I wish I could remember the documentary I watched a couple years ago. It discussed how the largest landowners in Kern County (I think?) conspired with the Water Board in Sacramento to grant them water rights to the aquifer. A lot of money changed hands under the counter, and the taxpayers of California paid for the infrastructure and canals to pump water into the aquifer, but the landowners get paid to sell the water back to California. It's all a massive scam, and is the single greatest cause of water shortages in the state.
These landowners grow almonds and pistachios which are huge water-hogs per nut harvested, and the only reason these landowners grow these crops is to benefit from the aquifer...not the nuts themselves. My wife drove through there a few years back, and acre after acre of trees were piled up for burning.
I seem to recall that the biggest landowner made his millions selling garbage collectibles through his company, The Franklin Mint, then moved to California.
I wish I could remember the documentary I watched a couple years ago. It discussed how the largest landowners in Kern County (I think?) conspired with the Water Board in Sacramento to grant them water rights to the aquifer. A lot of money changed hands under the counter, and the taxpayers of California paid for the infrastructure and canals to pump water into the aquifer, but the landowners get paid to sell the water back to California. It's all a massive scam, and is the single greatest cause of water shortages in the state.
These landowners grow almonds and pistachios which are huge water-hogs per nut harvested, and the only reason these landowners grow these crops is to benefit from the aquifer...not the nuts themselves. My wife drove through there a few years back, and acre after acre of trees were piled up for burning.
I saw that. I believe it was the guy that owns Fiji water and a whole bunch of almond stuff, and the land was near Bakersfield.
I seem to recall that the biggest landowner made his millions selling garbage collectibles through his company, The Franklin Mint, then moved to California.