Revealed: Astroturf Groups Planning Massive California Water Grab to Benefit Big Ag and SoCal

The ruthlessness that corporate agribusiness and southern California water interests employed, through political bribery and thug-like tactics, to seize public trust water over the past century is well-documented in Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert and other books.

However, "big water" in California has refined and added an increasing sophistication to its strong arm tactics in the computer age by creating fake "Astroturf" organizations to deceive the public and promote its goals. The past few years have seen the creation of four "Astroturf" organizations -- Friends of the Delta, Families Protecting the Valley, the Latino Water Coalition and Coalition for a Sustainable Delta.

For those not aquainted with the term, "Astroturfing" is "an English-language euphemism referring to political, advertising, or public relations campaigns that are formally planned by an organization, but designed to mask its origins to create the impression of being spontaneous, popular 'grassroots' behavior. The term refers to AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass," according to Wikipedia.

Although their names are different, these four organizations represent the same San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness and southern California water agency interests that are trying to grab more Delta and northern California water. Their ultimate goals are to increase water exports from the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California by building a peripheral canal and more dams and to strip protections for Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other species under the Endangered Species Act.

Although there is a strong right wing Republican presence in these "organizations," they also share their goals with leading Democratic politicians including Senator Dianne Feinstein, Representative Jim Costa and Representative Dennis Cardoza on the federal level and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass on the state level. The bi-partisan support of the goals of "Big Water" is mostly graphically illustrated by how Steinberg and Bass collaborated with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this fall to ram a package through the legislature that creates a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal and more dams.

The corporate media, with a few notable exceptions, has for the most part quoted representatives of these "Astroturf" groups as if they are legitimate grassroots organizations with real grassroots members.

Delta Group Asks Astroturf Group to Cease and Desist

Only a brave few have stood up to counter the lies of the "Astroturf" organizations. Foremost in the battle to expose the Astroturf organizations for the shams that they are is Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta (RTD).

Barrigan-Parrilla on Tuesday, November 24, called on the "Friends of the Delta," an "Astroturf" group, to stop using RTD materials in information packets it distributes as part of a campaign to drum up support for the peripheral canal.

Unlike the incongruously named Friends of the Delta, Restore the Delta is an actual grassroots organization with a board, advisors and thousands of members. It is a broad coalition of Delta farmers, fishermen, environmentalists, the faith community and environmental justice advocates fighting for the restoration of the West Coast's largest estuary and to stop the peripheral canal.

On its website, the Friends of the Delta is described as "a non-profit organization focused on educating the public on the need for a comprehensive Delta restoration and an enhanced conveyance system with the long-term vision of supporting efforts to provide a sustainable water supply for California."