, 1217 01:05:54,742 --> 01:05:56,953 westlands never should have been farmed. 1218 01:05:57,495 --> 01:05:59,998 The lands in westlands never should have been farmed. 1219 01:06:00,415 --> 01:06:06,171 That may be correct, but that sound bite 1220 01:06:06,212 --> 01:06:10,425 isn't an answer to the problem that exists today. 1221 01:06:10,467 --> 01:06:13,595 Maybe the city of San Francisco shouldn't exist where it is 1222 01:06:13,636 --> 01:06:16,973 because it doesn't have adequate water to support its needs. 1223 01:06:17,265 --> 01:06:21,352 Maybe the city of Los Angeles shouldn't exist where it exists 1224 01:06:21,394 --> 01:06:24,898 because it certainly doesn't have regional water supplies 1225 01:06:25,398 --> 01:06:28,276 adequate to meet the demand for people in Los Angeles. 1226 01:06:29,819 --> 01:06:33,948 You know, that's ignoring the reality. 1227 01:06:33,990 --> 01:06:35,325 San Francisco does exist. 1228 01:06:36,451 --> 01:06:38,578 The city of Los Angeles exists. 1229 01:06:39,329 --> 01:06:42,957 So let's begin to have an honest dialogue 1230 01:06:44,083 --> 01:06:47,253 about how we're going to address these issues. 1231 01:06:47,837 --> 01:06:49,672 And maybe the solution is take lands 1232 01:06:49,714 --> 01:06:51,216 in westlands out of production. 1233 01:06:51,257 --> 01:06:52,509 But if that is the solution, 1234 01:06:53,092 --> 01:06:56,721 let's begin to address that question 1235 01:06:58,139 --> 01:07:02,894 and identify the ways 1236 01:07:02,936 --> 01:07:06,814 by which we are going to mitigate impacts 1237 01:07:06,856 --> 01:07:10,902 to communities based on that public policy decision. 1238 01:07:35,426 --> 01:07:38,888 But I know what you're getting at is, 1239 01:07:38,930 --> 01:07:42,308 where is the will to solve the problem? 1240 01:07:42,350 --> 01:07:44,060 Where's the will come from? 1241 01:07:44,102 --> 01:07:45,645 Is it only come from the money? 1242 01:07:50,608 --> 01:07:55,071 I think there's a lot 1243 01:07:55,113 --> 01:07:58,366 of foolish things right now 1244 01:07:58,408 --> 01:08:01,411 that I see developing in terms 1245 01:08:01,452 --> 01:08:03,580 of a distrust of science. 1246 01:08:10,128 --> 01:08:12,839 People are slow to move unless they feel like 1247 01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:14,591 they're immediately affected. 1248 01:08:15,717 --> 01:08:17,427 Those kind of problems, 1249 01:08:17,468 --> 01:08:20,013 just like this one that grinds over years and years, 1250 01:08:20,054 --> 01:08:21,472 people turn their back on it. 1251 01:08:21,514 --> 01:08:23,224 - They get too busy. - They forget it. 1252 01:08:23,266 --> 01:08:25,018 Or, yeah, it rained last year, 1253 01:08:25,059 --> 01:08:27,478 so we don't need to talk about water for a while. 1254 01:08:32,567 --> 01:08:35,194 When people find out that I write about water, 1255 01:08:35,236 --> 01:08:38,114 their eyes always get big and they talk about Chinatown 1256 01:08:38,156 --> 01:08:40,158 and oh, are we running out of water? 1257 01:08:40,908 --> 01:08:44,245 And my standard response is no, we're not running out of water, 1258 01:08:44,287 --> 01:08:47,165 but we are running out of water to use it the way we did 1259 01:08:47,206 --> 01:08:50,668 in the 20th century and the 19th century, 1260 01:08:50,710 --> 01:08:53,921 which was thoughtlessly and wastefully. 1261 01:08:53,963 --> 01:08:56,799 And without any regard to the impact on the environment, 1262 01:08:57,383 --> 01:09:02,847 We have clearly taken too much fresh water 1263 01:09:02,889 --> 01:09:06,559 out of these systems to support the native species 1264 01:09:06,601 --> 01:09:10,104 and the healthy functioning of the estuary. 1265 01:09:10,146 --> 01:09:13,274 And that's what the decline of the delta smelt 1266 01:09:13,316 --> 01:09:15,610 and some of these other species is telling us. 1267 01:09:17,362 --> 01:09:19,656 Climate change is changing the conditions 1268 01:09:19,697 --> 01:09:22,450 of life on this planet and we need to be 1269 01:09:22,492 --> 01:09:24,327 more resilient, more nimble, 1270 01:09:24,702 --> 01:09:27,080 if we want to survive as a species. 1271 01:09:27,121 --> 01:09:30,708 And I think there's no stage bigger than the bay delta 1272 01:09:30,750 --> 01:09:34,212 to help us articulate what's going to make us more nimble, 1273 01:09:34,504 --> 01:09:36,464 what's gonna make our communities more just 1274 01:09:36,506 --> 01:09:37,924 and what's gonna make this planet 1275 01:09:38,299 --> 01:09:40,968 still habitable by human beings. 1276 01:09:42,095 --> 01:09:45,098 The good news is there are many solutions 1277 01:09:45,139 --> 01:09:46,599 for what we need to be doing. 1278 01:09:46,641 --> 01:09:49,227 We can build a portfolio for the 21st century 1279 01:09:49,268 --> 01:09:52,522 that includes large amounts of high-quality 1280 01:09:52,563 --> 01:09:55,525 treated wastewater that we used to throw away, 1281 01:09:55,566 --> 01:09:58,820 but that ought to be considered an asset now, not a liability. 1282 01:09:58,861 --> 01:10:00,655 We can capture more storm water 1283 01:10:00,697 --> 01:10:04,325 that we now lose to the oceans during wet periods 1284 01:10:04,367 --> 01:10:08,121 and we can use it to recharge our over-tapped aquifers. 1285 01:10:08,162 --> 01:10:10,915 L.A.'s population has grown by over a million people 1286 01:10:10,957 --> 01:10:15,378 in the last couple of decades and its water use overall 1287 01:10:15,420 --> 01:10:18,214 has remained flat due to improvements 1288 01:10:18,256 --> 01:10:19,632 in water use efficiency. 1289 01:10:20,466 --> 01:10:22,093 Figuring out how to manage 1290 01:10:22,135 --> 01:10:25,596 the power dynamics, the political dynamics 1291 01:10:25,888 --> 01:10:28,433 is a much more difficult challenge for California 1292 01:10:28,474 --> 01:10:33,020 than new technology or building desalination plants 1293 01:10:33,062 --> 01:10:38,025 or figuring out how to grow crops differently. 1294 01:10:38,067 --> 01:10:40,319 The politics is really going to determine 1295 01:10:40,361 --> 01:10:41,904 much of California's water future. 1296 01:10:42,864 --> 01:10:45,158 Groups like the metropolitan water district 1297 01:10:45,199 --> 01:10:47,952 of southern California and the westlands water district 1298 01:10:47,994 --> 01:10:51,205 in the San Joaquin valley want to maximize use of water 1299 01:10:51,247 --> 01:10:53,958 from the delta for their own interests, 1300 01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:56,002 namely sending water down south. 1301 01:10:56,294 --> 01:11:00,590 Every interest group wants the delta 1302 01:11:01,632 --> 01:11:05,011 managed for their interests. 1303 01:11:05,803 --> 01:11:08,139 These same organizations also reject 1304 01:11:08,181 --> 01:11:11,184 the scientific consensus that there isn't enough water 1305 01:11:11,225 --> 01:11:14,228 flowing through the delta to support native ecosystems, 1306 01:11:14,270 --> 01:11:16,856 despite species being on the brink of extinction. 1307 01:11:17,523 --> 01:11:19,650 We also believe though that there is 1308 01:11:19,692 --> 01:11:21,277 sufficient water in the system 1309 01:11:21,611 --> 01:11:24,238 for the environment and for native fish. 1310 01:11:25,615 --> 01:11:27,176 Therefore, restoring any semblance 1311 01:11:27,200 --> 01:11:29,035 of the delta's native environment 1312 01:11:29,076 --> 01:11:30,870 has been incredibly challenging. 1313 01:11:31,996 --> 01:11:34,957 We have this diversity of ecosystem types in California 1314 01:11:34,999 --> 01:11:36,793 and we just can't support that anymore, 1315 01:11:36,834 --> 01:11:38,294 the way we're managing it. 1316 01:11:38,336 --> 01:11:41,047 So that, you know, the bigger picture is, 1317 01:11:41,088 --> 01:11:43,883 are we okay with that as a society? 1318 01:11:44,467 --> 01:11:46,260 I think if you polled californians, 1319 01:11:46,636 --> 01:11:48,596 95% would say we would like 1320 01:11:48,638 --> 01:11:51,057 to have rivers with some fish in them in the future. 1321 01:11:51,682 --> 01:11:53,810 How you get there is the difficult part. 1322 01:11:53,851 --> 01:11:57,939 But first you have to understand that we may not have rivers 1323 01:11:58,231 --> 01:12:01,275 and we may not have fish, so do you want to do something? 1324 01:12:06,155 --> 01:12:10,368 And so California's water issues are really just a microcosm 1325 01:12:10,409 --> 01:12:11,994 for what we're seeing around the planet 1326 01:12:12,328 --> 01:12:14,747 and what we're able to monitor with satellite data. 1327 01:12:14,789 --> 01:12:16,624 For instance, on the India-Pakistan 1328 01:12:16,666 --> 01:12:19,168 border here, the indus river basin 1329 01:12:19,710 --> 01:12:22,672 is a heavily-stressed aquifer and this region of the country 1330 01:12:22,713 --> 01:12:25,007 gets groundwater pumped substantially. 1331 01:12:25,049 --> 01:12:28,094 So you know, a shared resource by two countries 1332 01:12:28,469 --> 01:12:29,887 that needs to be well-managed 1333 01:12:29,929 --> 01:12:31,973 in order to avoid political tensions. 1334 01:12:32,014 --> 01:12:36,185 So as population keeps growing, we have increasing demand. 1335 01:12:36,227 --> 01:12:38,020 There will not be enough water 1336 01:12:38,062 --> 01:12:41,023 to support every need and every want 1337 01:12:41,065 --> 01:12:42,859 at some point in the future. 1338 01:12:42,900 --> 01:12:45,361 And so the realization of that has not really hit 1339 01:12:45,403 --> 01:12:47,071 everyone yet fully. 1340 01:12:48,030 --> 01:12:50,491 Where does your water come from 1341 01:12:50,533 --> 01:12:53,619 is a basic question that everyone should be able 1342 01:12:53,661 --> 01:12:55,621 to answer, no matter where you live in the world. 1343 01:12:56,122 --> 01:13:00,334 And with that knowledge there will be a trickle-down effect. 1344 01:13:00,376 --> 01:13:04,130 I think that affects policy and therefore affects management. 1345 01:13:04,171 --> 01:13:07,258 If we can't deal with our water issues 1346 01:13:07,300 --> 01:13:10,219 in a place like California, how can we expect to deal 1347 01:13:10,261 --> 01:13:12,722 with our water issues in other places of the world? 1348 01:13:13,139 --> 01:13:15,182 I mean, in California we have everything 1349 01:13:15,224 --> 01:13:16,851 we need to be successful. 1350 01:13:16,893 --> 01:13:19,437 It's just about making the decision to do so. 1351 01:13:19,478 --> 01:13:21,689 And that really means prioritizing water. 1352 01:13:21,981 --> 01:13:23,774 And thinking about the future. 1353 01:13:23,816 --> 01:13:25,568 And so in California, 1354 01:13:25,610 --> 01:13:28,529 these issues are wrestled with before the state water 1355 01:13:28,571 --> 01:13:31,782 resources control board in the hopes of creating 1356 01:13:31,824 --> 01:13:33,743 a sustainable water future. 1357 01:13:34,744 --> 01:13:37,330 Our analysis today shows there's no evidence 1358 01:13:37,371 --> 01:13:39,957 that flows less than 50% or so. 1359 01:13:40,541 --> 01:13:44,295 We've seen a huge decline in the delta ecosystem 1360 01:13:44,962 --> 01:13:47,757 and these water quality standards that are supposed 1361 01:13:47,798 --> 01:13:50,927 to prevent a decline like that from happening 1362 01:13:50,968 --> 01:13:55,306 have not been updated in now 25 years. 1363 01:13:55,348 --> 01:14:01,270 The state water board did a very comprehensive analysis 1364 01:14:01,312 --> 01:14:06,317 of what it would take to restore healthy fish populations 1365 01:14:06,359 --> 01:14:08,486 and basically concluded that right now 1366 01:14:08,527 --> 01:14:10,696 we divert about half of the fresh water 1367 01:14:11,113 --> 01:14:15,034 out of the delta ecosystem and that to be healthy 1368 01:14:15,076 --> 01:14:18,371 we needed to restore about 75% flows. 1369 01:14:19,330 --> 01:14:20,957 The conflict is 1370 01:14:20,998 --> 01:14:23,876 intense as people see everything as a loss 1371 01:14:23,918 --> 01:14:25,503 either cause they're worrying 1372 01:14:25,544 --> 01:14:28,547 about fish and wildlife on the brink of extinction 1373 01:14:28,589 --> 01:14:30,967 or you're a farmer or a community leader 1374 01:14:31,008 --> 01:14:32,426 who's worried about the livelihood 1375 01:14:32,468 --> 01:14:34,762 of your family or your people. 1376 01:14:34,804 --> 01:14:38,516 We've tested the hypothesis that insufficient flow, 1377 01:14:38,557 --> 01:14:39,976 despite the evidence, will work. 1378 01:14:40,017 --> 01:14:42,979 It hasn't. We've tested the hypothesis 1379 01:14:43,020 --> 01:14:45,022 that doing more habitat without sufficient 1380 01:14:45,064 --> 01:14:46,732 flow regimes will work. 1381 01:14:46,774 --> 01:14:50,361 It hasn't, why don't we try testing the hypothesis 1382 01:14:50,403 --> 01:14:53,489 that the amount of flow that the scientific evidence 1383 01:14:53,531 --> 01:14:56,993 and your record suggests will work will work. 1384 01:14:57,034 --> 01:15:00,371 But the water quality control plan, because 1385 01:15:00,413 --> 01:15:05,668 it's a plan under some laws created by this bureaucracy 1386 01:15:05,710 --> 01:15:08,504 over many, many years, it doesn't get nearly the 1387 01:15:08,546 --> 01:15:12,008 attention giant tunnels that you could like roll 1388 01:15:12,049 --> 01:15:15,094 a small aircraft through the water quality control plan 1389 01:15:15,136 --> 01:15:18,764 will really define water quality conditions that support 1390 01:15:18,806 --> 01:15:22,643 clean water and fisheries and can potentially save 1391 01:15:22,685 --> 01:15:25,479 endangered species for decades to come. 1392 01:15:25,521 --> 01:15:27,732 There's a story I'm sure many people are familiar with 1393 01:15:27,773 --> 01:15:30,484 called "the giving tree" by shel silverstein. 1394 01:15:30,526 --> 01:15:33,612 The boy plays in the tree and eats its apples as a child 1395 01:15:33,654 --> 01:15:34,905 and the tree's very happy. 1396 01:15:35,531 --> 01:15:38,075 The boy sells the apples when he's a teen 1397 01:15:38,117 --> 01:15:40,870 to make a little bit of money and the tree's very happy. 1398 01:15:40,911 --> 01:15:43,914 He harvests the branches to build a house as a young man 1399 01:15:43,956 --> 01:15:47,585 and he cuts down the trunk in middle age to form, 1400 01:15:47,626 --> 01:15:50,838 create a canoe and the tree's always happy to be there for him. 1401 01:15:51,464 --> 01:15:54,216 And finally, as an old man, 1402 01:15:54,258 --> 01:15:57,678 he uses the stump of the tree to sit and think. 1403 01:15:58,512 --> 01:16:00,973 And this story is very divisive. 1404 01:16:01,015 --> 01:16:04,602 Some people see it as representing unconditional love, 1405 01:16:04,935 --> 01:16:07,980 that this tree gives everything to this boy, 1406 01:16:08,022 --> 01:16:11,650 whereas others see it as exploitation of nature. 1407 01:16:11,692 --> 01:16:14,570 In other words, is it about a giving tree or taking person? 1408 01:16:15,029 --> 01:16:17,281 And I think we need to ask that about our rivers. 1409 01:16:17,698 --> 01:16:19,200 Are they giving rivers? 1410 01:16:19,241 --> 01:16:20,677 Certainly they are. Are we taking people? 1411 01:16:20,701 --> 01:16:22,244 Yes, we are. 1412 01:16:22,286 --> 01:16:24,246 This outdated plan allows more than half 1413 01:16:24,288 --> 01:16:25,831 of water needed for the delta's 1414 01:16:25,873 --> 01:16:28,209 ecological health to be diverted away 1415 01:16:28,250 --> 01:16:31,670 largely for unsustainable industrial agriculture. 1416 01:16:31,712 --> 01:16:34,006 But if the state board takes action today, 1417 01:16:34,423 --> 01:16:36,425 nothing happens in 2019 except litigation, 1418 01:16:36,467 --> 01:16:38,302 there will be no on the ground projects. 1419 01:16:38,344 --> 01:16:40,137 There will be no additional flows. 1420 01:16:40,179 --> 01:16:43,724 If you think it's hard now, imagine a world 15, 20 years 1421 01:16:43,766 --> 01:16:46,102 from now with greater reliance 1422 01:16:46,852 --> 01:16:49,188 on diverting more water from our rivers 1423 01:16:49,230 --> 01:16:51,524 with climate change, making it harder and harder 1424 01:16:51,565 --> 01:16:53,442 to satisfy all of our needs. 1425 01:16:53,484 --> 01:16:55,945 The mighty bay delta estuary is a gem. 1426 01:16:55,986 --> 01:16:58,656 It is a treasure and it is worth saving. 1427 01:16:58,697 --> 01:17:01,951 Californians deserve more than just a stump to sit on.