"Water and Power Subcommittee Ranking Republican Tom McClintock (CA-04)".

Why doesn't this surprise me? Turning on the pumps not only will help farmers it will benefit developers as well. That's the real reason for this dog and pony show. Stop farmers from selling water allocated for crops to thirsty swimming pools and golf courses. OH! and developers.

Come on down and hear for yourself the farmers and towns that have been devestated by the lack of water. Gee...is that rain and snow coming down this week?

The farmers would have plenty of water except their local water districts wont let them have any. The problem is that the local water districts are selling their water to southern Calif. water departments because they can make more money than selling it to the farmers. All the water is being reverted into the Calif. Aqueduct that flows down south, I passed over this aqueduct a few weeks ago and it is full of water to the brim, this water is then used in the high desert above L.A. and then pumped over the mountains for southern Calif. to use ( drink, swimming pools, golf courses and to run down the gutters) don't be fooled by McClintock and his garbage as he is doing the same as Doolittle to take care of their friends, developers and real estate buddies in L.A.

Read this from AP:

State officials are preparing for a potential fourth year of drought. And many growers say another year of environmental restrictions on water supplies could spell economic disaster for the fertile San Joaquin Valley.

So what is it Bill, is there a drought, is the earth warming or is this cause by man sucking all the farmers water away and poor water conservation practices. The farmers need more water because it has been sold out from under them or sold by the farmers themselves and shipped elsewhere. The interests that own large tracts of land that could not be developed because, they already used up their portion of water on their last projects without thought, could care less about farmers or the people down stream.

I'm a realist, I know that people are going to come and they need water for the houses they are going to live in. Why use the farmers as a reason to take more water? Just say what why you really want the water. Maybe developers will find out that the promises they thought were bought and paid for are empty promises. Developers need to join in with the planning process and see the bigger picture not try to make an end run around it by buying politicians. Right Tom?

I agree give the farmers water, but make it with the stipulation that it be used for farming purposes only and that includes the fisheries.

This is just a water grab by special interests and in the end the farmers will lose more than they gain.

A May 23, 2009 report concluded that California pumped so much water south during most years between 2000 and 2007 that Kern county corporate farm owners bought water from the state for $88 an acre foot, and sold it back to the state for $200 an acre foot. Paramount Farms, with 115,000 acres in Kern county, received about $40 million in benefits from such water sales.

Madera, Merced and Fresno Counties received about $132 million in farm subsidies. Trinity County, where the water for the Central Valley corporate farms comes from, received only $585.00.

You can always count on corporate agribusiness to blame all of their economic problems, real or imagined, on protecting the environment. The ultimate irony is, of course, that the same San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness interests that are now claiming to speak out for poor, unemployed farm workers have kept those poor farm workers in poverty for decades.

To follow the water, just follow the money.

glen take off that tin foil hat your talking crazy as if there is some sort of behind the scene deal going on here. i dont think that our elected leaders would do what your talking about that would just be dishonest.

glen: The A4T, the Inventor and Patent Holder of the Tin Foil Hat has just accused you of talking crazy. What do you have to say for yourself?

He's nuts, he needs to change his name to Americans4Paranoia. Our elected leaders follow the money rather than listen to the people who elected them A4T, have you heard of lobbyist?

I think he was just being sarcastic.

Skeptic,

Many of those farms in San Joaquin Valley hold very old water rights to the water that comes through their farms from out of the Sierra Nevada, so it's hard to imagine they are buying water from anyone. The water that comes out of Kern, Kings, San Joaquin, Merced, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Mokelumne Rivers is used to farm the land in the central valley. I'm not sure where you got your information about Trinity County being "where the water for the Central Valley corporate farms comes from.....", but I believe that's incorrect.

Water in California can only be sold between water agencies if it is a surplus that has been arrived at via demonstrable conservation. I suppose Trinity County could feasibly produce such a surplus, but not of the quantity sufficient to be a primary source for what you are suggesting.

I agree with you about the plight of the farm worker; they are poor and the farmers have not been too concerned for their well-being enough to pay them better.

However, whether the corporate mouthpieces are truly concerned about the workers who've been unemployed as a result of fallowed farm land is somewhat irrelevant because the fact is, they are unemployed due to the reallocation of this water.

Greg, how do you know they have "very old" water rights? Simple you don't. I hate to see such a nice guy guzzling the koolade

;-)