[Marxism] Waterworld

[<lshan@xxxxxxx>]

http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=3&cat=0500&id=2003122712470001030
23 

This article may not be available long. Some of the information comes from a
subscribers only publication costing more than 200/year.
http://www.waterstrategist.com/
However, it includes a site that appears to be very informative and free.
http://www.waterchat.com/
including the following article: Klamath Tribes Reject ONRC Alternative to
Return of Reservation Lands, Refute Rumored Water-for-Land Swap
_____________

ROCKY FORD, Colo. (AP) - Ron Aschermann could barely eke out a living
raising melons, cucumbers, tomatoes or other crops on his 300-acre farm. But
quitting the business will earn him more than $1.2 million. Aschermann and
scores of others farmers on the high plains of southeastern Colorado are
selling water, which once produced melons, to the Denver suburb of Aurora.

The prairie will retake land that has long known the plow.

``Yeah, it's not a healthy thing to do for the area, but let me tell you:
Farming is not that great anymore either. These rural communities in almost
any state you want to go into, they're all getting smaller,'' said
Aschermann, a 60-year-old whose family has farmed in the area since 1911.
``The best dollar for the asset right now is the water.''

The same thing is happening across the West as the nation's fastest-growing
region shifts more water from farms to thirsty cities. Billions of gallons
changed hands last year in eight Western states, and even more will flow in
years to come. California recently approved a 75-year shift of water from
desert farms to San Diego, the biggest transfer of its kind in U.S. history.
. . .
So what's the answer for the 450,000 farms in the West? Squeezed by rising
equipment costs, depressed crop prices and a brutal drought, farmers are
finding it harder to hang on. Farms use as much as 95 percent of the water
in some areas of the West. Growing cities will continue nibbling away at
agriculture's share.

Many believe that water markets offer a way to get water to cities without
completely wiping out farms.
. . .
Brent M. Haddad, associate professor of environmental studies at the
University of California, Santa Cruz and the author of ``Rivers of Gold,''
takes a different view of water markets.

``The bell tolls when you create water markets because all this is going to
do is shrink the number of farms,'' Haddad said. ``What we're talking about
is a means of moving from farms to cities.''

Turn on the tap in Aurora and out comes water that once grew crops.
Three-fourths of the water that helped the sprawling suburb east of Denver
vault into the ranks of Colorado's biggest cities was acquired from farmers.

Over the past decade, most of the city's new water has come from the
Arkansas River Valley, according to Doug Kemper, Aurora's water resources
manager. Once the Rocky Ford water sale is approved by a judge, water that
once flowed on the Aschermann farm for three generations will start flowing
into the city.

``They're going to drink it. They're going to have parks. They're going to
grow flowers. They're going to have baseball diamonds and football fields.
They're going to have all those things,'' Aschermann said. ``When you can't
make it on the farm what else do you do?''

[And we are going to eat?what?]


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