The California Water Commission is about to give away billions of taxpayer dollars to dam builders. At least, that is what could happen if it doesn't prioritize more benign storage projects that most Californians voting yes on Proposition 1 envisioned, such as groundwater storage projects. California has millions of acre-feet of groundwater storage already available, and public funds could help build the groundwater recharge facilities we will need in the future once our dams are sedimented in and crumbling. Unfortunately, the dam-building lobby is well-connected and clever at public indoctrination, so things might not go well for the public interest. We may end up with more expensive, dangerous, and environmentally-destructive dams siphoning water from our precious rivers and estuaries and drowning our beautiful river canyons and grasslands.
So here is a comic strip I made to clarify the politics of the issue.
The slick Environmental Impact Reports about to land on the CWC's desk will be more marketing materials selling new dams, and less informative unbiased documents useful to the public and decisionmakers. I hope they see through the propaganda and keep in mind Aldo Leopold's words:
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."
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