THE STONY CREEK WATER WARS
Glenn County - Tehama County - Colusa County , California.
(c) 2010, Mike Barkley (09/09/2010)
California Water Bonds (Prop. 18) Letter to the Editor , form

Dear Editor,

I am pleased to see the California Water Bonds off the November ballot. I have been working on irrigation issues on Stony Creek west of Chico. Over the decades the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has diverted from this watershed 2,500,000 acre feet in excess of what the Angle Decree allowed it, and gave it to its Orland Project client which proceeded to waste it, see Decree at http://www.mjbarkl.com/decree.htm and chart of the cumulative waste at http://www.mjbarkl.com/excess.xls . The numbers on that chart come from reports by Reclamation and the Orland Project to the U.S. District Court's Water Master and the State Water Resources Control Board. The SWRCB says they won't do anything without a complaint being filed despite the requirement for them to act in the California Constitution. When complaints are filed, they generally ignore them. The value of this misappropriated water is over a billion dollars at Los Angeles wholesale rates.

I see no reason to vote for any more water projects until the State acts to halt this sort of misappropriation and recover that billion dollars.

Thank you,


Michael Barkley

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--Mike Barkley, 167 N. Sheridan Ave., Manteca, CA 95336 (H) 209/823-4817
mjbarkl@inreach.com