Antelope Valley Blogs

Do we have a larger problem than oil? While every one has their eye on the need for oil we are a sleep while others are stealing us blind. One thing we just cannot live without is water. Did you know corporations are now buying up our water rights across not only America but the world. These corporate giants are buying up complete aquifers, buying up land and the water rights, buying just the water rights from farmers and the list goes on. Water that now may cost us $120 per acre foot could go to $10,000 per acre foot. Please read the following: T. Boone Pickens thinks water is the new oil-and he's betting $100 million that he's right. If water is the new oil, T. Boone Pickens is a modern-day John D. Rockefeller. Pickens owns more water than any other individual in the U.S. and is looking to control even more. He hopes to sell the water he already has, some 65 billion gallons a year, to Dallas, transporting it over 250 miles, 11 counties, and about 650 tracts of private property. The electricity generated by an enormous wind farm he is setting up in the Panhandle would also flow along that corridor. As far as Pickens is concerned, he could be selling wind, water, natural gas, or uranium; it's all a matter of supply and demand. "There are people who will buy the water when they need it. And the people who have the water want to sell it. That's the blood, guts, and feathers of the thing," he says. Foreign Companies-Buying Up Our U. S. Water Rights, and we are worried about oil? What about the water being purchased right out from under us and know one is watching. This same water will then be sold back to us at very high rates, how much are you paying for Gasoline per gallon? You better be thinking how much per gallon we will be paying for water per gallon. These corporations are buying land and water rights in all the dry areas of this county to be sold back at very high rates and profits. This isn't just happening here but in countries where the people can hardly by food. Now they are even losing their houses because the cannot afford the water. The water companies are foreclosing on their homes for non payment of their water bills.

 

Water who needs it?

Water, every one talking about water or the lack of water. It seems so many just do not understand much about water other than they turn on the tap and water flows. People do not seem to real care about the water unless it affects them and that is the way life is in most cases. Tell some one their pretty green lawn may have to be replaced by rock and desert plants and now they want to talk about water.

Water, don't you just drill a hole and water comes up out of it? We live in a desert and that means it really doesn't rain that much here but we do get rain and snow in the mountains. This rain and snow runs down to this valley floor sinks into the soil and makes its way down to what is called an aquifer. Our aquifer is called the Lancaster sub basin. The deep part of our aquifer is under the land that is now called Lancaster city limits and most of the aquifer sets under the same city. Palmdale is on the outside edge of the aquifer. Lancaster holds most of the underground storage and Palmdale holds most of the re-charge. Re-charge is when the water flows from the mountains to the valley floor and goes underground filtering as it moves down down down to the aquifer below. The aquifer is the storage area for all the water, in one part of the aquifer the depth is around 8,000 foot deep. This part has water that is thousands of years old.  The aquifer is made up of three aquifers you might say the upper, the middle and the lower aquifer.

Ventura's desecrated St. Mary Cemetery Activists confront Cardinal Mahony - Historic Mission's 225th Anniversary displays Municipal & Church Mistreatment of 6,000 Pioneer's Graves.

On a downtown Sunday March 30 2008, a public historic outdoor event occurred with hundreds of local Ventura citizens attending. Some people thought it was a celebration of the 225th Ventura Mission's anniversary with the special attendance of Los Angeles' Cardinal Mahony. Cardinal Mahony celebrated an open-air Mass and the Knights of Columbus served a lunch. MORE informed public-minded ‘St Mary's desecrated cemetery' activists knew that an informational public picket was scheduled there. Several members of Steven Schleder's founded ‘Restore St. Mary's Cemetery' movement used this event to inform the public about this miscarriage of municipal and church abuse. ‘Restore St. Mary's Cemetery' members have established a web site disseminating information about their cemetery restoration project. The web site, http://www.restorestmarys.org/  

‘Restore St. Mary's Cemetery' leaders have researched the long history of the citys and church's cemetery desecration, the subsequent mistreatment of the grounds and tombs. An ancient Catholic mission cemetery is in an area west of the present day Mission church only to have those 2,800 graves defiled with the current mission school facility built on top of the sacred early pioneer's tombs without those remains re-interned elsewhere. But there is a long history of sacred cemetery mistreatment in Ventura. Another instance can be found one mile east of the Mission San Buenaventura, Ventura's dog park ‘Cemetery Park' (located between Main and Poli Streets). 3,000+ graves of Catholics, Protestants, Asian, Jewish, native Chumash, Congressional Medal of Honor winning war veterans (Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish Wars), pioneers, and many Spanish land grant family members tombs buried in the defiled St Mary's ex-cemetery. In 1964, the city took the cemetery property. The city employees quietly dumped hundreds of valuable historic family marble tombstones into local Hall Canyon and along an adjoining riverbank, which is now under a levy. City work crews only covered the graves with a topsoil layer for grass. Again, thousands of historic religious early tombs were NOT moved and re-interned elsewhere. Cemetery Park is where its many neighbors (consisting of several city officials) walk illegally un-leashed dogs to defecate liberally everyday on hallowed soul's graves and few family headstones. Ten ‘Restore St. Mary's Cemetery' member activists conducted a respectful ‘silent' informational sidewalk rally event during the post-Mass public lunch. They passed out ‘St. Mary's Cemetery' flyers and carried picket signs expressing their views like ‘Respect St Mary's Graves!' Several hundred St. Mary's Cemetery flyers were passed out to lunch attendees and activists happily told citizens about the institutional sullying of Ventura's 6,000+ ancestor's blessed tombs and consecrated grounds.

Ojai Day Laborer Stop Closed by Anti-Illegal Immigration Activists -Enforce US Immigration Laws Now and Secure the Borders advocates share their views with the Ojai public.

On Saturday March 29 2008, the upscale resort town of Ojai got a big surprise from its citizens and for tourist alike. For many years now, one main street corner has been allowed to become a busy unofficial outlaw day laborer pick-up site for scoflaw local contractors to contract with likely under-the-table non-tax paying day laborers. This active site has grown to be a huge local nuisance and crime area with several Ojai laws being broken apart from the Federal Immigration & Labor Laws and government tax laws. Vagrant "laborers" spend hours loitering, littering, and writing graffiti in the municipal bus shelter and outside workers wandering through the neighboring businesses and home properties. Other crime annoyances include these hired hand's private property trespassing, gambling, weapons use in fights, public drinking & drunkness, public urination and defecation, and even open drug sales and use. Employing these outlaw workers drive down lawful workers wages and destroy ethical market place competition for Ojai US citizens. Outlaw illegal workers steal/buy phony social security card numbers. Outlaw illegal workers commit identity theft and tax fraud on hard working innocent US citizens. It takes citizens years to clear up those identity frauds and tax fraud destroys citizens credit history and bank accounts. This patch of Ojai is on the main highway for tourist, school children and residents to travel past it everyday. This is a crime area public nuisance.

It was a good time for local Ojai Minute Men and Secure the Borders advocates to take action. Several multi-ethnic multi-age grassroots Enforce US Immigration Laws Now groups aligned together to merge their many street activist members into an informational street rally event as they informed people with illegal immigration informational at Ojai's downtown busy unofficial day laborer pick-up site. After the Secure the Borders advocates spoke to police and under the Ojai police's watchful eye, the street rally was orderly and safe. One side of the street accommodated the USA flag waving Ojai Secure the Borders multi-ethnic middle-age adult crowd and the opposing street sidewalk held a few anarchistic very young school students dressed in anarchist/communist shirts while they carried large Mexican and anarchist red flags. A lot of foul cursing and yelling from the students was punctuated by thoughtless juvenile name calling of "Racists!" Many meaningless epithets were directed towards the opposing sidewalk Secure the Borders middle-age multi-enthic group.

Stop the Delta pumps to save the Smelt and lose a aquifer.

Does this make since? The Antelope Valley Aquifer is endanger of caving due to lack of water in the upper aquifer. We could start seeing land subsidence all over the Antelope Valley. Land Subsidence has already happened at Edwards Air Force Base and other places in the valley. These groups of people that are out to save a small fish that isn't worth saving even for fish bait is costing this valley a problem that will destroy our aquifer if we don't start recharging this aquifer with water from the Delta. This is a time bomb just waiting to happen. What happens if we don't recharge and a earthquake shakes and empty aquifer and it caves? The land above will sink and this aquifer will be lost forever. I believe these same people that would rather save a fish better start thinking of another way to save it, like fish hatcheries for the Smelt but the pumps must keep pumping, it's the blood of the Antelope Valley and Southern California. They talk about and endangered species, I'm talking about an endangered aquifer that can not be saved once it caves in on itself. Which must we save the fish species or the humans species. Water is something we just cannot live without and water shortages are happening throughout the world. We have to start banking and recharge this Antelope Valley Aquifer if we have to take the State and Federal government to court on this issue. Smelt can be moved, Smelt can be raised in a hatchery designed for them. The human species must be protected and put first above the Smelt, the water pumps must keep pumping.

The Water Problem
Our city planners haven't been taking care of business when it comes to water. In every tract of homes they have installed holding ponds to stop run off that use to run until it hit recharging areas and go back down to the aquifer. Now the water is stopped and is held to evaporate and raise mosquitoes.

Storm drains should have been installed all over the valley where the water that use to flow naturally can make it to recharging areas.

We can not afford to wait any longer on getting ready to recharge from the aqueduct. Recharginging areas should be getting ready to except water now and pipe lines to those recharging areas neen to be installed now. This all takes a lot of time getting ready it doesn't happen over night.

We have to pay for a certain amount of water from the aqueduct even if we don't use it. We have wasted water that was paid for because we didn't need it and didn't have any place for that water to go.