@CSElmendorf Please discuss your familiarity with the 4.4 plan, the QSA and the IID / SDCWA transfer
Because frankly what I just read seems to my (fairly expert) eye to be mostly wrong. The IID growers didn’t want to sell; they only did so under enormous pressure.
@mattyglesias Ag water is a) not potable, b) not reliable and c) owned, as a matter of law, by the ag districts (generally speaking, and among other issues)
The state you live in wants to give your house to someone willing to pay a premium. That okay with you?
@AlecStapp@CSElmendorf (Retired water lawyer here). Imagine the State of California going up to an elderly couple living in a big house and saying “We know that you OWN this but we’re giving it to a young couple with a big family and more income”
Bad idea? So is yours
@ByIanJames@KaylaBartkowski@latimes You really should mention that California uses the most water 💦 under its senior water rights.
Since water rights exceed water, the bottom line question is whose rights are getting cut, and who pays to buy out those rights
@Sammy_Roth Upper Basin states want (need?) to break the Lee Ferry 75 maf per decade obligation. If I’m a Lower Basin state, I’m betting that a defense of impossibility would be tough to win at the Sup Ct.
So now the argument is reduced to the old expression “ooo, that’s gonna cost you”
@ByIanJames The Supes (hello Kat Barger) really need to strong arm Pasadena Water to take over those four companies. None of them have a rational service area
@rudy_betrayed In the US, people not the government owned the airspace above their land but only pursuant to ancient common law. Private ownership of airspace “to the heavens” went away with airplanes