User:Oliviascott3/Water in California
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Disputes and Controversies
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The California water wars, a struggle between Los Angeles and certain parties within the Owens Valley, for water rights is but one example of the alleged wrongdoings of municipalities and people in securing adequate water supplies. The city of Los Angeles bought 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of land from residents of the Owens Valley and the water rights attached with them, for a fair price. The Upon diverting of this water from the valley, transformed it from an the area was transformed into a dust bowl.
The electricity produced by the hydroelectric plants drawing their water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir became the subject of controversy when it was reported by the San Francisco Bay Guardian that the city of San Francisco sold roughly 500 megawatts of power to PG&E, supposedly in violation of the Raker Act, which specifies that because the source of water and power was on public land, no private profit could be gained from such sales. Whether or not the Raker Act is indeed being violated is still a matter of controversy.[citation needed]
Such disputes and controversies can also further historical neglect of low income communities and their access to safe drinking water.[1] Marginalized communities are often disproportionately affected by issues of environmental justice, including those surrounding water. Communities like those living near the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir who enter into disputes over water against large entities like PG&E and the city of San Francisco can feel entirely powerless when these controversies arise. There have been proposals to give people in these areas a more active role in the decision-making around their access to safe water *can you say a bit more about these proposals?*.[1]
The creation of so many dams in California in order to enact a water diversion program for conventional agriculture has been met with criticism from most environmentalists,[which?] who have decried the negative effects of dams on ecosystems, particularly on migratory fish populations.