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A comment on California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold Mine. Parent comment

Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by jgowdy on Saturday February 17, 2018 @02:57PM (#16402407)
No it is not. The water districts are extremely powerful, and the biggest usage districts are held by agricultural interests. They have staggered elections to stop water board takeovers and ensure that they can shift water costs from usage based to per-meter fees. Captive homeowners in agriculture controlled water districts can end up with $200 a month water bills for a family of four.

Source: Lived in a water district for 7 years with some of the cheapest water in the state (sub $3 a unit) yet a water bill for a family of four with fake grass and small yard of around $180 a month. If we used ZERO water, the bill would have been about $120 in flat fees. We were subsidizing the massive avocado groves and other major agricultural producers in the water district. They brushed off our complaints and the fact that we pointed to neighboring cities with $40 water bills.

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Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by imbur on Saturday February 17, 2018 @05:19PM (#16403083)
Was it $180 per month or $180 per quarter?
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Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by jgowdy on Saturday February 17, 2018 @09:33PM (#16404106)
Per month. Very small yard. Fake grass in the back.
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Re:California-Grown Coffee Is Becoming the State's Next Gold... by exclusiv on Sunday February 18, 2018 @03:30AM (#16405044)
Just watched a documentary on Netflix about water in California which stated that 80 pct of the water goes subsidized to agriculture which is like 2 percent of the economy. They got into this family, the Resnicks of POM Wonderful and all the shady moves they made to control public water privately which caused this wake of issues including what you wrote about where families either had no water, tainted water or it was crazy expensive. California even bought back it's own water it invested to store in Kern county at a multiple. Insane stuff.
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