The idea that we can pass laws that will provide for
adequate clean water for all (or even just for Californians) without limiting
population and reproduction, without controlling development and industry, and
without consideration for environments and nutrient cycles is to completely
ignore where water comes from. Water
does not magically appear at your faucet when you turn it on. There is no magic that a law can induce that
will cause facets and water to appear everywhere people live in
perpetuity. Wells, in fact, do run dry.
That we have fresh water anywhere at all is the result of
complex climate and environmental interactions.
When we remove water from the natural systems where we find it, we often
change those systems, sometimes irrevocably.
Many of the aquifers (underground sources of water) that our nation
depends on-- for food production and for household and industrial uses, are
considered fossil water sources. The
water reached those underground aquifers over the millennia, by slow drop by
drop percolation through soil and rocks.
In many cases, when we have finally pumped those aquifers dry, which
will most likely happen in our lifetimes, the water will not be replenished in
time to save our lives.
Meanwhile every time we build on the land or cover it with
asphalt, concrete, plastic, or other impermeable surfaces, we increase run off
and decrease the percolation of water into our aquifers. Leveling land, and removing weeds, brush,
and other vegetation also increases run off.
Uneven soil surfaces and vegetation slow movement of water and increase
percolation. But of course, this
important issue of water percolation is not in our minds; as long as we are
thinking magically about water, faucets, and laws. The irrevocable change that we create by
over pumping aquifers, is that the pore spaces in the rock and soil often
collapse when the water is removed, permanently reducing the water storage
capacity of the aquifer. All of this
leads to increased flooding, by the way.
Flooding is something that we tend to blame on the weather instead of on
our own actions.
Removing surface water from rivers and streams and pumping
it to far distant landscapes also has consequences for all of us. I am going to use, for example, the water
shed of the Klamath Trinity area of Northern California, because it is the one
that I understand the most. Many
diversions are made from the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, some for local agriculture,
and some fairly elaborate diversions that transfer water to Southern California
for agriculture, household, and industrial use.
While the effects on the local water shed are intense, and a
few of them will be briefly discussed
shortly, moving that water to other environments has a huge impact on
those environments as well. Southern
California agriculture and development (which is dependent on imported water)
has endangered many species that once thrived in the natural dry land environment;
and it has contributed to loss of territory for the Indigenous Peoples of
Southern California, including loss of hunting and gathering areas and Sacred
Sites. Further, dryland soils are often
very fragile, top soil loss due to irrigation dependant agriculture has been
extensive—through plowing and other cultivation, as well as mismanagement of
land. Over watering and subsequent
evaporation has brought toxic levels of subsoil minerals, which are common in
dryland areas, up into the top soil through osmotic action. Over use of
agriculture chemicals, which never leach from these dryland soils, has produced
other areas of high toxicity. We see
acres and acres of land removed from production—even of native species. This dryland topsoil toxicity is very
difficult, if not impossible to remediate.
Back up in the Trinity Alps, where a goodly portion of this
transported water originated, we find verdant forests that produce much of the
oxygen we need to breathe, as well as the raw materials for wood and paper
products. The trees, native plants, animals, and the people—both Indigenous and
settler communities—depend on a complex nutrient cycle that is directly
imperiled by water diversions. And,
since we all need to breathe, we are in turn all equally imperiled by these
water diversions.
The Klamath Trinity area is now near the southern edge of
the Northern Pacific Rain Forest, which used to extend south, all the way
through the San Francisco Bay Area. Tree
cutting and water diversions, directly and sometimes indirectly, have extensively
changed the environment of what used to be rain forest, and this process is
on-going.
When the ample rains percolate through the forests,
naturally occurring nutrients dissolve.
They are carried into streams and creeks, from there to the rivers, and
eventually the nutrients and the water heads out to sea. There the nutrients
(in low, but adequate amounts) nurture healthy algae and phytoplankton, which
in turn are fed on by zooplankton. The
larval stages of many marine creatures feed on the zooplankton, which in turn
feed small fish and other free swimming creatures. Most important to our rain forests--are the
salmon, the eels, and the sturgeon--which live much of their lives in the
ocean, collecting the nutrients leached from the rainforest, only to return it
to the land and release those nutrients at the ends of their lives.
Fish need water, the nutrient cycle needs fish. Without the fish, many creatures including bears,
foxes, coyotes, and coyotes, as well as the magnificent endangered California
condors and the endangered endemic fishers would all suffer, and some might not
survive. The rest of us would gradually
see a decline in the productivity of the forests, because of lack of nutrient
cycling. Never mind the effect on the
paper and wood industries, the loss of oxygen production would be the main
tragedy. As the trees declined and died,
they would become more fire prone, further contributing to oxygen declines and
desertification.
Trees have this wonderful cooling effect on the earth. They absorb heat and protect and build top
soil. When trees are removed and the
soil is bared, top soil degrades quickly, the ground heats up, that heat begins
to be reflected back up into the air, causing up-drafts. Those up-drafts, when they become large
enough, create high pressure areas—which in turn effect weather and reduce
precipitation, they reduce rain. A
desert is born where a rain forest once lived.
We human beings have created these deserts over and over again all over
the planet, and we just don’t seem to be done yet. Water diversions cause irrevocable changes to
environments.
Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of the Klamath Trinity
water shed still depend on salmon for their
subsistence.
Salmon populations have already been decimated and are in further peril by
the current and on-going water diversions.
The People are already suffering health consequences of the lack of
adequate amounts of salmon in the diet, which supplies protein, vitamins, healthy
essential fatty acids, and minerals.
While
this is a watershed wide issue, and it repeats itself in many of the watersheds
of the Pacific North West, for one tribe, the Karuk, the health consequences
have been documented:
http://ejcw.org/documents/Kari%20Norgaard%20Karuk%20Altered%20Diet%20Nov2005.pdf
Water diversions directly affect Indigenous People.
Water diversions affect access to Sacred
Sites, one example that is close to home and currently in the minds of many
people is
Winnemem Wintu Tribe with
their homelands having been flooded by the Shasta Dam, one of their last
remaining Sacred Sites is scheduled to disappear under the waters if a proposed
increase in the amount of water impounded is approved. Another example right here in California
comes to us from the Elem people, when the dam at Cache Creek was completed,
which raised Clear Lakes waters enough to turn part of their land into an
island—without their consent or permission that island was privatized and
sold. The current owners have forbidden
Tribal Members any access to Sacred Sites on the island for the first time in
the Tribes History. The land they have left has been contaminated by the mine
tailings from the Sulfur Bank mercury mine. In both cases, one of the purposes
of the dams in question is to supply year around water for diversions to
municipal, agricultural, and industrial users. Water diversions directly affect Indigenous
People.
Water diversions affect
Indigenous People’s ability to hunt and gather and to follow their cultures,
not only as land is inundated, but also as other land dries up because of water
diversions, as nutrient cycles are disrupted, and as land is taken up into
agriculture, industry, and development.
All the natural environments lost through these processes once supported
endemic and useful plants and animals—and those plants and animals supported
Indigenous People. Water diversion also directly effects Indigenous People’s ability
to fish, as the fish are dependent on natural water cycles. Water diversion is genocide. Pure and simple. Genocide.
Many people are lauding
Governor Brown’s recent signing of the Human Right to Water Bill. http://www.inlandvalleynews.com/2012/09/26/ca-governor-brown-signs-human-right-to-water/ But the only rights to water mentioned in
this bill are those for drinking, cooking, and sanitary purposes. There is
nothing in the bill that protects natural environments or Indigenous People’s
rights to natural water cycles. I agree
in spirit with the idea that we all should have access to safe, clean,
affordable water for drinking, cooking, and sanitary purposes. However, water,
as we have seen here, is a very complex issue.
Faucets do not magically produce clean water. And with Governor Brown’s pet water diversion
project looming in our future—I am concerned that this bill will be used
directly against water rich environments and Indigenous People.
We need to be thinking in
terms of sustainable populations, sustainable communities, sustainable
industry, sustainable environments, and sustainable water cycles. We need to rethink where we live and work--in
ways that include naturally occurring water cycles and what those water cycles
can support in terms of sustainable populations and sustainable industry. This is a tall order, I know, but to do
otherwise is to delude ourselves that we can pass a law and faucets full of
clean water will magically appear where ever people live—without ultimately
causing genocide, environmental destruction, and our own demise.
Delusion, in this case, is
the art of believing that history won’t repeat itself; but it does, over and
over again. The book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” by Jared M.
Diamond, gives many examples of societies based on unsustainable
practices which ultimately failed.
It
provides much food for thought as well.
Please educate yourself on the issues we are
facing and join the movement for change.
We all need to be conserving as much water as we can every day.
This is not just about Indigenous People, of course. That,
which threatens Indigenous People, threatens every single one of us.
Water is not the only issue we must face and
solve in our lifetimes.
Oxygen depletion
is a huge looming issue that we must also face head on.
For more on the threats to our oxygen supply,
which is eluded to in the article please see:
CarbonProduction = Oxygen Consumption (PS Oxygen supplies are limited.)
Thank you so much for your time and attention. Your questions and comments are always
welcome!
Copyright 2012, Harvest McCampbell, all rights
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