State drought report misses mark
Last week’s report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) missed the mark when it came to the extended drought. Not only did the report understate the impacts the drought has had, especially here in the Central Valley, it overstated what the state has done to minimize some of those impacts.
The nonpartisan office briefly noted that individual domestic wells had gone dry in some parts of the state, even mentioning Tulare County, but stopped well short of detailing the magnitude of those dry wells and really offered no concrete solutions.
The state’s response to the drought has had many shortfalls. First, after two years it has still failed to come up with a plan to find permanent solutions for areas like East Porterville and the LAO’S report does not offer any new solutions. In fact, the report basically said it could be several years before residents of East Porterville find permanent relief.
The report also stayed clear of any recommendations for more water storage in California. The state has not added water storage in more than 30 years even though the number of California residents has grown by about 50 percent. On top of that, we have opened thousands of acres of new farmland.
The report also failed to discuss the future of farming if there are not changes to how the state manages its water supply.
Basically, the report was superficial and did little to address our growing problem. The report is correct that more study is needed, but time is of the essence.