myfootyrthroat:

I thought the “The Resnicks control 60% of California’s water” claims were… dubious, but didn’t have a good source. Not that it stopped the people making the claim, but…

They apparently own a little under 60% of one water bank, not the entire state’s water supply, which has very little to do with the problems related to water delivery for this fire.

An alternate place that the 60% could have been misapplied from is that 60% of California’s water usage is for irrigation (all irrigation uses: crop, pasture, landscape, etc). Again, this is for all irrigation use in the whole state, not directly tied to the Resnicks’ companies.

Also, the focus on pistachios and almonds and lack of talk about animal agriculture is always a little weird. Irrigating orchards takes a lot of water, but way less water than growing alllll the annual crops that cows need to eat to produce milk. (I also have a few quibbles with how the agricultural water use is broken down in that last link. “Trees and vines” are one category, which includes nuts, citrus, grapes, etc… but “corn” and “grain” are separated. Looks like cooking some numbers to me!)

The weird focus on this one couple, who are part of a larger problem to be sure, at the expense of… you know, actually focusing on the larger problem, is a bit weird. And speaking of the larger problem, when it comes to landowners in California, they aren’t even in the top 5. The largest landowners are all timber industry, which has a much more direct connection with fire, so it’s odd that we aren’t seeing more about them!

And again, most of this doesn’t actually have anything to do with firefighting anyway. The problems with water delivery to the fires aren’t from a shortage of water, but because urban water infrastructure isn’t made to deliver water at the volumes necessary for fighting wildfires.

It can be cathartic to spread posts that are the “right kind” of inflammatory, but people looking to spread misinformation are very aware of that and good at crafting the kind of messages that will make people just mad enough to share without checking. None of this is defending the messed up water rights/usage system in the US, but important problems are worth addressing with correct information.