Comment by awongh

Comment by awongh 4 days ago

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Arizona and California have outdated water management laws that basically mean that big agriculture gets free water.

Until recently Saudi Arabia was using these laws to grow alfalfa in the desert.

In California, water intensive crops like almond trees get free water.

https://youtu.be/XusyNT_k-1c

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/climate/arizona-saudi-ara...

mikhailfranco 3 days ago

Also see the Resnicks' water storage scheme for their almond/pistachio empire:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/lynda-stewar...

The report has a graph showing their farms consume more water then all LA homes.

  "Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown."

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amanaplanacanal 3 days ago

Yes, but... The way the law works is that the farms own that water. The state would likely have to use eminent domain and pay fair market value if they want to take it away. I have no idea what that would cost.

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awongh 3 days ago

I mean, yes, use eminent domain to take the water… and then get TSMC to pay for it.
Maybe another big player in the system would even help build momentum to get these laws changed permanently…

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