Here in Santa Barbara, the water crisis is generating anxiety — but also reasoned and reasonable responses, from conservation to limited desalination. But in the San Joaquin Valley, anxiety has transmuted into outright fear — and anger.
You see it in the signs. They’re as ubiquitous as almond groves, tumbleweeds, and jackrabbits. The wording differs from sign to sign, but the message is the same: Stop Dumping Our Water into the Ocean. Build More Dams. Stop Wasting Our Dam Water.
It’s a natural response to a crisis situation. California agriculture depends on water, and anxiety is naturally rising in the valley’s farming communities as reservoir levels fall and aquifers are depleted.