Imperial (221 page)

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Authors: William T. Vollmann

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Richard Brogan: “The sad part of it ...” Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

Comparative efficiencies of IID, CVWD and MWD—IID objection to Part 417 determination, p. 19.

Footnote on the amount of water used to irrigate southern California’s urban landscapes—IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, p. 74.

MWD spends too much time on flush toilets and not enough time on golf courses.—Based on the argument in the IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, pp. 75-76.

The restaurant Crustacean: “When you enter, you are drawn to another world . . .”
—The Connoisseur’s Guide: Los Angeles: The Annual Edition 2002-2003
, p. 88.

IID water use, 1936-2002—Walsh to Platoni e-mail, 2-p. tabular attachment.

Do you want to know how precious water is? In 2002, the California-America Water Company, which I learn from my newspaper (I wouldn’t have known otherwise) is the largest private water utility in my state, buys Citizens’ Water Resources, which once brought water to the 165,000 people in Sacramento’s suburbs.
He sold out at a fancy price.
Coincidentally, California-America Water is a subsidiary of American Water Works Company, Inc., which happens to be the largest private water utility in the United States. “Moisture Means Millions.” In 2003, American Water Works gets purchased by Thames Water, an English corporation.
And in material advantages they are already well supplied.
I see that Thames Water is in the process of being acquired by RWE Aktiengesellschaft in Germany; and RWE is the third-largest water company in the entire world.
We need have no fear that our lands will not become better and better as the years go by.
Meanwhile, the ratepayers in Sacramento County get the word that water will now cost them up to 55% more.
I have never been cheated out of a dollar in my life.
Could it be that this is happening everywhere?

The corporate buy-ups of Sacramento’s water described in the above paragraph—
Sacramento Bee
, Sunday, October 26, 2003, “Metro” section, p. B1 (Stuart Leavenworth, “Water hike raises queries: Cal-Am says it needs funds for security measures, but some wonder if its purchase by a multinational firm is a factor”).

 

158. One Acre-Foot (1903 -2003)

Epigraph: “Those politicians . . .”—Lupe Vasquez, private conversation, 2002.

Acre-foot usage defined, 1975—
The California Water Atlas
, glossary, p. vi.

Acre-foot usage defined, 2003—San Diego County Water Authority, p. 2. Here each household consists of 4 people, not 5.

San Diego, 1950: Per capita average water use: 80 gal./day.—San Diego City Directory (1950), p. 12.

San Diego, 2000: “An average person uses 125 gallons per day, or one-eighth of an acre-foot per year.” 125 x 365 = 4,5625 gal./yr.—San Diego County Water Authority, p. 2.

Mexicali Valley’s acreage and water allotment relative to Imperial Valley—DeBuys and Myers, p. 144.

Mexicali water usage, 2000—Munguía, p. 165 (Ruíz).

Tijuana water usage, mid-1980s—Petree translation of Vía Oriente, pp. 2-3.

Baja California water availability in cubic meters per capita per year—Whitehead et al., 1988 (articles written 1985), p. 306 (Eduardo Paredes Arellano, Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos, Mexicali, “Water, the Most Important Natural Resource for the State of Baja California, Mexico”). The figures are:

Average per capita water consumption in Mexico border communities and Albuquerque—Crosthwaite, Byrd and Byrd, p. 227 (“U.S.-Mexico Border Environment by the Numbers”). Exact date of statistics not stated, but book was published in 2003.

1998 water prices, Imperial Valley and San Diego—Ibid., pp. 170, 167.

Water requirements of one Imperial Valley acre of alfalfa—DeBuys and Myers, p. 233.

Imperial Valley alfalfa yields and prices, 1998—Imperial County Agricultural Commissioner’s report, 1998, p. 5.

Footnote on alfalfa—Paul Foster reports (2007) (“Imperial Color Commentary”).

Richard Brogan—Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

 

159. Operation Gatekeeper (1994)

Epigraph: “ ‘Criminals’ is what they are . . .”—
Imperial Valley Press
, Sunday, October 12, 2003 (on this page, mistakenly dated 2002), “Opinion” section, p. A4 (“Voice of the People” column: “The fact is, illegal immigrants are criminals”).

Ruben Salazar: “A chain link fence is all that separates the two nations . . .”—Op. cit., p. 57 (“No Troops Line Border That Has Become Big Business: Changes Loom,” January 7, 1962).

Details on the U.S. Immigration Reform and Control Act; 1989 earnings sent to Mexico by illegal workers—Meyer et al., p. 664.

Bracero and arrest figures, 1949 and 1974—Wagner, p. 61. Exact numbers: 1949, 107,000 braceros, but 233,485 illegals caught by Border Patrol; 1974, 709,959 illegals caught by same.

Arrest figures, Sector El Centro, early 1990s, 1996-98—DeBuys and Myers, p. 188.

The 50-year-old woman in Jacumba—A retired real estate broker, about 50 years old. She did not want her name used. I wrote down her remarks verbatim. Interviewed in Jacumba, July 2004. Shannon Mullen was present.—A wise man wrote: “The basic problem is this: Americans remain reluctant to accept the fact that their country has become a frontier for Latin Americans”—and for Chinese, too, evidently (Pike, p. 364).

Pedestrian
vs.
driver-passenger ratios of arrestees, 1995-2004—
Los Angeles Times
, Sunday, April 24, 2005, pp. B1, B6 (Richard Marosi, “Smuggling by Car Accelerates”).

Proportion of illegal border-crossers passing through TJ in the 1980s—San Diego MOCA, unnumbered 5th page of essay “This Is Tijuana.”

Date of inauguration of War on Drugs—Pike, p. 350.

The words of Adele Fasano, and the photograph of three young Mexicans in a trunk

same
Los Angeles Times
article (Richard Marosi).

José López—Interviewed in Calexico, 2004.

Death of “more than three thousand illegals”—San Diego MOCA, ibid., unnumbered 7th page of essay “The Allure of Tijuana.” Bigelow, p. 9, gives the total of 3,200 dead in the first decade. I am skeptical of his precision.

The 500% increase—
Sacramento Bee
, final, Sunday, September 3, 2006, p. A16 (Susan Ferriss: “Border: Thousands have died,” cont’d from p. A1, where title is “Breaching the border”).—Gatekeeper, not mentioned by name in the article but must be the one referred to given the timeline, has “pushed migration into Arizona’s desert and other isolated terrain, resulting in a 500 percent increase in deaths between 1994 and 2004 . . . More than 3,000 fatalities have been recorded since the mid-1990s, and hundreds of bodies and bones remain unidentified.”

Illegal-alien deaths October 2002-October 2003, and related Imperial and Los Angeles matters in same paragraph—
Imperial Valley Press
, Thursday, October 16, 2003, p. A2 (Aaron Claverie, “Record number of immigrants die crossing desert”; same author, “Body recovered from Ash Canal”); p. A3 (“Woman sentenced for beating, smuggling immigrants”).

Oregon students’ remarks on illegal Mexicans—Bigelow, p. 35.

Politico-economic situation of Mexico when Zedillo took office—Meyer et al., pp. 695-96.

The woman in Ejido Netzahualcóyotl—Jose Castro’s wife, interviewed February 2004.

 

160. The Farm Water Quality Management Plan (2003)

Information on the Farm Water Quality Management Plan—
Imperial Valley Press
, Thursday, March 27, 2003, p. D4 (“Farm Bureau” column, by Nicole Rothfleisch, program director, Total Maximum Daily Load).

 

161. Privatizing the
Ejidos
(1992 -2006)

Epigraph: “We have to create a new world economy.”—Bigelow, p. 69 (Clinton’s speech “Support the North American Free Trade Agreement”).

Yolanda Sánchez Ogás—Interviewed in a car in June 2003, en route to Ejido Tabasco. Terrie Petree interpreted.

“The persistent impoverishment of the countryside in Mexico . . .”—Boyer, pp. 240, 239.

Ability of an
ejido
to privatize either by disbanding itself or by allowing whichever members wish to sell to do so; sharecropping permitted—RDI (2004), pp. 28, 31.

“An official of Mexicali’s Tribunal Unitario Agrario Distrito Dos”—Lic. Carlos E. Tinoco, official of the Tribunal Unitario Agrario Distrito Dos. Interviewed in the tribunal offices in Mexicali, September 2005. Terrie Petree translated.

Number of rural families predicted to be displaced by the repeal of Article Twenty-seven, and comments of Jaime Serra Puche—Bigelow, p. 23.

Appeal for privatization for nonagricultural use of land—RDI (2004), p. 9.

The rancher in Morelos—Don Carlos Cayetano Sanders-Collins—Interviewed with his family in Morelos, October 2003, Terrie Petree interpreting.

The restaurant proprietress—Señora Socorro Ramírez, interviewed on 19 February 2004 in her restaurant Yocojihua. Terrie Petree interpreted.

The rancher lady in Colonia Sieto de Cierro Prieto—Señora Teresa García, interviewed on 19 February 2004, on Rancho García. Terrie Petree interpreted.

Alma Rosa Hernández and Hugo Heriberto Herrera—Interviewed in her house or theirs in Ejido Netzahualcóyotl, December 2006, Terrie Petree interpreting.

Statistics on the Revolution’s land reform, and remainder of paragraph’s remarks on decreasing crop income—Boyer, pp. 223-24.

“Capitalism makes merchandise of people . . .”—Bigelow, p. 24 (Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee, General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, 27 June—3 July 2005).

 

162. Assets Forfeiture (2003)

Epigraph: “Offhand, I know of nothing more deleterious to my liver . . .”—Oliver Lange, p. 45.

Notices of vehicle forfeiture—
Imperial Valley Weekly
, vol. 98. no. 13 (Thursday, March 27, 2003), p. 11 (“Public Notice,” dates of publication March 20, March 27, and April 3, 2003).

 

163. We Should Have Had a Better Negotiating Position (2002-2003)

Epigraph: “San Diego County sees such water transfers . . .”—San Diego County Water Authority, p. 52.

Epigraph: “This puts in place the basic building block . . .”—
Imperial Valley Press
, Thursday, October 16, 2003, p. A1 (Seth Hettena, “Norton to sign water deal: Agreement: Roadmap for future water trades in the West”).

Transfer amount (200 KAFY)—IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, p. 15.

Costs of a 300,000 KAFY tailwater reduction—IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, p. 29.

Potential fallowing of 30,000 acres—
San Diego Union-Tribune
, Thursday, May 29, 2003, p. A1 (Michael Gardner, Copley News Service, “Water Pressure: Second in an occasional series: Imperial Valley an Oasis of Opportunity: But many fear that idling of farmland could pull the plug on growth”).

Andy Horne’s definitions—
Imperial Valley Press
, Wednesday, March 19, p. A4, “Voice of the People” column: “IID director defines water terminology” (Andy Horne, IID director, El Centro). In 2002, Larry Grogan, then Mayor of El Centro, suggests that the city buy farmland and fallow it so that the water rights can be sold to San Diego as part of the increasingly inevitable water-transfer package. He argues that this will keep water transfer dollars within the valley. Andy Horne, the Director of Imperial Irrigation District One, bitterly compares him to the Bass brothers. This strikes me as unfair, for in 2003 we find Grogan, now an El Centro City Councilman, supporting the Imperial Irrigation District’s lawsuit against the U.S. government. He opposes the water farmers’ “Imperial Group,” which proposes that all water-transfer money go directly to landowners. But who can blame Andy Horne for being jittery? (Tale of Larry Grogan: For 2002: Ivpressonline .com, Laura Mitchell, Staff Writer, “Grogan plan to buy, fallow land defeated,”
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2002/09/05/export16059.prt
. For 2003:
Ivpressonline.com
, Laura Mitchell, Staff Writer, “Grogan asks for anti-Imperial Group action,”
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2003/03/20/export18999.prt
.)

Leonard Knight: “When I get too close to people . . .”—Already cited above, in the chapter “The Imperial Idea (1901-2004).”

Interior Department’s conspiratorial e-mails—
San Diego Union-Tribune
, vol. 12, no. 80, Friday, March 21, 2003, p. A3 (Michael Gardner, Copley News Service, “Interior’s effect on river sharing raises eyebrows”).

“Mr. Johnson formed his opinions long ago.”—IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, p. 54.

Ruth Thayer’s e-mail to Jayne Harkins—IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, pp. 56-57.

“EL CENTRO—In a stunning move . . .”—
Sacramento Bee
final, Tuesday, December 10, 2002, p. 1 (Stuart Leavenworth and Dale Kasler, “Imperial shuns sale, roils water picture”).

“Interior sought to push IID into the QSA . . .”

IID
de novo
Part 417 brief, pp. 15-16.

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