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“The Dude and his bowling teammates are once again confronted by the nihilists, who have set the Dude’s car on fire. They once again demand the million dollars. After telling the nihilists what they knew, the nihilists demand all the money in their pockets.”
From a Wikipedia plot summary of “The Big Lebowski“
In looking at the Delta Planning Council’s plan to include most of California, including El Dorado County, in its environmental impact report, we feel like we’re under attack by a bunch of nihilists who will demand all the money in our pockets.
First the U.S. government and federal courts impoverished the Central Valley by starving it of water to save the smelt, despite uncertain scientific knowledge about why smelt populations are down and what behavorial differences there are between two different species of smelt. Oh,and salmon, whose populations are heavily influenced by ocean conditions.
Now the Delta Stewardship Council seems poised to make a power grab on water rights for the entire state, reaching all the way up into the creeks and alpine lakes of the Sierra.
The scope of this is breathtaking. It is ominous. And it will tie this Delta improvement group up in court for decades. The Delta Stewardship Council should just stick to the Delta. That is quite a challenge on its own.
The Delta will never go back to its original condition of a vast inland sea of tules that the miners and settlers first found. And elk herds no longer swim across the Carquinez Strait.
So the council needs to deal with the reality of of a state with 37 million residents and a Delta that is farmland surrounded by dikes and a massive water conveyance system.
As far as messing with the rest of the state and its complex and largely settled water rights the council would be advised to just go bowling.
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