It was raining full throttle this morning when I let out the very reluctant puppy. She stared at me in unhappy recognition of the old days when water used to come from the sky. Jon spied two happy beavers at the secondary dam yesterday, so while we’re waiting to see what the rain might bring them, I thought it would be a good time to talk about our own little water-dramas.
Being one of those awkwardly-long states, California stretches all the way from places that have water to places that don’t. A long time ago we decided to play robin hood with our H20 and steal it from the wet places to give it to the dry ones. We cleverly decided to spread it around and invest some of our most important farming in some of our driest land. Now that the state is (nearly?) broken, the governor wants to readdress the water issue by investing in bonds for new dams and reservoirs. In fact he wanted it done so much that he threatened to hold his breath until the legislature did what he wanted.
Turns out the gubernatorial equivalent of “holding your breath” is to threaten to veto all legislation until he gets what he wants. This was the big threat last week, signaling another possible crisis in our currently failed state. Yesterday, the child responsible for the tantrum got an inkling that this wasn’t playing too well in the cheap seats, so he settled for a special session and signed legislation anyway.
Now state politics are vastly complicated, and I would be loathe to try and pick apart the threads of that particular noose, but I have a solution that won’t require a bond OR a bill. Just so you know, that driest part of the state is the part with the fewest beavers, and has a history of pretty poor welcome for them when they arrive. (Bakersfield & Riverside to name a few). What if you let them make your dams for you and keep engineers on site 24/7?
Someone in Sacramento needs to see this video and give me five minutes of their time.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=wI5AjJd00cM]
