#tap the gap

[conecurrent]

#wef14 -whole earth festival, Davis, California. Wow. WEF. Feed me fluid knowledge, Know le edge Where we may meet, greet Curiosity connects us. Generous hellos bond us, Hold our hearts in a Space of Welcome. How come? What travels between us when we speak hello? Who knows? I know pieces of you Reflect in pieces of me. Could it be, A generous hello Glues us together (If only for a moment) So our peer's mirrors Co-hear? #tapthegap-- Fill cracks with Love.

[conecurrent]

hi everyone - please read this call to action about northern california's water.  this is very important - please share and spread the word! we can #tapthegap between where we are and where we need to be, between ourselves and our neighbors. we can connect and build bridges to invite water to flow effortlessly through us!  - conecurrent

AquAlliance

Stop Desert Ag Water Piracy!

Help us halt the June water transfers.

  With extremely dry conditions in the Sacramento River watershed and the entire state, the federal and state water transfer agencies want to move 377,000 acre-feet (af) of additional water from the Sacramento Valley to San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority south of the Delta (http://www.sldmwa.org/) for desert agriculture.  These interests have junior water rights, contracts they voluntarily signed acknowledging they would receive zero water in dry years. Groundwater substitution transfers from the Sacramento Valley (i.e. selling surface water and replacing it by pumping groundwater) may account for over half of the transferred water. Knowing that the existing conditions in the Valley will further stress the groundwater basins in 2014, we sought to deter the water exports with our responses to the federal water transfer project documents (195,000 af)* (http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/documentShow.cfm?Doc_ID=17125). As usual, the comments fell on deaf ears, so the state and federal agencies are moving forward to transfer as much water as possible unless litigation can stop them.

   We must challenge the federal transfers in court before more damage is done to the groundwater basins. So you understand existing conditions in deep wells, Glenn County’s groundwater dropped over 60 feet in the last ten years! Butte County’s dropped over 18 feet from fall 2012 to fall 2013 and Tehama County’s dropped 20 feet (see maps of groundwater levels at http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/data_and_monitoring/northern_region/GroundwaterLevel/gw_level_monitoring.cfm).

  Before environmental laws were expanded, people in the Owens and San Joaquin valleys were not able to petition the court to stop unsustainable water transfers – and those valleys have paid a heavy price.  We have an opportunity to stop the repetition of this nightmare in the Sacramento Valley!

  It may be a sad fact, but the public’s only path to justice in California water is through the courts. The executive and legislative branches of government are heavily distorted by political and economic power, and the NorthState is low on both by comparison. That is why AquAlliance has pursued this path successfully since its formation in 2009 to Defend and Protect Northern California Waters.

  Until the North-to-South water transfers are stopped, the Sacramento River watershed will keep getting hammered along with our communities, groundwater dependent farmers, Delta farmers, fish, and recreational and commercial fishermen. Through time, the urban, riparian, and oak woodland canopies will also wither away. No amount of infrastructure projects will change this reality. If you don’t know the story of the Trinity River dam, take a brief moment to read How the Trinity River Lost its Water (2005 http://www.c-win.org/webfm_send/175). “Few people know this history of intrigue, politics, the drive for higher elected office, and federal taxpayer beneficence for a few wealthy “farmers” in the far off Westlands Water District…”

  How you can help now!

Join the group fighting for you and the water we all depend on. Here is what you can do.

Become a member. Members make regular donations to make sure the work is done to establish the strongest possible case, including monitoring agencies activities, obtaining water transfer proposals in time to comment, and submitting legally viable comments to challenge the water transfers. As a member you also expand AquAlliance’s ability to protect your interests with legal standing in court.

Support the legal challenge with as generous a donation as you can contribute or raise with others. We have received donations ranging from $10,000 to $100 exclusively for this purpose. We must raise $100,000 in May to successfully challenge the 2014 water transfers and seek an end to the annual, so-called ‘temporary’ transfers. We are 40 percent of the way there, so please do what you can help us represent you and this region in court.

Recruit neighbors, family, and friends to support the effort.

Consider hosting a gathering at your home for people also invested in protecting the groundwater of the region. An AquAlliance Board member will attend if you like and provide the most current information. Please note, surface water districts have very different interests, which is why the big ones sell surface water and are willing to mine the groundwater to make that happen.

Spread the word in all ways open to you.

Monitor your well(s). If you would like AquAlliance to assist you, contact Jim Brobeck at [email protected].

  Together we can stop the water heist! Please donate now to our Water Defense Fund – send a check to PO Box 4024, Chico, CA 95927 or go to www.AquAlliance.net to donate online. Consider hosting a meeting of your friends and neighbors to inform them of this serious water threat. For more information, phone us at 530-895-9420

  See urls:

North-to-South Water Transfers http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=16681

  North-to-North Water Transfers

http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=16682

  * 195,999 af is enough water to last a city of 100,000 people over 8 years!

Who should support us? 

    1) All people and businesses dependent on groundwater, which is the vast majority of residents and farmers in the Sacramento Valley and eastern foothills (Paradise and Magalia on PID water are an exception).

    2) All fishermen and hunters.

    3) All people in California who value birds,trees, fish, clean water, clean air, etc.(clean air because depleted surface waters and soil lead to tremendous air quality problems).

And for so many other reasons.

AquAlliance NEEDS ALL OF YOU to prod, push, and reach out to everyone you know - MANY TIMES. It can take up to six times for a person to respond to a request for action. We MUST file the litigation in mid-May or we will have lost before we can start.

We are 40 percent of the way toward our first goal of $100,000 for expert witnesses and attorneys. 

If not now, when? If not AquAlliance, who? 

Please be an active member of AquAlliance at this critical time!

[conecurrent]

see the box around

empty space all around?

feel the box around

my heart, head & body?

boxes in-sides box inside

pent-up energy

dam-corners hurt me

pushed into one

stabbed by one

damn- corners hurt

all ways allways

this pen pokes pensive punctures

tears drip down, damn

cheerful chaos crackles

as mucus sprints past my nose

and puddles in exhaustion

from running the marathon

spinning in my head.

ah, breathe. i dissolve and clear. 

in streaming flow i slip and flip

see the box around?

full of love, all around.

in side it's easy to take sides seen

but given the pen's perspective

it all comes out-side

until there are no sides. 

[conecurrent]

beautiful talk about water. clarify your perspective, flush out impurities with flows of water consciousness. 

[threadsmoon]

peep

sometimes i stick my head out in the interweb and i get so blown open it's quite amazing. 

point of reflection: flip it. 

earthlings, this is kinda important, so please slow your scroll. 

when you think you're on top of a pyramid, flip it. 

from your place of power, give your power away to the collective.

act selflessly for the earth which supports us all.

remember that you are only one person, and we need to all start working together if we are going to create a coherent space for the new earth to be born. 

my advice: tap the gap.

find a person, an idea, an emotion that is at the very edge of your perception (no matter the reason) and bring it fully into your heart space.  

mcdonalds, i love you. 

monsanto, i love you. 

myself, i love you. 

you, i love you. 

make the connection. the bigger the bridge you have to build, the more water will flow under the bridge. 

open and flow. 

go.