We’re indebted to Dr. Jeff Michael of UOP’s Business Forecasting Center for pointing out how the recent State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) hearings on San Joaquin River flows are reminiscent of the Hunger Games in Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novels. (See Dr. Michael’s March 21 blog posting.)
While “relatively small farmers represented by relatively small water districts with senior water rights, both tributaries and Delta, the fishermen, and the environmentalists” are, as Michael says, “pounding the crap out of each other,” a group of wealthy water interest who are influential in the Capitol are “exempted from the fighting arena” and “undoubtedly watching the webcast on their computers.”
Michael says that he hopes “the warring neighbors can stop hitting each other for a moment and find some unity around their common problem with the state/federal contractors,” junior water rights holders who “divert massive amounts of water from this river system to places outside the watershed.” (That includes the toxic farmland on the Westside.)