In addition, had you used the water to support last year’s crops and had a zero balance this year, you would have had to advise your expansive corporate farms who frequently practice flood irrigation, use sprinklers in the middle of the day, grow high demand crops such as corn, and cotton and otherwise waste huge sums of water that they would not be able to plant this year.

However, that’s not what you did, you encouraged those farmers to plant with the expectation that you could exert political pressure at both the federal and state level to, as you say, “turn the pumps on”, even knowing that you would be attempting to extort water that you had no rights to. In doing so you enlisted a multinational public relations firm, put together pseudo-environmental website, “The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta” enlisted a Hollywood personality who’s ranch is on the EAST side of the valley and paid farm workers to conduct demonstrations demanding water that did not exist.

It’s time to end water subsidies and repeal the Monterey agreements making agricultural water equal with urban usage. Then we won’t have to read articles such as the one this past week where one of your “poor farmers” sold his water at $5,500 per acre foot making 77 million dollars.

Sorry, your attempt to explain away your water hoarding does not wash. Admit it, the water was stored in speculation for possible sales at huge profits to urban agencies that should have been able to purchase the water at reasonable rates except for your the current bias towards agricultural water.