5 Corporations Sucking California Dry During the Drought

Jake Anderson

As most people in the country know by now, California is currently suffering from a severe, record-breaking drought. In fact, it’s the worst drought in 1,200 years. While Governor Jerry Brown recently issued a mandate for people to start conserving water, large corporations use up and waste vastly more water than individuals and small businesses, often in ways that are detrimental to the environment.

Let’s take a look at five of the most massive corporations in California that are the worst culprits when it comes to wasting water:

As Drought Stricken Californians Cut Back, Corporations Get a Pass

Joshua Krause

Now that California’s drought has entered its fourth year, Governor Jerry Brown is finally cracking down on state municipalities, and is trying to get them cut back at least 25% of their water usage.

With the threat of water shortages looming, many residents are quick to point fingers at California’s agricultural industry. What, with almond growers sucking up 1.1 trillion gallons of water a year, and the beef industry using 106 gallons of water for every ounce of meat, it looks like many Californians are ready to throw both small farmers and Big Ag under the bus.

However, this state’s water problems aren’t just relegated to agriculture.

California’s Big Water Plans; The End of Private Water Rights?

Jamie Lee

Drought-stricken California, which just had its driest January ever recorded, smashed another dismal record last month: the hottest February. This will be the 5th year in a row of historic drought in California, breaking a 120-year-old record.

California is the largest populated state in the country. One out of eight Americans reside in sunny, warming, no rain, CA. Our economy is recognized as the 8th largest in the world with Central Valley farmers producing some 42% of the nations food supplies for decades.

For the second year in a row the Federal Water Agency, which controls CA mountain snowpack runoff, announced that zero water would be allocated to the 3300 state water agencies that it has supplied water to from the Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges for the past 54 years. Until recently the state's “ice chest” had accounted for 44% of the state's annual water budget.

California’s Drought Has Reached a Grave New Milestone

Joshua Krause

The residents of the San Joaquin Valley are facing an ominous crises due to California’s drought. Unlike most communities in the drought stricken state, the unincorporated town of East Porterville isn’t just running low on water. For some residents, they’ve completely run out.

At least 182 of the 1400 households in the town have run out of well water, prompting the county to provide 12 gallons of water for each resident that is facing water scarcity. With the help of the Red Cross, the bottled water was supplied at the cost of 30,000 dollars, and is expected to last 3 weeks.

For some residents, the shortage is just too much.

California Drought Spreading

Chris Carrington

The US Drought Monitor is reporting that 58% of California is now affected by a crippling drought, and that it is spreading at an unprecedented rate.

The agency has five levels of alert with ‘exceptional drought,’ the current level in California, listed as the most serious.

The LA Times reports:

Worldwide Water Shortage by 2040?

New study concludes that water shortages may be a bigger problem than we thought.

Kevin Samson  

Fresh water supplies are under assault on multiple fronts. We are seeing the continuing fallout from the droughts in the Western U.S. and Brazil - both are incredibly important areas to the global food supply.

At the same time, corporate hoarding of fresh water is on the rise. Nestle's former CEO clearly stated that water supplies should be privatized and that the right to fresh, clean water is not an essential human right.

Knowing that both the climate and corporate influence are converging to restrict and/or dramatically increase the cost of fresh water, two new reports reinforce that there isn't much time left to find solutions. In fact, for an increasing number of people, water might not be available at any cost.  

Are You Prepared for a Water Emergency?

Earl Griffin

Listening to the radio on the way into work this morning I learned that hundreds of thousands of people in southern Prince George’s County in Maryland will be without water for “days.”

How many days? The official speaking on the radio would not say.

It would be difficult to come up with a worse time to deprive hundreds of thousands of people of life-giving water. Today’s heat index is expected to hit 105 degrees Fahrenheit! Similar heat indices are expected throughout the remaining week.

According to the report, the problem is found in a “Fifty four inch main that is without redundancy.” Monitors indicate that the main is going to blow. It is believed by the water provider that allowing the main to blow and then performing the repair would mean the end user would be without water even longer and that the repair would be more expensive.

How many of the people who will be affected by this water emergency will hear this warning? How many of those who do hear it will do so in time to act before the water is cut off and what little water is available in stores is gone?

America's breadbasket aquifer running dry; massive agriculture collapse inevitable

Ogallala Aquifer Map/Wiki Commons

Mike Adams
Natural News

It's the largest underground freshwater supply in the world, stretching from South Dakota all the way to Texas. It's underneath most of Nebraska's farmlands, and it provides crucial water resources for farming in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and even New Mexico. It's called the Ogallala Aquifer, and it is being pumped dry. (See the map of this aquifer here)

Without the Ogallala Aquifer, America's heartland food production collapses. No water means no irrigation for the corn, wheat, alfalfa and other crops grown across these states to feed people and animals. And each year, the Ogallala Aquifer drops another few inches as it is literally being sucked dry by the tens of thousands of agricultural wells that tap into it across the heartland of America.

This problem with all this is that the Ogallala Aquifer isn't being recharged in any significant way from rainfall or rivers. This is so-called "fossil water" because once you use it, it's gone. And it's disappearing now faster than ever.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
5 Easy Ways to Prepare for the Coming Food Crisis

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Water Security – Water Refuges

Until recently the super elite of this planet considered money the most precious commodity to control but they have been changing their minds and buying up as many water sources as possible.

Mark Sircus
IMVA

When asked to rank the most important service, 95 percent of U.S. voters put water in first place followed by electricity, heat, Internet, cell phone, landline phone, cable TV, and cooling systems, respectively. Everyone instinctively understands the importance of water but collectively we have been ignoring the warning signs indicating that a huge percentage of humanity is not going to be staying with us much longer as food and water shortages impact us like dual sledge hammers. All of our projections of vastly increased populations are going to run into the brick wall of water scarcity and terrible water quality.

The depletion of global water resources is more rapid, severe, and complex than anyone anticipated. In many areas of the world like the United States and China, where people have enjoyed enough water to build their industrial civilizations, those water resources are running lower every year. The unshakable thirst for water is now colliding with the reality of shrinking supplies. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population growth in the last century with many areas in actual danger of running out or becoming seriously and chronically short of water.

As water gets more and more precious, the potential for dispute and conflict only grows. If during the last 100 years we witnessed the rise and fall of nations over oil, this next hundred years will be determined by water. It is a key component of national security. Life runs out when water becomes unavailable and that is already happening in certain parts of the world. The competition for water could even make life in some of America’s largest cities nearly unbearable for residents. Only fools in the future will take water for granted. It is going to become more expensive as it’s increasingly perceived as the precious resource it is.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
10 Reasons Our Shallow Water Supply is in Deep Trouble

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Drought-stricken Lake Mead falls to a level not seen since 1937

Henry Brean
Las Vegas Review

Oddly, the drought's latest milestone arrived on a rainy day.

Just before noon Sunday, as thunderstorms closed in on the area, the surface of Lake Mead slipped three one-hundredths of an inch to a new low not seen for a lifetime.

The reservoir on the Colorado River hasn't been down this far since 1937, when it was being filled for the first time behind the newly completed Hoover Dam.

Since drought took hold on the Colorado and its tributaries in 1999, the surface of Lake Mead has plunged almost 130 feet and caused fits for the National Park Service and its marina operators who must extend roads, utilities and other services to reach the shrinking shoreline.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
10 Reasons Our Shallow Water Supply is in Deep Trouble

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

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