California’s $53-billion agriculture industry is rallying behind a bill for the November ballot that would move money intended for the state’s high-speed bullet train to new water projects.
Governor Jerry Brown, who has steadfastly championed the construction of a $68-billion bullet train to run from LA to San Francisco, has not commented on the water bill, says the LA Times. Proponents of the bill, including the farmer-backed California Water Alliance, have already set aside $2 million to hire one of the nation’s best petitioning companies.
Further complicating the situation, on Tuesday the Times reported that consultants informed the California rail authority that the projected cost of the train’s Central Valley segment was $260-million higher than previously thought. The news raises doubts about the projected cost of the overall project.
The water bill calls for about $8 billion in remaining rail system bonds to be reallocated, along with $2.7 billion earmarked for water storage under Proposition 1 in 2014. The state’s construction industry will fight is expected to fight any legislation that threatens the train’s future, while conservationists will oppose the bill’s recommendations to expand dams.
But for many in California’s Central Valley, a bullet train seems like an unreasonable dream when they can’t even take a shower. East Porterville, in Tulare County, has more than 2,000 failed wells, reports The Washington Post. Hundreds of the town’s residents have lost their farm jobs during the drought. Since July 2003, long before water-borne disaster came to Flint, Michigan, Tulare County officials have been distributing water bottles and supplying 3,000-gallon tanks of water to East Porterville residents. Few in the town are wealthy enough to dig a new well. Some residents have grown so desperate that they’re willing to use the last of the county’s groundwater, which experts warn is likely heavily contaminated with nitrate runoff.
“Their struggle is affecting the relationships between spouses and kids,” Fred Beltran Jr., who delivers water in East Porterville, told the Post, “It’s a stress and a burden on them. The kids are dirty. Feces stays in the toilet. You can sense the tension. You can feel it and see it in their eyes.”