Robert Van Groningen: Conservation talk is laughable without storage capacity
Many Californians are witnessing an epidemic of dementia concerning the current four-year drought. Doesn’t anyone remember that five years ago an entire year’s supply of precious water was wasted? Fearing another flood, reservoirs were drained to make space for the spring snow melt. Presently, many lawns would not be so brown or dead if there had been ample storage five years ago!
Current talk of water conservation is laughable since no new water storage has been built in 30 years; when California’s population has doubled. Over the past 30 years a long list of proposed new water storage has been blocked by environmental wackos. Those same wackos even proposed tearing down the O’Shaugnessy Dam and draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which is San Francisco’s main water supply.
Our current drought is only magnified by democratic politicians financially supported by environmentalists who are holding all Californians hostage!
Robert Van Groningen, Manteca
Editor’s note: Diamond Valley Dam was completed in 1999 by Metropolitan Water District, providing 1 million acre feet of storage. Los Vaqueros Reservoir (200,000 acre feet) in Contra Costa County was completed in 1997; New Spicer Meadow Reservoir (233,000 acre feet) was completed in 1989 in Calaveras County. Several smaller dams have been built since 1985.
This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Robert Van Groningen: Conservation talk is laughable without storage capacity."