Tag Archives: Victorian

In Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” a priest recalls the
words of a man who confessed: “The more I love mankind in general,
the less I love people in particular.” We can all think of people
like that – folks of varied political persuasions who rally to
“save” humanity, but become so consumed by their cause that they
lose patience for the individuals they ostensibly are trying to
help.
Judging by Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest plan to “save” the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, he appears to suffer from a variant
of the same condition. California’s Green Governor loves the Earth
in general but he doesn’t seem to care about particular earthly
environments.
Throughout his political career, Brown has championed grand
Earth-saving projects such as AB 32, the state’s first-in-the
nation cap-and-trade system designed to prod the world into cutting
the carbon dioxide emissions that supposedly lead to global
warming. He is pushing a high-speed-rail system that is designed to
lure people out of their automobiles. He speaks often about his
commitment to the environment.
Yet I wonder whether the governor has ever taken the short trip
from the Capitol to one of California’s ecological treasures. As it
comes down from the mountains and heads toward the San Francisco
Bay, the bulk of the state’s water passes through the Delta. It is
a land of marshes, islands, charming small towns, Victorian
mansions, and orchards interspersed between 1,000 miles of
waterways.
The Delta also is Ground Zero for ongoing fights over the
state’s water supplies. Judges have routinely stopped the water
flows out of the Delta, toward the dry but agriculturally rich San
Joaquin Valley and toward Southern California’s massive
metropolises, to help a tiny endangered baitfish known as the Delta
Smelt. The smelt is viewed as the canary in a coal mine – a
bellwether for the ecological health of the waterways.
Millions of smelt are killed each year as they get caught in the
giant pumps near Tracy, near the south end of the Delta.
Environmentalists also express concerns about the level of
saltwater that moves inland from the Pacific Ocean.
This tiny, tranquil region is about to undergo dramatic,
government-imposed changes that threaten its beauty and way of
life. The governor’s plan is touted by Southern California water
agencies and farmers alike who view it as a means to assure more
consistent water supplies.
I’m a believer in providing water to thirsty farmers and thirsty
cities. But the Bay Delta Conservation Plan won’t necessarily
increase the flow of water, according to the first parts of the
plan, which recently has been released to the public.
The plan would start a decade-long construction project to build
two massive tunnels to bypass the current river system. At a cost
estimated as high as $39 billion before the usual
government-project overruns, the tunnels would move water supplies
under the Delta and thereby decrease the current reliance on the
aging, earthquake-prone levees.
The plan has two equal goals: restore the Delta ecosystem and
improve water reliability. It won’t increase water flows, but by
resolving the Delta Smelt issue it will end the court-ordered water
stoppages – at least in theory. Here, the administration proposes
the use of tax dollars and massive engineering feats to solve a
legal and regulatory problem. This is a poor use of resources,
especially in a state that still is largely broke and that already
faces some of the biggest debt and tax burdens in the nation.
What are the chances that once the smelt issue is fixed that
environmentalists won’t find another reason to sue to stop the
water flows given that the water flows are the source of the real
dispute?
The administration’s plan will tear up the Delta for at least 10
years. We know how government infrastructure projects are always
delayed, so it’s anyone’s guess how long it actually will take.
Even its advocates admit that they aren’t sure about the unintended
consequences of the project.
As part of its ecosystem restoration program, this boondoggle
will flood a large portion of the Delta’s land, destroying
vineyards, farmland, orchards, and marshes. It will submerge
islands. There will be land confiscations.
Environmental groups believe the re-engineering of the ecosystem
will destroy salmon and other fish habitats. No one in their right
mind would hand over a precious region such as this to bureaucrats,
but in Sacramento these days the Brown administration is trying to
relive the glory days of the New Deal where central planning and
big spending are the in thing.
Here’s a case where free-market advocates such as myself and
true environmentalists should make common cause – to stop a
misguided project that will raise water rates and increase the
state’s debt load to provide limited and questionable gains. There
are better, cheaper, more reasonable ways to increase water
supplies, tend to a damaged ecosystem and shore up the levees.
I don’t expect this governor to worry much about debt spending,
tax burdens and that sort of thing. But perhaps his might take a
trip through the meandering waterways and charming small towns of
the Delta where he can learn that one shouldn’t save the
environment in general by sacrificing an environment in the
process. … Read More