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Water Torture – Upcoming Symposium, Kool-Aid for the Uninformed

5/26/2013

11 Comments

 
http://seekingalpha.com/article/24410-t-boone-pickens-invests-in-water-should-you
WE have been following announcements and articles about the upcoming “free” symposium being offered in Bellingham on May 30-31 called “Water Supply:  Searching for Certainty in Uncertain Times.”

WE have good reason to believe that the information being presented will be insidiously stacked for a pre-determined outcome.  If you attend, it’s certain you’ll be “educated” that:
  • The “science is in.”
  • There isn’t enough water for both people and fish.
  • Climate change is going to make this worse.
  • “Exempt” water use, if not “illegal,” must be policed.
  • Tribal claims about water rights are rock solid; better not question them.
  • Property owners should put their fate in the hands of public-private partners to manage their resources and land.
  • It’s all too complicated for you to deal with – leave it to the “experts.”
  • If you don’t get with the program, you’ll be in a world of hurt.
  • Voluntary land use trades for water and mitigation will bring certainty (for your own good).
  • Halting rural and ag development will be necessary soon.
  • No other approach is “sustainable”.
  • And above all, don’t ask too many questions.  There are no answers but these official answers.
Don’t be delphi’d.   The narrative at this symposium is Kool-Aid to the uninformed.

Look at the list of presenters, and you’ll see that big money interests behind this symposium have everything to gain.  The symposium is about land control as much as water resources (this land is your land, this land is their land).  The program will pitch an elaborate system of autocratic control through trusts, a "natural resources marketplace," and a water management board that in all likelihood would never be directly accountable to anyone, just as notorious and remote as the WTA and PUD #1.


http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2011/04/kiuc-sells-off-water-rights.htmlWhat would stop it?
Is the water situation so dire that nannycrat control of Whatcom County is necessary?
News flash!  The Pacific Ocean isn’t going to go dry and it’s highly unlikely that the North Wind will ever stop blowing rain our way.

So, while Whatcom County will always be one of the wetter counties in the entire state and nation, numerous well-known rent-seekers stand to make a fortune if citizens can be convinced that they should check their freedom at the door.  [Musical note/quote:  Bob Dylan, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," and "The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handle."   Subterranean Homesick Blues.]


(Lest you think we're going dry, here's some verified climate data - precipitation and snowpack:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Click the images to see detailed information about actual data showing current trends.)

Given that - will the public be offered anything but envirodoom and restrictive agency policy?

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/home1.5.html
No. The presenters control the data and the narrative. This symposium is set to nudge the public in one direction only.  If you revisit the recent "WRIA Watch" post, you'll notice that WIT folks are among the chief organizers and presenters of this symposium.

Whatcom Planning & Development and Public Works departments (and their cohorts at the City of Bellingham) have been directly involved, along with WWU/WSU based WWIN.  Now, WWIN stands for the Whatcom Watersheds Information Network which claims to be a community group, but it's obviously run by bureaucrats.  And the contractor hired to put this together is directly affiliated with the Puget Sound Partnership, who tirelessly promotes its "Action Agenda".  Farm Friends (a grant-dependent lobby more than a real farm group) is involved, along with Futurewise's Jean Melious and the tribes.  These special interests have their DNA all over this “free” informational extravaganza.  The truth is, this event is being put on at considerable public expense to push official programs.

And none of the agencies behind this -- not one -- has an interest in protecting private citizens' water rights as they've existed historically. The thing is, we citizens aren't organized, and our interest in this topic is diffuse -- we're all busy working at our livelihoods. For the organizers, promoting the planning, "conservation" and "restoration" trade is their livelihood.


http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/455/
Across the board, the “education” looks stacked.   The only thing "certain" is that big dollar  interests and career bureaucrats will have steady jobs far into the future policing citizens' water use, no matter how much pain and expense it inflicts on little guys like ranchers, small ag, small dairies and horsemen, tree farmers, and all the other people with private wells who can't afford to fight "the bigs" where it comes to retaining their rights.

WE wonder, "Who approved the grand plans that these people are presenting?"  Look through the two day play-by-play script.  Most of the presenters are staffers and middle-management types, lawyers, and a truckload of tribal employees.  Some have extremely thin credentials to present the topics slated.

Events like this are professionally orchestrated by promoters, and loaded with shills -- with a few token “outliers” invited to make the event look fair.  But the "fork in the road" outcome on Day 2 is designed for a crescendo of applause, and the illusion of community support and consensus. (While there are methods to keep heavily programmed meetings on the up-and-up, they require encyclopedic knowledge of the material plus intensive training.  Amateurs confronting the ersatz authority of blue-ribbon panels often find themselves lambs to the slaughter.) If you don’t want to be manipulated, you may be better off elsewhere. 

The bureaucratic overtake of water resources and land management can proceed only if the public goes along willingly.  “Low information voters” are all-too willing to support the idea that others' rights are arbitrary.   This event aims to manipulate with slick presentations, while impressive looking "experts" spout unfamiliar material and cite law cases.  A big gobsmacked crowd is essential to make the junta look good.


Picture
Maybe you're going.  If you are, listen closely to the rhetoric and try to find out what triggered this odd conglomerate to make the pitch they're promoting.  Don't doubt for a minute that it doesn't intend to limit citizens' direct control of their property and resources.

But some people have decided not to go.  Sentiments heard about town include:


Our
Water
Is Our
Business

This is
Local?
NO!

No
Thumbs
On The
Scale

Insider
Trading
Inside


Wheeling
& Dealing
Inside

We Insist
On A Fair
Process

No More
Secret
Deals

Real Farmers
Want Truth
About Water


No More
Crony
Deals

Power
Grab

How Dry 
We’re Not
Kool-Aid 
For The
Uninformed


Those could make some dandy signs.   WE honestly don't know if anyone will protest this event, but it sounds like a very good idea.
11 Comments
Skip Richards link
5/26/2013 01:12:14 am

As one of the few " ... token 'outliers' invited to make the event look fair," I debated with myself long and hard before accepting the invitation to participate (not to present, by the way, but to respond to three questions set in advance, and, presumably, to Qs from the audience or other comments from presenters).

Many of the reasons I engaged in such internal debate are well-stated herein.

The sponsors of this thing, mainly the Joint Board and its various minions, have done a grievous harm to the people of Whatcom County by suspending the activities of the only statutorily-authorized structure for public participation in water resource planning, the WRIA 1 Watershed Planning Unit. It is that body which should and could have put such an event together, and no other. The Joint Board, et al, have damaged their credibility and legitimacy by their actions against the Planning Unit.

It appears they might have belatedly recognized the error of their ways, and the Planning Unit might be recalled into service. If so, it must be as an essential element in the decision-making loop, not as some advisory lapdog.

For more on the facts -- as opposed to the many myths and fables promulgated by the staff of Bellingham Public Works and the PUD, see: http://skip-richards.com/Whatcom_Water.html

If you go to this symposium, you have two choices: stand outside to let the world know how you feel about it, or go inside and let the sponsors and other attendees know your feelings. Either seems valid to me, and you can expect they will hear my views exactly as I have expressed them herein, whether they like it or not.

Reply
Editors
5/27/2013 03:28:14 pm

What were the three questions?

Reply
Skip Richards link
5/27/2013 10:59:19 pm

1. From your perspective, what is the uncertainty that your interest faces with today's water supply or stream flow status?

2. Why is it important to address the challenges associated with that uncertainty?

3. What do you see as a solution for certainty for water now and in the future?

Editors
5/26/2013 02:30:04 am

WE recognize that the people attending this also have a right to public speech. This is America. A flash mob at a respectful distance may be the best response - or the sound of "crickets."

Reply
Lyndenite25
5/26/2013 03:18:52 am

Maybe it will get rained out!

Reply
Joan
5/26/2013 05:14:25 am

I have had enough Kool-Aid to last me a lifetime. Not needing to be further gobsmacked, I will express my opinions outside with a sign.

Local cricket

Reply
Karl Uppiano link
5/26/2013 05:58:38 am

I have to say, most of what is going on in local politics is a blur. It is often very “technical”, in that people have to stop and really take the time to understand what’s going on, if you can find it. The low-information voters (that includes me) just don’t. And I am not the lowest information voter out there, by a long shot. It is scary what people can do to take advantage of this unawareness.

As the founders said, without virtue, we’re hosed.

Reply
Kris Halterman link
5/26/2013 07:27:54 am

After attending last Wednesday's "City Club" luncheon, where the speaker was Tom McDonald, a Washington State, Enviro-Land Use Hearings Officer and water rights attorney, I was appalled to hear that they (the state) are purposely buying up "senior water rights" and placing them into a "water-bank" to sell to developers. Does that smack of Natural Resource Marketplace and a direct imparement to property/water rights? The information provided at this luncheon did not cover the exclusively inherent right to water, or address that there is no lack of water in Washington State. No, it was expressed that there are no more water permits available to be given out. Why is that? Because the Stae Legislature has failed to address this issue and our Counties have not taken them to court to fight for us.

Reply
HonestAbby
5/26/2013 06:16:13 pm

The state (what department?) is buying up senior water rights? Is the state holding them, giving, or selling them to a trust? What did this guy say?

Reply
Comrade X
5/28/2013 03:18:08 am

"Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."
Joseph Stalin

Reply
Editors
6/1/2013 01:58:40 am

By all accounts the control narrative hit the mark(s).

Reply

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