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In many ways, the growth problems and the conservation problems of California are the same kind of problems that our country faces.

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We surmount these growth problems only if we work together.

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It is a pleasure for me to permit us to look at this valley and others like it across the country,

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where we can see the greenest and most richest earth producing the greatest and richest crops in the country.

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And then a mile away, see the same earth and see it brown and dusty and useless,

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and all because there's water in one place and there is in another.

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Water supply issues are among the most important and least understood issues around the world.

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Satellite images captured over the last few decades indicate that our fresh water supplies are rapidly changing.

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Dry areas are getting drier, as wet areas are getting wetter.

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Some are at risk of losing access to the water we need to survive.

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It took 200,000 years for the world's population to reach 1 billion.

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In the last 200 years, it has expanded to 7.7 billion.

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As human populations explode, many places are already seeing their demand for water outstrip supply.

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It's a worldwide phenomenon.

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It's why China's building dams in the Tibetan Plateau, so they won't have to send water to Cambodia and Laos.

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It's just played out here in a different venue, different set of circumstances.

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It's the same game. Get me water first. The hell with the other people.

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Water's a big problem. There's conflict over water. There's violent conflict over access to water worldwide.

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We have the reality of climate change, which is fundamentally a water issue.

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As humans take more water out of the natural environment, the ecosystems on which we also depend are increasingly suffering.

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We're seeing our fisheries die. We're seeing our rivers dry up. We're seeing our wetlands disappear.

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And the birds that migrate thousands of miles every year that depend on those ecosystems perish as well.

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We have to figure out a way to provide water for human uses, but also for the natural ecosystems that depend on the same water resources.

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It's hard to explain why California, as a supposed leader in many, many things in the world, can't address these issues.

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California in particular has really over allocated our supplies for a long time.

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There's no basic ethic in water. Unless you're strong enough to stop them from doing things, they just do it.

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Power matters. And, you know, I think one of the central themes of Chinatown is that, you know, the powerful get to take what they want.

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The water is so valuable that you're going to fight over it. You're going to fight for every last drop. Everybody is.

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The Water Wars is the reference to everybody fighting each other to keep their share or take someone else's share.

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And it gets a little bitter and nasty sometimes.

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California is not unique in its water challenges. We are unique, perhaps, in the sense that we have the money, we have the institutions,

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we have the brain power to solve our water problems. And we haven't solved them yet, but if we can't solve them here,

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it's going to be difficult to think about how we're going to solve water challenges around the world.

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The drought from 2012 to 2016 was California's worst on record.

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The state of California is resorting to drastic measures tonight to combat its severe drought.

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Op-eds in the LA Times questioned if people would soon run out of water.

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Homes and businesses were asked to significantly cut back their water use.

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We're in a historic drought and that demands unprecedented action. It's for that reason that I'm issuing an executive order mandating substantial water reduction across our state.

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The mandatory rules are designed to reduce water use by 25%. Homeowners pulled out their lawns and replaced them with artificial turf.

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I'm here today to show you when we've got some of the graphics behind me of the new character, Wondue.

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Something that we think will be appealing to a variety of customers.

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Drought shaming became a popular form of vigilantism.

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Mikey Barnum wrote, way to hose down your entire sidewalk. Twice. Are you okay with being called a water snitch?

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I am. I totally am.

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Meanwhile, the media narrative was that agriculture was suffering across the state.

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California farmers are losing billions of dollars every year that we have this drought.

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While that's happening, the acreage of nut crops is skyrocketing.

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These crops are tremendously valuable on the export markets.

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The San Joaquin Valley is now the nut supplier to the world.

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And so we're delivering water that belongs to the California public and that is needed by the fish and wildlife and water quality that we rely on to the San Joaquin Valley to grow a lot of crops that are being exported out of the country to China, the Middle East, etc.

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When Jerry Brown went up onto the mountain top to declare California in the worst drought in a long, long time and asked people to change their behaviors, there was a caveat.

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Urbanites were supposed to change their behavior, but the Central Valley agricultural districts were not.

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They were voluntary, we were required, and that tells you everything about the power of ag.

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Because after all, ag uses 80% of all water in California and Nevada and Arizona and every other state.

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And they're going to hold that water because the law says they can.

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We've had the highest grossing agricultural years on record during this drought and during the last drought.

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And that kind of money buys influence.

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It buys lawyers, lobbying firms.

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We could never flush our toilets again and never let the water run again while we're brushing the teeth. For what? For 4% of water savings on all of that water that we're saving has already been sold to the irrigators so that they can grow the export crops and ship them to Europe or China and make a buck on it.

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And that drop of water that you save by not flushing your toilet or by shutting down the water while you were brushing your teeth, it didn't amount to nothing.

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During the drought, the governor's water restrictions applied only to communities, not to agriculture.

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Many believe the drought put a spotlight on destructive government policies, prioritizing agricultural conglomerates over its citizens.

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For half a century, we've been managing water resources in the state of California in a very unsustainable way.

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Trillions of gallons of water from the snowpack of the Sierra Nevadas travel down streams and rivers to support life in California.

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The state sees an influx of a truly incredible amount of water.

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Before there was a big population in California, before we had our 40 million people in an enormous economy, we had two great rivers, the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River.

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And they flow together to create the California Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, sort of the heart of California's rich environment, but also the heart of our water system.

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And the water of those two rivers form the delta and then they flow out into San Francisco Bay and then out under the Golden Gate.

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When Americans come to California, the California Delta is probably the most mysterious landscape in the state.

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If you look at the old land survey maps, which you'll find they survey the rest of the state and the delta just remains this blank spot.

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They don't even draw the township lines. And the reason they can't draw the township lines is they can't really get into it.

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It's going to be heavily tool land. It's hard to say. It depends on the time of day whether it's going to be land or water.

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It's absolutely immense. It's full of mosquitoes. It's a place you just can get lost in.

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You can travel through it if you know the way through the sloughs, but it's constantly changing.

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Some of the early sailing ships would find so much fresh water flowing out the bay, out the Golden Gate into the ocean that they could draw fresh water in the middle of the ocean.

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Today, that's not the reality. Today, because of human demands on the delta, we take so much water out of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers and out of the delta itself that the natural flow has been dramatically reduced.

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Today, California has the largest and most complicated water system in the world because massive cities and agricultural corporations were built away from fresh water.

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Building more than 1400 dams across the state, the largest conveyance system to move water from the north where it is more plentiful to the central valley in the south where the demand is highest.

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We have an incredible plumbing system. I mean, it's really a remarkable engineering feat regardless of, you know, what you think of it from a philosophical standpoint. From a practical standpoint, you have to admire it.

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It was developed before more modern environmental sensibilities. And as a result of that, we've simply taken more water out of the ecosystem than any ecosystem anywhere has been able to survive.

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It's very likely that in the not too distant future, we'll be at the river's end.

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The California Bay Delta is located east of San Francisco Bay. It is the largest inland estuary on the west coast.

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This means California's major rivers meet the Pacific Ocean here, and it serves as a crucial habitat for about 500 different plant and animal species.

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However, since the Delta is flush with fresh water, it also serves as the hub of California's water infrastructure.

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Two thirds of the state's residents get water from the Delta, including the residents of Los Angeles, San Diego, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and the San Joaquin Valley.

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Three quarters of Californians don't know where the Delta is. And for most people, the water that comes out of their tap comes out of a black box.

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It rains someplace, and then there's a big black box, and then you turn on your tap and water comes out.

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It is that ignorance, that lack of knowledge about where our water comes from and the effects that that has on the Delta and communities there and salmon fishermen that really aids and abets what has happened over the last several generations in terms of the decline of the Delta and our native fish and wildlife.

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Water from all the rivers that flow out of the Sierra Nevada, north and south, that flow into the Central Valley,

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all flow here, and then the water for 20 million people at least leaves here, goes south.

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This provides water for the entire state. I mean, it's a remarkable place.

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The Bay Delta is the big story in California. I think it is emblematic of lots of stories like it across the planet, not just in the United States.

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Particularly in the Anthropocene, this world in which the human beings have so dramatically shaped nature that we're now having to think about how we exist within nature if we want to exist at all.

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Caught between the competing interests of cities, agriculture, and the environment, the Delta has become the battleground of California's latest water wars.

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But where you are is the far south delta. This is the San Joaquin River. This is Old River. It goes to the pumps by Tracy. And this is Reclamation District 544. This is Undine Road. And this is right here. This is where we live. We're just on two acres right here.

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The Delta is an estuary. It is a beautiful patchwork quilt of farms and waterways. Most of our families have been out here since the late 1880s or the early 1900s.

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Family farming here is production agriculture but on a small scale. Smaller than the southern San Joaquin Valley.

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The Delta is quiet. The Delta is productive. The Delta is productive. It's a beautiful patchwork quilt of farms and waterways.

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It's home to a lot of people who are committed to keeping it as beautiful as it is. It's home.

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The Delta naturally flows to the Pacific Ocean. But as more fresh water is diverted from the Delta, salty ocean water is sucked in.

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Water diversions are hurting the ecosystems and economies of the Delta.

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It really is an existential problem for us. We either get to live here with good water or we end up having to leave.

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We being, I'm talking about the farming community, we have to leave because the salt has ruined the land.

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That's it. That's what all the fuss is about. This is absolutely our lifeline. This is what sustains us.

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If somebody comes up to you and says, hey, give me your wallet, and you might laugh them off.

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But if they come back with a knife, they come back with a gun and say, hey, give me your wallet, then you, you know, it's an entirely different situation.

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And we feel very much in that sort of a situation where our livelihoods, our way of lives, we know what we feel is rightfully ours is being threatened because somebody stands to make a buck from it.

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25 million Californians are getting some of their drinking water from here.

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Of course, they get it from the Colorado River. They get it from elsewhere.

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It's not everything to anybody, but it's something to everybody.

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If you look at all the fish overall, populations across the board have dropped in my lifetime.

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And I think if you look at the amount of water that's been exported from the Delta, they correlate almost perfectly.

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Family farmers who call the Bay Delta home farm responsibly to protect native fish and wildlife, but they cannot stem the tide of water diversions.

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Fish and wildlife in the Delta are disappearing daily.

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The Delta is really a microcosm of a lot of other problems.

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We've got six endangered species in the Delta.

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And of course, globally, we're in an extinction crisis.

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But here, right in the backyard of San Francisco, in the heart of a state that prides itself on being, you know, the center of environmentalism,

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we have six endangered species in this ecosystem.

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Delta smelt, longfin smelt, spring run Chinook salmon, winter run Chinook salmon, green sturgeon, and migratory rainbow trout, which are called Central Valley Steelhead.

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Those six species have very different ecological needs and very different behaviors.

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And the fact that all of them are on the precipice of disappearing from an ecosystem that they've inhabited for millennia really speaks to the damage that we've done to this ecosystem.

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But it's under constant, constant political pressure and tension to try to move more of those water resources year-round, drought or no drought, into the Central Valley mainly and then into Southern California.

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It's a little hard to understand why we're completely screwing up this Western environment and lavishing these subsidies so that very successful corporations can grow a highly profitable crop and ship it overseas without paying mitigation for the impacts they're causing.

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The fall run Chinook salmon are spawning right now. So Chinook salmon are also known as king salmon. They're the biggest of all the salmon species.

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I think they're hanging on, but in most places they're hanging on by a thread and if you remove the hatcheries they would probably blink out in some fairly short time period.

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California takes so much water out of the environment that if it weren't for fish hatcheries north of the Delta, salmon would go extinct.

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California takes so much water in niche in California and neredeosing between the upgrades and the trees orụcspoken Alas…

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This has decimated the fishing community surrounding San Francisco Bay.

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Californiain in California define the fish development of Sioux auctioned river pixie land…

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California wins three, eight years, seven years, seven years, seven years, eight months and land…

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This has decimated the fishing community surrounding San Francisco Bay.

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California hasn't taken a few months.�avittari emancip Yorkfield…

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Here's how bad it is. If you come over here newborn, look…

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This represents somebody fishing for four days,

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All up and down the Marin coast –

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For four days,

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This is what they caught.

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days this is what they caught seven fish they're beautiful they're tasty they're

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delicious but I've done those four days for 250 fish not that long ago that's

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what happens when you take the water out of the equation the numbers get so low

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that you can't make a living when I started fishing there was 5,000 salmon

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boats in California now there's about 300 left you know families families and

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families lost their livelihoods guys are blowing their brains out you know I could

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tell a million stories about guys that you know because fishermen don't just

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fish for a living fishermen fishing is what who we are it's not like you can

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you know retrain us to go do something else any more than you can retrain a

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farmer or retrain somebody that has been doing that four or five generations you

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know so the salmon that spawn in the watershed and that then migrate through

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the estuary go out into the ocean where they feed orca whales and marine mammals

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and bird life and other fish the decline in salmon production from the Central

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Valley is evident in this starvation really of orca whales in the ocean and

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that's just one example the estuaries are really this nursery for things in the

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near-shore ocean environment and when we decimate the Delta and the rest of the

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estuary we're really harming those resources as well

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the thirst for water from the Delta cannot be quenched the demand from large

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cities and agriculture corporations south of the Delta is growing lawyers PR

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agencies and former high-ranking government officials are employed to

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take as much water as possible from the Delta it's all about the money honey and or

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the water and yeah James Dean has that quote you know why they rob banks right

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because that's where the money is my grandfather told me my grandfather told

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me a couple things about water he said there may come a day son when you'll have

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to go sit on that pump with a shock nut

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California's water war is heating up the governor has just unveiled a new 14 billion

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dollar plan to build two tunnels underneath the Delta transferring water

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from Northern California to Southern California the governor says his plan will

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create a reliable water supply and still maintain a healthy ecosystem in the Delta

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this proposal balances the concerns of those who live and work on the Delta those

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who rely on it for water and those who appreciate its beauty its fish waterfowl and

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wildlife breaking news now the Metropolitan Water District has approved nearly

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11 billion dollars in funding when Jerry Brown was governor of California he

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proposed a new method of water conveyance from the Delta known as the water fix or twin

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tunnels do you have a stance on the twin tunnels project can we turn off the camera for a second

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is that possible if you feel comfortable talking about it we we hear lots of different opinions about the twin

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tunnels project I'm not allowed to talk about it you know yeah is Westlands a supporter of the water fix project

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the simple answer to that question is yes earlier plan of the Delta I found out my house

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it was going to be a location of a what they call a buck pond which is essentially a 300 acre pond full of

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about 20 feet full of mud that came out of the tunnels when I found out it about it first in the

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newspaper the tunnels project is one of the most controversial in California's history

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the project was proposed to fix a variety of complex issues one of which is to reduce the

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environmental impacts of the powerful pumps in the South Delta currently we have giant pumps in the South

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Delta that just pull water across the Delta from the Sacramento River which is very damaging

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it disrupts the migration of fish it makes the lower San Joaquin River run backwards and it destroys

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millions of fish each year at these pumps one of the bypasses one of the fixes another technical fix

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is to bore these two tunnels underneath the delta move water through and so you can let the river maybe

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become more like a river it once was if that's the case despite the billions that would be spent on

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it the question we'll have to ask is whether it's worth the cost to do it that way but the project is

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seen by many as destructive the creation of these tunnels or mismanagement of these tunnels could spell

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the end of the delta as we know it the water supply up here in the delta is limited but they've over pumped

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that supply and the issue of the tunnels is that they will have a an even deeper straw into the delta

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and we will have no control over how much finally gets taken out of here the system is broken the question

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is what do we do about it and the idea that we would find a new point of diversion higher up on the

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Sacramento River and then make that facility so huge that it could take the entire flow of the river

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is pretty scary to people like me the twin tunnels are posed as this dual solution that can make southern

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California happy by delivering more water to southern California but supposedly they're also going to help

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rescue the environment of the delta people with very good reason have a great deal of skepticism that

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they're going to help the environment of the delta we need to become more water independent and stop

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destroying the very sensitive delta stop destroying the way of the american indians fisheries we have to

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stop destroying our native habitat and let us support local water projects and local jobs here

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in ellie and orange county thank you all right the bigger issue is that we just take too much fresh

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water out of the ecosystem so we need to let more flow down from the rivers out into the bay and the tunnels

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do nothing to mitigate that you know we don't want to turn the delta into lake erie

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and have it shut down because it's not suitable to drink and your dog dies if it goes swimming in it

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but that's that's what's going to happen if they operate this the way they plan to and that sort of

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led us to where we are today where they think they can build these massive tunnels and just take the

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water out of northern california i mean you can drive greyhound buses through these they're larger i guess

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than the uh the english channel you know so so we're talking about major traffic going down these

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tunnels for all the water in northern california but they're sold as an environmental remedy by taking

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the water out higher up then dumping it down the aqueduct later on you will actually be able to

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regulate the flows of the delta better than you can now in environmental considerations help san francisco

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bay but there's another consideration too a lot of the drinking water in northern california especially

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around the bay area comes from the delta so if you have salt intrusion there you're screwing up the

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sources of drinking water so you're really pitting now two major urban areas san francisco

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and los angeles and you're pitting together two agricultural areas the delta and the san joaquin

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valley so you have huge players on both sides coming into battle and it is a story as you well know with

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twists and turns that nobody can ever predict every time you think you know what's going to happen the

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twin tunnels have been defeated it rises up again it is unkillable in one sense at least so far

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what will happen on that is something i would never predict on film because i would be wrong

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within 24 hours the way things are turning out then in 2019 gavin newsom was sworn in as the next

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governor of california i do not support the water fix as currently configured meaning i do not support the

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twin tunnels

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we can however build on the important work that's already been done and that's why i do support a

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single tunnel

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so yeah this is our war room this is where we have our monthly water agency meetings we've got all kinds

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of wonderful color maps of the delta about every which way you could draw it we have

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the most recent rendition of the delta water fix it might have still been called bdcp at that point in

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time and it looks very familiar to this 1965 rendition of the hypothesized plan for a peripheral canal

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so you can see not much has changed in their minds and we're still fighting over some of the same issues

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that have been fought over and will continue to be fought over for generations lifetimes

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the tunnels project has been around in various forms for over half a century in the 1940s it was the

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peripheral canal in the past decade it has gone through numerous names and proposals

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newsom's single tunnel plan is not half the size of the twin tunnels a single tunnel would be much

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larger than one of the two tunnels for many this distinction just serves to rearrange deck chairs on the

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titanic the water fix is a good case study for the the problems of both california water and the delta

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and that's because it's the most recent iteration of that ongoing water fight the wars that we've been

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talking about those who need water are supposed to be bound by restrictions that say you can have

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water but it has to be surplus to the other areas the amount of surplus when it's available and the amount

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they can take is insufficient for their needs and so they have to keep trying and they've been trying

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for 50 years to get additional water through i'll say any means necessary i i describe it as a dog that

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kills chickens this institution which is really guided in major part by metropolitan water district of

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southern california the tunnel project will almost certainly be paid for by a powerful organization in

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southern california known as the metropolitan water district metropolitan is a water wholesaler and which

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means we provide water to the cities that provide water to people we represent six counties ventura county

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los angeles san diego orange county parts of riverside and san bernardino what's pretty amazing about

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that six county area is there's 19 million people in there one out of every two californians or looking

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at it another way one in every 16 americans lives in southern california and our mission is to provide

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water water to them metropolitan staff has supported this project for the last decade this project is a

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necessity for the state of california the metropolitan water district is certainly the 800

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pound gorilla in california water politics they're rich they they can buy all the all the influence and

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all all the talent they want their business model is based on selling imported water from the delta

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and if they can shore up and make that more reliable or increase the amount of water they're willing to

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do it those who fear the tunnels point to history southern california has a terrible track record

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we tend to flow water towards money regardless whether it's uphill or downhill it really doesn't

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matter it's going to go to where the capital is located so yes la has prospered mightily because of the

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la aqueduct the state water project and the colorado river aqueduct but that has also despoiled

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landscapes and limited the possibilities of the places from which that water has come

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many in the delta believe that if you want to understand their story you have to know the story

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of the owens valley the story that inspired the film chinatown going to be a lot of irate citizens

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when they find out that they're paying for water that they're not going to get oh that's all taken

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care of see mr gibbs either you bring the water to la or you bring la to the water the owens valley

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case is is is sadly the precursor to where we are now and there was a slight lull between that and the

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modern day destruction of various areas but nothing's changed it's the same fight it's the same

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arguments and in my view it's the same avoidance of the law

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the owens valley like the delta gets its water from the sierra nevada mountains

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it is located about 250 miles north of los angeles and over 200 miles east of monterey

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as ecologist aldo leopold wrote there once were men capable of inhabiting a river without

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disrupting the harmony of its life for centuries the harmony of the owens valley was preserved by the

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piute native americans our people have existed within this location for time immemorial we say

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because of all the resources available to us here in this valley unlike our brothers and sisters to the

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north of us and to the south of us who really had to travel very long distances to be able to get what

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they needed we had it right here within the owens valley as settlers came up they they looked at this land

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and and they saw land that was open their thought is land is for humans water is for humans therefore

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i'm going to make my peace and began taking hold of of land within the valley you know i i say putting up

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fences blocking access and no longer then was the valley able to provide for the tribal people as it once did

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and what that meant to our people is starvation

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as ranchers moved in to take the water rich lands native americans were evicted from the owens valley

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in a bloody conquest with great loss of life but the ranchers didn't have long to enjoy their spoils

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los angeles was rapidly expanding at the beginning of the 20th century

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city planners realized that for los angeles to sustain its growth it would need to secure an additional

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source of water and moholland and fred eaton and all of these really interesting water engineers water

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buffaloes you might call them started stalking the land literally trying to find out where water was

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that they could purchase fred eaton and moholland and others began to recognize that one of the key

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places one of the key environments was the eastern sierra

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is not that far from los angeles with a fabulous river the owens river that flows through that region

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it had an agricultural industry orchard industry the native peoples had already been taken out

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through various warfares and and expeditions so there's not going to be that resistance proved to

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be from a los angeles's point of view easy pickings moholland sells this project which is going to be very

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expensive to los angeles by telling los angeles if you don't take this water you won't need it by

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that he means that in fact if you don't get this water los angeles is not going to expand

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frederick eaton former mayor of los angeles went out to the owens valley with jb lippincott of the u.s

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reclamation service because eaton and lippincott told ranchers they were working together to create a

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friendly federal irrigation project most ranchers agreed to sell their land for what seemed above market

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value and so he starts sopping up this area and buying water rights he doesn't tell anybody what

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it's for and ultimately los angeles will purchase his right and other people's right and they won't

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tell them what it's for meanwhile la-based land speculators with secret insider knowledge bought

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up land in the san fernando valley the area intended to be the end of the owens valley aqueduct to los

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angeles this syndicate also worked hard to pass the bond that would pay for the aqueduct harrison

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gray otis a central member of the syndicate was publisher of the la times and used his power to

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publish scare articles about a dire need for more water the tactic was successful and a bond passed

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begin construction on the world's largest aqueduct designed to drain the owens valley and suddenly from

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the owens river valley point of view they had just been destroyed by la the locals began to panic

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there began to be some violence up here three or four hundred people came drove down from bishop and big

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pine and opened up the aqueduct and dumped the entire flow of the aqueduct back into the owens river

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they just wanted los angeles to to talk none of the negotiations went the way the locals wanted it

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and suddenly a few nights there were explosions along the aqueduct where the the wall of the aqueduct was

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blown out so eventually by the mid-30s los angeles did the final buyout about a fourth of the people

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moved away because everything had changed and so even to this day there's property in each of these towns

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that are owned by the city of los angeles they own the entire valley floor and so in most of the issues

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that deal with with water have la next to themselves we called this place payahunaru that the name embodies

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this idea that water is present that water is flowing that water is here it was vastly different

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than what someone from los angeles driving up now would see out of their window in just 13 years of

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operation the los angeles aqueduct dried up owens lake thereby creating the single largest source of

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dust pollution in the united states

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the city of los angeles is is used as a model the los angeles aqueduct is used as a model

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to move resources from one to the next

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the los angeles department of water and power did not tell residents of the owens valley that

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frederick eaton was buying land on the city's behalf nor that those purchases would end valley life

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as they knew it now the metropolitan water district is not telling residents of the delta

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why the organization is buying their land nor what those purchases mean for life in the delta

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it's an interesting question as to why metropolitan water district purchased islands in the delta

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the 10 000 plus residents who signed and sent letters and comments are a small sampling

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of the millions of people in the bay delta region who oppose met's purchase of the delta island

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the metropolitan water district of southern california voted tuesday to purchase five islands

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buldeen island bacon island web tract most of holland tract and the western tip of chips island

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it's probably true that the reason they bought those islands is to make sure that they could facilitate

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the building of the tunnels because you need large areas to dump all the muck they dig out

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you need staging areas trucking all sorts of things

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it has been an ongoing conversation for the two of us really and most of it has occurred either

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on this porch or in the in that living room right there you know they get these big pushes and

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and each time we feel like it's an assault on our lifestyle and our life

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they want to take it turn it back to nature and ship all the water down to the desert it doesn't seem

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to make much sense to me you know and i don't care how many arguments they throw out me that they've

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just about ruined all the fishing in the delta already by over pumping and i don't know what makes

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anybody in their right mind think that if they take more water that it's going to get better you know

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regardless of the point they take it

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the people that live in the city that pride themselves on caring about people and wanting

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clean air and clean water and do they do they want to tolerate people living out in these these working

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landscapes the water titans are just out to to crush what's ever in the way and to get as much water as

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they can and that's that's what they talk about and often they'll be blunt enough to tell you that

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some of what the bay delta folks are arguing is that this is simply an echo of earlier struggles

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over water that included the owens river valley los angeles is implicated without question in this

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struggle it's not the only player and it's not the only enemy

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delta farms we have farms from you know five ten acres to a couple hundred acres

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and some people have over a thousand acres but not contiguous

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but when you have the water going down the canals that encouraged large-scale operations

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it's almost a different world thousands and thousands and thousands of acres again i don't

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that doesn't make them wrong or bad but that just sort of increases the demand and the pressure on

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people running those large-scale operations to make sure that there's a return on the initial money

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so it's that big guy versus the little guy story that's oftentimes true

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california is the number one food producer in the united states more than doubling the farming

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output of the second and third states on the list and topping all other agricultural producing

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regions around the world california owes the success to the production capacity of the central valley

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the central valley the central valley has one of the best growing seasons and land in in the united states

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the only thing it lacked was water that's what the our water projects in the 1950s 60s and 70s brought

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and it produced an agricultural cornucopia that has not only supported many many jobs but also produced

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an abundant crop every year agriculture is an important part of the self-image of california

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and there's no question that it's an important and health and and should be an important part of our

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economy i think all of us are proud of the diversity of agriculture in california but i think that folks in

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agriculture are also very good at selling that image kind of a big marketing campaign everyone's kind of

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trying to put out there is growing food wasting water i don't think it is but let's make people let's

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let people make that decision on their own the one place where agriculture stands out of course is in

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of course is in its water use in california the water that humans use is about 80 percent used for

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agriculture and about 20 percent for the rest of society but at the same time it's not a huge part

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of california's economy it's a 50 billion dollar a year industry in a more than two trillion dollar a

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year economy and you know they're very very good at making the case that cutting their water supplies

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will be devastating for for california agriculture our food prices will rise people will go hungry and

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you know that's just really not the case so what really is happening is not that we're running out of

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water for california agriculture it's that california agriculture has been so successful

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that it's growing to the point where it constantly wants to expand its irrigated acreage

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to the point where it just is breaking the system

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farming south of the delta is described by local author mark erics as the most industrialized

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farming in the history of man california's top crop is not however fruits or vegetables it is almonds

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and it takes a gallon of water to produce a single almond

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over a million acres of almonds are farmed in the central valley

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each year almond farms use 35 times more water than the entire city of san francisco

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the majority of these almonds are exported out of the country

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in fact 80 percent of the world's almond supply comes from california

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but the water to grow the world's almonds is diverted from the delta at the expense of native

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fish and wildlife we don't necessarily need pistachios we don't necessarily need almonds we don't need

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all of this land to be in production and in many cases some of these crops can be replicated elsewhere

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and this is not going to be popular with farmers farmers don't think of it that way they think of themselves

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forced into it they think of promises made to them these promises were made to them because they

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solicited these favors they lobbied congress very heavily to get these and they have struck very good

384
00:48:25,340 --> 00:48:31,100
deals and they want to keep those deals in place when you have the second longest river in the state of

385
00:48:31,100 --> 00:48:38,700
california going dry because of upstream diversions from the federal dam and other diversions that gives

386
00:48:38,700 --> 00:48:44,060
you an idea of the magnitude of these exports and these diversions and the effect of course to the

387
00:48:45,020 --> 00:48:47,740
ecosystem this amazing bay delta ecosystem

388
00:48:50,140 --> 00:48:55,740
agriculture in the san joaquin valley uses water from the san joaquin river so much of the san joaquin

389
00:48:55,740 --> 00:49:02,060
river that it actually goes dry but that amount of water has not been enough for the san joaquin valley

390
00:49:02,700 --> 00:49:07,900
and so they've also drained their aquifers to the point where the surface of the earth actually is

391
00:49:07,900 --> 00:49:13,740
collapsing but this well here was originally flushed with the top of this concrete

392
00:49:19,660 --> 00:49:25,260
this is where the dirt used to be flush here and it has dropped that much it's actually dropped more

393
00:49:25,260 --> 00:49:32,140
than that but a lot of this casing has dropped with the ground that's a rate of sinking of about

394
00:49:32,140 --> 00:49:37,820
a foot per year in you know english units so that's substantial but that amount of water

395
00:49:37,820 --> 00:49:43,820
has not been enough for agriculture in the san joaquin valley and so they have giant export pumps

396
00:49:43,820 --> 00:49:48,860
in the delta that take water actually from the sacramento system from the northern part of the state

397
00:49:48,860 --> 00:49:54,620
and export it from the delta into the san joaquin valley and even that has not been enough there's

398
00:49:54,620 --> 00:50:01,180
actually a tunnel that brings water from the trinity river and that tunnel delivers water from the

399
00:50:01,180 --> 00:50:07,420
climate watershed into the sacramento down the sacramento into the delta through the pumps to the western

400
00:50:07,420 --> 00:50:17,660
san joaquin valley so this is a voracious need for water for this one area over the past century

401
00:50:17,660 --> 00:50:23,740
family farms in the central valley like those in the delta have gone out of business they have been

402
00:50:23,740 --> 00:50:29,900
replaced by vast agricultural corporations whose water use outstrips that of surrounding communities

403
00:50:30,460 --> 00:50:36,620
billions of dollars are made in the central valley and much of it from overseas exports consequently

404
00:50:36,620 --> 00:50:41,740
agriculture here is represented by powerful water districts these organizations not only

405
00:50:41,740 --> 00:50:47,580
support the tunnel project but are working to weaken environmental protections to seize as much delta water

406
00:50:47,580 --> 00:50:57,820
as possible

407
00:51:01,100 --> 00:51:07,180
westlands as is sometimes identified as the largest irrigation district in the country

408
00:51:07,980 --> 00:51:15,980
in in terms of gross acreage that's not accurate imperial irrigation district in terms of gross acreage

409
00:51:15,980 --> 00:51:24,700
is larger than westlands but in terms of irrigable acres westlands is the largest irrigation district in the united states

410
00:51:25,580 --> 00:51:31,740
farmers in westlands are able to produce yields that exceed yields anywhere else in the world

411
00:51:32,380 --> 00:51:40,300
but as water has become more expensive it's it's been necessary for farmers to look to higher value crops

412
00:51:40,300 --> 00:51:49,580
and as a consequence probably the most popular crop today is is almonds i don't have anything against westlands

413
00:51:49,580 --> 00:52:00,140
but if if they weren't creating this issue it wouldn't be a problem so the westlands water district is the

414
00:52:00,140 --> 00:52:07,020
nation's largest agricultural water district covers about 600 000 acres so it's larger than the state of rhode

415
00:52:07,020 --> 00:52:15,100
island westlands water district is very large corporate agricultural operations and it has been

416
00:52:15,100 --> 00:52:20,220
politically powerful for decades westlands has made its name suing just about everybody

417
00:52:22,380 --> 00:52:27,740
they typically lose their litigation but they spend millions of dollars on some of the highest priced

418
00:52:27,740 --> 00:52:33,260
lobbyists and you know generally have the ear of politicians westlands was created

419
00:52:34,140 --> 00:52:41,020
to get surplus water from the delta their contract amount is more than twice the amount of water used

420
00:52:41,580 --> 00:52:50,300
by the four million people in the city of los angeles harris farms a typical westlands farm is the

421
00:52:50,300 --> 00:52:56,540
largest cattle ranch in the western united states but harris farms doesn't just produce beef this

422
00:52:56,540 --> 00:53:03,100
agricultural corporation is also one of the country's largest almond producers it's it's truly amazing how

423
00:53:03,100 --> 00:53:10,940
productive this farmland is where we're able to grow more with less land with less water less resources

424
00:53:10,940 --> 00:53:19,580
and it's it's truly incredible and we're we're growing safe affordable nutritious food in abundance

425
00:53:20,540 --> 00:53:28,220
if allowed to the you know one of our constraining factors is our water supply it's how much the government

426
00:53:28,220 --> 00:53:35,580
decides to allocate us and over the last few years those allocations have dwindled for a variety of

427
00:53:35,580 --> 00:53:44,300
reasons but primarily for environmental purposes they typically get less water than they would like to

428
00:53:44,300 --> 00:53:52,460
get simply because we've over allocated the water in california they've had to fight for getting more

429
00:53:52,460 --> 00:53:58,060
reliable water they overdraft groundwater because they don't have reliable surface supplies and they've

430
00:53:58,060 --> 00:54:04,620
put a lot of money and effort into figuring out how to manage the political system in a way that helps

431
00:54:04,620 --> 00:54:08,860
them improve their ability to get the water when they want it and where they want it

432
00:54:08,860 --> 00:54:24,780
so i'm sarah wolf and this is my dad alan clark

433
00:54:33,820 --> 00:54:35,740
there's never been enough water to go around

434
00:54:35,740 --> 00:54:42,460
and the least we can do is manage what we have better than we're doing now by sending most of it

435
00:54:42,460 --> 00:54:49,820
out to the ocean these disagreements around water in the delta have created perhaps the greatest fault

436
00:54:49,820 --> 00:54:52,220
line in california water politics

437
00:54:54,620 --> 00:55:05,180
there is a a misconception that it's farmers versus fish and and that's not the situation

438
00:55:05,740 --> 00:55:11,740
at all westlands the same people that are trying to trying to get these twin tunnels built for the

439
00:55:11,740 --> 00:55:17,980
ratepayers to pay for them so they keep getting their free water we don't need almonds here they need

440
00:55:17,980 --> 00:55:24,940
money to make they need almonds to make more money that's why they're buying up thousands of acres every

441
00:55:24,940 --> 00:55:34,540
year and planting almonds we actually went to war right here in council with the water resource lady she had

442
00:55:34,540 --> 00:55:40,700
said that they were they were sending 75 percent of our fresh water that comes through the hills

443
00:55:40,700 --> 00:55:46,300
down to the delta and it was being used as our fresh water was being used as a salt water barrier

444
00:55:46,860 --> 00:55:54,060
in order to protect a fish we had actually said yes to cutting the additional fish flows and

445
00:55:54,060 --> 00:55:59,660
maintain flows that were essentially to maintain what's known as salinity control and had we not

446
00:55:59,660 --> 00:56:04,620
done those flows enough salt water would have intruded that that water wouldn't have been good

447
00:56:04,620 --> 00:56:10,060
for agriculture or urban use in the delta or for export not that i was expecting a thank you note

448
00:56:10,060 --> 00:56:14,860
or anything but the the dishonesty about it on the part of people who should have known better was

449
00:56:14,860 --> 00:56:21,740
really disappointing the delta smelled and where it fits into this discussion is really a textbook

450
00:56:21,740 --> 00:56:29,580
example of a fairly cynical but effective pr campaign by the westlands water district primarily and some

451
00:56:29,580 --> 00:56:34,860
other delta exporters they don't want to talk about salmon well it's because their friends in the

452
00:56:34,860 --> 00:56:42,540
radical environmental community have decided that two-inch minnows are more important than the people

453
00:56:42,540 --> 00:56:48,460
in my district well the truth is mr speaker you'd have to have the brain of a three-inch fish to believe

454
00:56:48,460 --> 00:56:56,540
that narrative their pr efforts are prolific they have a lot of allies in fox news and other places

455
00:56:56,540 --> 00:57:02,700
that will come down to westlands you know anytime farmers in california they're losing their land

456
00:57:02,700 --> 00:57:09,580
their crops and their livelihood all because of a two-inch fish that donald trump statement a few

457
00:57:09,580 --> 00:57:14,860
weeks ago was in the heart of the westlands water district and he was surrounded by leaders of the

458
00:57:14,860 --> 00:57:20,700
westlands water district and i've heard this from other friends of mine in california where they have

459
00:57:20,700 --> 00:57:26,140
farms up here and they don't get water i said oh that's too bad it's under drought no we have plenty

460
00:57:26,140 --> 00:57:33,020
of water so what's wrong well we shove it out to sea and i said why and nobody even knows why and the

461
00:57:33,020 --> 00:57:37,260
environmentalists don't know why now they're trying to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish

462
00:57:40,780 --> 00:57:47,580
people say who cares about the delta smelt um it's uh the fact is the delta smelt was probably the most

463
00:57:47,580 --> 00:57:53,500
common fish in the san francisco bay delta estuary so it was a hugely important part of the ecosystem

464
00:57:53,500 --> 00:57:59,500
intimately tied with the food chain now this is probably the rarest fish in the ecosystem in the

465
00:57:59,500 --> 00:58:06,220
course of a half century we've taken the most abundant fish in this ecosystem and we've made it the rarest

466
00:58:09,980 --> 00:58:16,540
they've tried every every means possible to to hoodwink the public into believing that they really

467
00:58:16,540 --> 00:58:22,380
care about two things at the same time the health of the delta the health of fish and wildlife and

468
00:58:22,380 --> 00:58:26,540
getting all of the water under their political control that they can possibly get those two

469
00:58:26,540 --> 00:58:30,380
things are inconsistent with one another they're inconsistent in the central valley they're

470
00:58:30,380 --> 00:58:37,340
inconsistent in in southern california against northern california westlands employees or consultants

471
00:58:37,980 --> 00:58:41,420
suddenly get hired by the administration and deal with the issue with westlands

472
00:58:42,300 --> 00:58:45,900
and then when that administration's over then they come back and work for westlands again

473
00:58:45,900 --> 00:58:51,420
now that's not illegal but it to from the outside sometimes that stinks a little bit

474
00:58:53,260 --> 00:58:58,140
the connections between westland's leadership and the u.s department of the interior are well

475
00:58:58,140 --> 00:59:05,180
documented take for example jason peltier former westlands deputy general manager and former deputy

476
00:59:05,180 --> 00:59:12,940
secretary for the department of the interior you're not gonna piss me off right this isn't one of those

477
00:59:12,940 --> 00:59:17,580
things where we're starting now leave and steven right we've given an awful lot of money and water

478
00:59:17,580 --> 00:59:21,980
uh to the environment over the last 20 years and are we willing to get more no

479
00:59:24,540 --> 00:59:32,460
god i wish i do not know why westlands is such a target by by mr huffman or people in the environmental

480
00:59:32,460 --> 00:59:38,220
community there are some environmentalists that they measure their success not by how healthy the fishery

481
00:59:38,220 --> 00:59:43,020
is and how healthy the ecosystem is but how much they hurt westlands water district it's sick it's

482
00:59:43,020 --> 00:59:50,060
sick it's sad after his role as westlands deputy general manager jason peltier became executive

483
00:59:50,060 --> 00:59:56,380
director of the coalition for a sustainable delta often regarded as a think tank tax documents indicate

484
00:59:56,380 --> 01:00:03,420
that this coalition is run by high-ranking employees of the wonderful company the largest farm in california

485
01:00:03,420 --> 01:00:08,860
the wonderful company which produces almonds pistachios clementines and pomegranate juice

486
01:00:08,860 --> 01:00:14,300
typically uses more water each year than all the homes in the entire city of los angeles

487
01:00:19,740 --> 01:00:27,100
so i should say some of the challenges in the delta that we face in trying to improve water

488
01:00:27,100 --> 01:00:33,260
management improve the ecosystem are i mean one of the biggest in my mind is the fact that we have

489
01:00:33,260 --> 01:00:41,020
95 percent of the aquatic biota is invasive whether it's aquatic weeds from south america or 40 000

490
01:00:42,380 --> 01:00:48,460
asian clams have done little to address the invasives and they're and little to understand them i think

491
01:00:48,460 --> 01:00:54,780
people can be worried that uh you know the organization is funded by people who aren't in the delta

492
01:00:54,780 --> 01:01:00,860
that they might be trying to find an excuse a different reason why there's decline

493
01:01:00,860 --> 01:01:07,580
i would sure love to understand why there's decline we um we understand we've been told

494
01:01:08,300 --> 01:01:13,260
that our our water supply reliability is a function of the health of the ecosystem in these fish

495
01:01:13,260 --> 01:01:19,500
populations i dare anyone to to say we have the scientific proof that this is the problem behind

496
01:01:19,500 --> 01:01:25,260
the fisheries there is there is no answer if we knew it would fix it if it was simply more water

497
01:01:25,260 --> 01:01:35,740
the fish the science here is actually really clear it's really obvious that we cannot continue to take

498
01:01:36,380 --> 01:01:43,100
half or more of the central valley's runoff and divert it to agricultural and municipal uses

499
01:01:43,100 --> 01:01:49,660
and still maintain the species that have been here for millennia jason pelcher was an interior he left

500
01:01:49,660 --> 01:01:56,220
interior came to work at westlands water district not because it's a revolving door but because jason

501
01:01:56,780 --> 01:02:03,820
as a result of his experience was uniquely qualified to help

502
01:02:06,940 --> 01:02:08,620
shape water policy

503
01:02:10,780 --> 01:02:17,020
in california and westlands took advantage of the services just as

504
01:02:17,020 --> 01:02:24,300
as metropolitan water district took advantages of services for of david hayes a number of

505
01:02:25,660 --> 01:02:30,380
folks from the department of interior jason pelter have all come to work for westlands

506
01:02:30,380 --> 01:02:36,380
and to lobby on their behalf and to sue on their behalf today westlands has

507
01:02:38,300 --> 01:02:44,380
no more powerful ally than david bernhardt who has been nominated as the interior secretary

508
01:02:44,380 --> 01:02:50,940
as i've discussed this week david bernhardt is no stranger to the department he served twice before

509
01:02:51,500 --> 01:02:58,060
in fact this body has confirmed him twice before his law firm earned more than 1.3 million dollars

510
01:02:58,060 --> 01:03:03,500
from westlands for lobbying congress to weaken environmental laws particularly endangered species

511
01:03:03,500 --> 01:03:09,980
act protections now the trump administration under david bernhardt is trying to greatly roll back

512
01:03:10,620 --> 01:03:16,460
our endangered species act protections in the delta and if he's successful it will mean the end of delta

513
01:03:16,460 --> 01:03:18,860
smelt and the end of winter run chinook salmon

514
01:03:22,540 --> 01:03:27,740
some argue that increasing westlands water supply from the delta would reduce rural poverty

515
01:03:28,460 --> 01:03:34,780
another argument they made was that well the the poorer communities that are near these big

516
01:03:34,780 --> 01:03:40,780
irrigation districts would benefit drought or no drought the westlands farm workers have some of

517
01:03:40,780 --> 01:03:47,420
the worst living conditions in the country oxfam found that westlands was in the poorest congressional

518
01:03:47,420 --> 01:03:54,460
district in the u.s families of farm workers crowd together in shared homes while westlands farm

519
01:03:54,460 --> 01:04:01,100
owners often live outside this poor congressional district their tax money therefore goes elsewhere

520
01:04:01,100 --> 01:04:07,340
and farm workers do not have the schools and other resources necessary to escape poverty

521
01:04:07,340 --> 01:04:13,580
so what I mean when I say when there are large farms the disparity is

522
01:04:13,580 --> 01:04:21,260
is very large because they don't like to increase their salaries and not only the ranchers

523
01:04:21,260 --> 01:04:24,860
big companies also think they are going to leave without money

524
01:04:24,860 --> 01:04:28,060
money they have to live the rest of their lives and live the rest of their lives

525
01:04:28,060 --> 01:04:33,100
and live the others completely well but many times it is the mentality that they have

526
01:04:33,100 --> 01:04:48,620
to be rich and they like to continue to be successful but they're doing it on the backs of other

527
01:04:48,620 --> 01:04:51,900
communities they're doing it on the backs of the environment they're doing it on the backs of

528
01:04:51,900 --> 01:04:55,980
immigrants they're doing it on the backs of school children because they clearly have the resources

529
01:04:55,980 --> 01:05:00,860
to prove to improve that life but what do they do they put them all on a bus and they send them to my

530
01:05:00,860 --> 01:05:05,580
office up here a long bus ride many of them didn't have water we had to go out and buy so they could

531
01:05:05,580 --> 01:05:10,140
rehydrate and they couldn't quite explain why they were in my office in concord california

532
01:05:11,100 --> 01:05:16,060
so that's you know that's that's their game that's their game send them up there

533
01:05:16,060 --> 01:05:22,380
and and they're just there's ponds but they're ponds in the entire agricultural structure in the central valley

534
01:05:23,340 --> 01:05:30,780
agriculture in california prioritizes agriculture at almost any expense the water in california

535
01:05:31,500 --> 01:05:37,260
is a shared resource that is a public resource that is not a private resource so the management of

536
01:05:37,260 --> 01:05:41,980
that water is something that needs to be considered in the public interest and we need

537
01:05:41,980 --> 01:05:48,220
to do a better job of making sure that the water that we need is going to be there for future generations

538
01:05:50,380 --> 01:05:51,260
people have said

539
01:05:51,260 --> 01:06:01,740
westlands never should have been farmed the lands and westlands never should have been farmed that may

540
01:06:01,740 --> 01:06:11,580
be correct but that sound bite isn't an answer to the problem that exists today maybe the city of san

541
01:06:11,580 --> 01:06:17,580
francisco shouldn't exist where it is because it doesn't have adequate water to support its needs maybe the

542
01:06:17,580 --> 01:06:24,060
city of los angeles shouldn't exist where it exists because it certainly doesn't have regional water

543
01:06:24,060 --> 01:06:30,620
supplies adequate to meet the demand for people in the city of los angeles you know that's

544
01:06:30,620 --> 01:06:39,980
that's that's ignoring the reality san francisco does exist the city of los angeles exists so let's begin

545
01:06:39,980 --> 01:06:49,260
to have an honest dialogue about how we're going to address these issues and maybe the solution is take

546
01:06:49,260 --> 01:06:56,460
the lands and westlands out of production but if that is the solution let's begin to address that question

547
01:06:58,060 --> 01:07:09,900
and and and identify the ways by which we're going to mitigate impacts to communities based on that public

548
01:07:09,900 --> 01:07:20,700
policy decision

549
01:07:20,700 --> 01:07:43,420
but i know what you're getting at is um where is the will to solve the problem where does the will

550
01:07:43,420 --> 01:07:58,140
come from does it only come from the money um i think i think there's a lot of foolish things right

551
01:07:58,140 --> 01:08:06,220
now that i see the uh developing in terms of a distrust of science um

552
01:08:06,220 --> 01:08:14,060
people are slow to move unless they feel like they're immediately affected

553
01:08:15,740 --> 01:08:20,860
those kind of problems just just like this one that grinds over years and years people turn their

554
01:08:20,860 --> 01:08:26,140
back on it they just get too busy forget about it or it rained last year so we don't need to talk

555
01:08:26,140 --> 01:08:27,180
about water for a while

556
01:08:27,180 --> 01:08:38,220
when people find out that i write about water their eyes always get big and they talk about chinatown and

557
01:08:38,220 --> 01:08:44,300
oh are we running out of water and my standard response is no we're not running out of water but

558
01:08:44,300 --> 01:08:51,420
we are running out of water to use it the way we did in the 20th century and the 19th century which was

559
01:08:51,420 --> 01:08:59,900
thoughtlessly and wastefully and without any regard to the impact on the environment we have clearly

560
01:08:59,900 --> 01:09:08,060
taken too much fresh water out of these systems to support the native species and the healthy

561
01:09:08,060 --> 01:09:14,140
functioning of the estuary and that's what the decline of the delta smelt and some of these other

562
01:09:14,140 --> 01:09:21,180
species is telling us climate change is changing the conditions of life on this planet

563
01:09:21,420 --> 01:09:27,420
and we need to be more resilient more nimble if we want to survive as a species and i think

564
01:09:27,420 --> 01:09:34,220
there's no stage bigger than the bay delta to help us articulate what's going to make us more nimble

565
01:09:34,220 --> 01:09:38,380
what's going to make our communities more just and what's going to make this planet

566
01:09:38,380 --> 01:09:46,060
still habitable by human beings the good news is there are many solutions for what we need to be

567
01:09:46,060 --> 01:09:52,860
doing we can build a portfolio for the 21st century that includes large amounts of high quality treated

568
01:09:52,860 --> 01:09:59,020
wastewater that we used to throw away but that ought to be considered an asset now not a liability we

569
01:09:59,020 --> 01:10:05,660
can capture more storm water that we now lose to the oceans during wet periods and we can use it to

570
01:10:05,660 --> 01:10:11,900
recharge our overtapped aquifers l.a's population has grown by over a million people in the last couple

571
01:10:11,900 --> 01:10:19,340
decades and its water use overall has remained flat due to improvements in water use efficiency

572
01:10:20,460 --> 01:10:27,100
figuring out how to manage the power dynamics the political dynamics is a much more difficult

573
01:10:27,100 --> 01:10:34,860
challenge for california than new technology or building desalination plants or figuring out

574
01:10:35,420 --> 01:10:41,500
how to how to grow crops differently the politics is really going to determine much of california's water

575
01:10:41,500 --> 01:10:47,500
future groups like the metropolitan water district of southern california and the westlands water

576
01:10:47,500 --> 01:10:53,900
district in san joaquin valley want to maximize use of water from the delta for their own interests

577
01:10:53,900 --> 01:11:04,700
namely sending water down south every interest group wants the delta managed for their interest

578
01:11:05,820 --> 01:11:11,420
these same organizations also reject the scientific consensus that there isn't enough water flowing

579
01:11:11,420 --> 01:11:16,780
through the delta to support native ecosystems despite species being on the brink of extinction

580
01:11:17,500 --> 01:11:23,580
we also believe though that there is sufficient water in the system for the environment and for native

581
01:11:23,580 --> 01:11:30,780
fish therefore restoring any semblance of the delta's native environment has been incredibly challenging

582
01:11:31,900 --> 01:11:36,140
we have this diversity of ecosystem types in california and we just can't support that

583
01:11:36,140 --> 01:11:42,380
anymore the way that we're managing it so that you know the bigger picture is are we okay with that

584
01:11:42,380 --> 01:11:49,420
as a society i think if you pulled californians 95 of them would say we would like to have rivers with

585
01:11:49,420 --> 01:11:54,620
some fish in them in the future now how you get there is the difficult part but first you have to

586
01:11:54,620 --> 01:12:01,020
understand that we may not have rivers and we may not have fish so do you want to do something

587
01:12:06,060 --> 01:12:12,220
and so california's water issues are really just a microcosm for what we're seeing around the planet

588
01:12:12,220 --> 01:12:17,020
and what we're able to monitor with satellite data you know for instance on the india pakistan border

589
01:12:17,020 --> 01:12:23,100
here the indus river basin is a heavily stressed aquifer and this region of the country gets

590
01:12:23,100 --> 01:12:29,260
groundwater pumped substantially so you know a shared resource by two countries that needs to be well

591
01:12:29,260 --> 01:12:35,420
managed in order to avoid political tensions so as population keeps growing we have increasing demand

592
01:12:36,220 --> 01:12:42,140
there will not be enough water to support every need and every want at some point in the future

593
01:12:42,700 --> 01:12:49,180
and so the realization of that has not really hit everyone yet i fully i think so where does your

594
01:12:49,180 --> 01:12:55,100
water come from is a basic question that everyone should be able to answer no matter where you live

595
01:12:55,100 --> 01:13:02,620
in the world and with that knowledge there will be a trickle down effect i think that affects policy

596
01:13:02,620 --> 01:13:08,780
and therefore affects management if we can't deal with our water issues in a place like california

597
01:13:08,780 --> 01:13:13,900
how can we expect to deal with our water issues in other places of the world i mean in california we

598
01:13:13,900 --> 01:13:20,220
have everything we need to be successful it's just about making the decision to do so and that really

599
01:13:20,220 --> 01:13:27,100
means prioritizing water and thinking about the future and so in california these issues are wrestled

600
01:13:27,100 --> 01:13:33,500
with before the state water resources control board in the hopes of creating a sustainable water future

601
01:13:33,500 --> 01:13:47,820
we've seen a huge decline in the delta ecosystem and these water quality standards that are supposed to

602
01:13:47,820 --> 01:13:57,020
prevent a decline like that from happening have not been updated in now 25 years the state water board

603
01:13:57,580 --> 01:14:07,260
did a very comprehensive analysis of what it would take to restore healthy fish populations and basically

604
01:14:07,260 --> 01:14:13,980
concluded that right now we divert about half of the fresh water out of the delta ecosystem and that

605
01:14:13,980 --> 01:14:22,620
to be healthy we needed to restore about 75 percent flows the conflict is intense as people see

606
01:14:22,620 --> 01:14:28,700
everything as a loss either because they're worrying about fish and wildlife on the brink of extinction

607
01:14:28,700 --> 01:14:34,220
or you're a farmer or a community leader who's worried about the livelihood of your family or your

608
01:14:34,220 --> 01:14:41,660
people we've tested the hypothesis that insufficient flow despite the evidence will work it hasn't we've

609
01:14:41,660 --> 01:14:48,300
tested the hypothesis that doing more habitat without sufficient flow regimes will work it hasn't why don't

610
01:14:48,300 --> 01:14:54,140
we try testing the hypothesis that the amount of flow that the scientific evidence and your record

611
01:14:54,140 --> 01:15:03,260
suggests will work will work but the water quality control plan uh because it's a plan under some laws

612
01:15:03,900 --> 01:15:10,940
created by this bureaucracy over many many years it doesn't get nearly the attention of giant tunnels

613
01:15:10,940 --> 01:15:16,540
that you could like roll a small aircraft through the water quality control plan will really define

614
01:15:16,540 --> 01:15:23,020
water quality conditions that support clean water and fisheries and can potentially save endangered

615
01:15:23,020 --> 01:15:28,860
species for decades to come there's a story i'm sure many people are familiar with called the giving tree

616
01:15:28,860 --> 01:15:34,780
by shell silverstein the boy plays in the tree and eats its apples as a child and the tree's very happy

617
01:15:35,420 --> 01:15:40,140
the boy sells the apples when he's a teen to make a little bit of money and the tree is very happy

618
01:15:40,780 --> 01:15:45,420
he harvests the branches to build a house as a young man and he cuts down the trunk

619
01:15:45,420 --> 01:15:51,980
in middle age to form and create a canoe and the tree is always happy to be there for him and finally

620
01:15:51,980 --> 01:16:01,740
as a old man he uses the stump of the tree to sit and think and the story is very divisive some people

621
01:16:01,740 --> 01:16:08,940
see it as representing unconditional love that this tree gives everything to this boy whereas others see

622
01:16:08,940 --> 01:16:15,260
it as exploitation of nature in other words is it about a giving tree or a taking person and i think

623
01:16:15,260 --> 01:16:20,620
we need to ask that about our rivers are they giving rivers certainly they are are we taking people

624
01:16:20,620 --> 01:16:27,020
yes we are this outdated plan allows more than half the water needed for the delta's ecological health

625
01:16:27,020 --> 01:16:32,860
to be diverted away largely for unsustainable industrial agriculture but if if the state board

626
01:16:32,860 --> 01:16:38,220
takes action today nothing happens in 2019 except litigation there will be no on the ground projects

627
01:16:38,220 --> 01:16:44,060
there will be no additional flows if you think it's hard now imagine a world 15 20 years from now

628
01:16:45,260 --> 01:16:51,660
reliance on diverting more water from our rivers with climate change making it harder and harder to

629
01:16:51,660 --> 01:16:58,620
satisfy all our needs the mighty bay delta estuary is a gem it is a treasure and it is worth saving

630
01:16:58,620 --> 01:17:13,020
californians deserve more than just a stump to sit on

631
01:17:13,020 --> 01:17:19,420
california refugees

632
01:17:19,420 --> 01:17:22,540
california

633
01:17:22,540 --> 01:17:23,500
california

634
01:17:23,500 --> 01:17:24,940
california

635
01:17:24,940 --> 01:17:26,300
california

636
01:17:26,300 --> 01:17:26,940
california

637
01:17:26,940 --> 01:17:27,500
california

638
01:17:27,500 --> 01:17:29,140
california

639
01:17:29,140 --> 01:17:30,220
california

640
01:17:30,220 --> 01:17:31,420
california

641
01:17:31,420 --> 01:17:33,440
california

642
01:17:34,000 --> 01:17:36,420
california

643
01:17:36,420 --> 01:17:37,280
california

644
01:17:37,280 --> 01:17:38,780
california

645
01:17:38,780 --> 01:17:39,340
california

646
01:17:39,340 --> 01:17:40,820
california

647
01:17:40,820 --> 01:18:10,800
Thank you.

648
01:18:10,820 --> 01:18:40,800
Thank you.

649
01:18:40,820 --> 01:19:10,800
Thank you.

650
01:19:10,820 --> 01:19:12,820
Thank you.

651
01:19:40,820 --> 01:19:42,820
Thank you.

652
01:20:10,820 --> 01:20:12,820
Thank you.

653
01:20:40,820 --> 01:20:42,820
Thank you.

654
01:21:10,820 --> 01:21:12,820
Thank you.