Buried deep in the bottom of an article about Water Agency funding in a small town newspaper in California we find the wave of the future---Do-It-Yourself Cap and Trade.
Really, you must brace yourself for the full implications of this program. First, allow yourself to contemplate a system in which a government agency, Sonoma County Water Agency, providing 352,000 people with water, will accept a grant from a non-profit organization. The California Water Foundation which 'supports investment in sustainable management of the state's water supply' is in the process of finalizing a $255,000 grant, some of which would go towards this:
Launching a pilot program that would allow the sale of efficiency credits between customers who come in below their normal water usage and those who exceed their threshold.
Should we say that again? Customers who come in below their normal water usage will sell their 'efficiency credits' to those who exceed their 'threshold.'
Did you get that? Those customers who exceed their allotment of water will have to buy credits from those who do not. Cap and trade for the average user of water. Will you buy water through an exchange. Will you bid on credits through a third party? Will you go to an auction where you struggle to acquire enough credits to water your garden, or take a shower every day? This is not an exaggeration. Just as Cap and Trade is being developed at the state-wide level in California to establish a market for carbon-based emissions, this program will establish a 'local cap and trade for water.' Penalties and credits for water usage. Yes, Sonoma County, known for 100% membership of cities and the county in ICLEI, known for having a County Supervisor (Valerie Brown) on the National Board of ICLEI, will now be known for creating a pilot program in individual cap and trade for a substance fundamental to sustaining life.
WATERSHED REGULATIONS
The Sonoma County Water Agency has put out a publication in which they say that every part of the county is in a watershed. This concept of expanding the idea of watersheds until it includes every property in the United States and beyond is catching hold.
Right now 40% of the United States is considered to be in a watershed, and that percentage is growing. Water run-off, drainage, in urban areas is being regulated and is giving Planning Departments the justification for denying building permits based on 'streamside thresholds.' The translation for this term encompasses any property, fully developed in an urban area or not, that stands in the way of rainwater moving toward some collector stream or body of water.
In Marin County, CA, any property owner who might wish to, for instance, build a garage on her suburban hillside property, will find that the local planning department will not allow that until it has mapped the direction of run-off on that hill. These maps are created when the property owner applies for a building permit and are paid for by the property owner at that time. In other words the property owner has no way of knowing whether she'll be able to build that garage until she pays for the study. The study establishes streams in fully developed urban areas where the 'stream' is the way that the rainwater finds its way through your property. Because these rules only affect one property owner at a time and only when he or she tries to get a development permit most people are unaware that the rules have changed.
Whether you're watering your yard, or taking a bath, or building a shed you will find UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development flooding into your life and drowning you in regulations, fees, and penalties. This is how you are driven out of rural and suburban areas. This is how you are priced out of your single family home. This is how you end up in Smart Growth. This is how you lose your business. This is Agenda 21.