S A L M O N
The First People - the Native American Tribes who lived by the Tuolumne River and surrounding area - the water that flows through the Tuolumne River - to fill the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
This act of stealing in broad daylight - without the input of all citizens - where California laws mandate that the public that owns the water - each and every drop - must be accounted for.
The Native Americans have long understood the injustice meted out to them - the harm done with intent to the Tuolumne River they love.
The ancestors who have taken care - and left pristine - only to be contaminated and polluted but the strangers - who do not respect Mother Earth.
The Native Americans - who have been here for over 15,000 years - cannot comprehend the injustice - that harm done by the " White Men ".
More - when the most beautiful Valley in the World - was damed - to create the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir - to satisfy the GREED of some powerful entities - who do as they please.
John Muir - the famous photographs and environmentalist who was very familiar with the area - fought hard - to preserve the Hetchy Hetchy Valley.
He and his supporters - lost his fight to keep the Hetchy Hetchy pristine - leading to his death - from acute despondency.
Those of us who value John Muir's commitment to Truth, Mother Earth and humanity - more as as artist, a photographer, and one of the most stellar environmentalist to live on this Earth. Muir Woods is name after him - but there is more.
Today, the strangers more thieves that stole the water - have a problem on their hands - more connected to their misdeeds and GREED - Climate Change - brought about by the pollution and contamination - as a result of the misdeeds of the strangers.
The Lyell glacier - the source of the water - that fills the Tuolumne River - has depleted its power to provide an abundance of water.
Years of pumping millions of gallons of water - have depleted the water levels.
Years - of severe drought - have forced the " thieves " - to be creative.
Create illegal mandates - and convoluted models - prompting those that need water - how much they can take and why - with little logic behind there mandates that make no sense.
The authorities have created divisiveness - and in the mix the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission created in 1996 - and until 10 years ago - just started taking interest in conserving, and understanding how important the water and its health - helps the Salmon.
The Salmon - who have visited certain locations to spawn - for thousands of years. Today the level of water are depleted - and the SF Public Utilities until very recently - included in the Salmon in their equation and policy making.
In the past - it was making money - more money - selling water to the many customers - many of them NOT mention in the Raker Act.
Sacramento and the authorities who call the shots have their models and plans - how best to implement some actions and its own " smelt test " for the Sacramento River and other Rivers.
When it comes to the Tuolumne River - the authorities that be have suggested a certain percentage of flow to the river to keep most parties happy - but this action - has caused more divisiveness.
Stating actions and percentages such as 50% use which are arbitrary at best - have triggered the ire of the customers who pump the water from the Sacred Tuolumne River.
One can argue and waste time - and that is happening at the SF Public Utilities Commission meetings - waste of our time.
Again and again the policies created - by the SF Public Utilities Staff - keep everyone confused - and with little or no - sound leadership.
The SFPUC staff keep mudding the waters - and expect us to go with the flow.
In this case - we the people -are concerned about the health of the Tuolumne River - and more importantly the benefits that are denied the Salmon.
Who will speak for the Salmon?
While - some determined percentage is necessary to maintain operations and services on the Tuolumne River - some serious and long time accommodation is required to keep and cater to the Salmon population - right now - this important factor is lacking.
As one can witness from all the meetings in Sacramento and San Francisco and in other places. Fake policy making in Washington D.C. - various experts giving their opinion most have a hidden agenda.
In most of the workshops and meetings - most, no one has their heart in the right place.
If one does not have their heart in the right place - one cannot take another to a better place. In this case - the one factor ignored - is that the Salmon are suffering and must not - the health of the river is measure by the health of the Salmon.
The Salmon have no voice in this important matter of procreation and healthy environment. The Salmon have always set the tone - bringing people to rejoice and perform rituals.
Providing sustenance and nurturing thousands all these many years.
That is until the " strangers" came took so much of the resources - wasted as much as they waste - now cry that they cannot fish.
Moan about the fishing season - when it is curtailed - to a minus period.
Never once acknowledging - how they took so much - wasted so much - never once in years past - thought about future generations. Always taking more - catering to GREED and being SELFISH.
We saw this with the depletion of herring right here in San Francisco.
We saw this with the abject and wasteful killing of the Buffalo for their skin.
Buffalo flesh heaped so high - huge mounds of flesh left to rot - the smell of rotting flesh - carried by the wind for miles - from the mounds of rotten Buffalo flesh - what a crime.
We saw this when the " old growth redwoods " were indiscriminately chopped - some trees fetch $100,000 each - in lumber.
Greed knows NO bounds and if have seen this again and again.
The "strangers" love to pollute the rivers, the lakes, the oceans and then decide - at later date - to clean up their mess.
It would be prudent and right - pause in the first place - to revere Mother Earth and treat Mother Earth with respect.
We cannot and should not subscribe to GREED and let down the Salmon's best interests - wither on the vine.
Not once have the authorities in Sacramento met the Elders from the Native American Tribe - discussed how the Elders think and feel about the contaminated rivers, lakes, the watershed, the air, the contamination of the land, the cutting of old growth and related issues .
Polluting and contaminating - harming human life - the strangers brought diseases and exposed the Native Americans to them - leading to the death of the Native Americans - in the thousands.
The Native Americans experienced first hand - the harm brought about by small pox and other diseases - wiping out entire villages.
When - the strangers came in contact with the First People - the Native Americans who land this is - Turtle Island - the Native American were generous as they were with most strangers who came in good faith - they thought of helping the "strangers ".
The paradox the strangers bit the hand that fed them - they do it to this day.
The harm the strangers do to this day - and we saw this in person - when we went to North Dakota - the North Dakota Pipeline fiasco.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) that was formed in 1996.
The SFPUC - in the past has put together a plan and creates a plan every 5 years to provide the SF Planning Commission - giving it some empirical data - linked to the distribution of " clean drinking water ".
More the number of housing units - the taller buildings like skyscrapers and the consumption of clean drinking water per unit.
This information - allows the SF Planning Department to do some assessment - but this gathering of the information - without the SF Public Utilities Commission - participation having better tools - no sound and vetted software - begs the question.
As in most cases - the SF Public Utilities Commission talks the the talk - but cannot walk the walk.
One has just to visit the many audits done - that the SFPUC has failed - gets a F - .
The SFPUC has failed us again and again - its Staff especially the Assistant General Manager for External Affairs / Chief Strategist - has NO history and lacks the qualified experience to make any meaningful decision.
This includes providing the SF Planning Department with viable and sustainable information.
Juliet Ellis is known corrupt person who sent to her former Non-Profit that she worked for - Green For All - while working for the SFPUC - a huge amount of tax payers money - some $200,000 that she had to return.
She was charged by the Fair Political Practices Commission - and had to pay a fine. Paradoxically this " evil " woman - still works for the SF Public Utilities Commission - and this is a crying shame. Juliet Ellis makes over $200,000 with benefits - and this and more is a crime.
The SF Public Utilities Commission has a plan to replace the thousands of miles of clean water drinking pipes and so far has done a very poor job.
Of the 1200 miles less than 10% have been replaced.
The plan was put in place in 2002 and this is 2019 - such are the ways of the SFPUC - inept, immoral, unethical - and the more one delves into the affairs of the SFPUC - the more one learn about characters like Juliet Ellis and her minions.
The SF Planning Department initiates the Environmental Impact Report and exercises the mandates as laid by California Environmental Quality Act.
The Public is left out - the deliberation at the SF Public Utilities Commission are drab - the public NOT provided the relevant and pertinent information.
It makes matter worse - when unqualified people - are appointed to the SF Public Utilities Commission - one of them - Sophie Maxwell.
Sophie Maxwell has no clue about important issues - as shown by her poor judgement and stupid questions - on the issues pertaining to Water Rights, Water Management - the distribution of water - linked to the Hetch Hetchy operations.
San Francisco has a population of 840,000 and the day time population can increase to one and a half million - depending on the large conventions, the ball games, concerts and so on.
All these beings use water and as San Francisco encourages skyscrapers and thousands of units - it is not paying attention to the mandates - laid down by Sacramento - we cannot break the law - and right now San Francisco is defying the mandates laid down - when it come to consumption of clean drink water - for the future.
We cannot and must not indiscriminately build skyscrapers - thousands of units - without paying attention to our resources - clean drinking and our aging sewer system.
Mother Earth made the Tuolumne River to flow freely - its pristine waters to sustain life - provide the necessary sustenance and opportunity for the Salmon to spawn as the Great Sprit intended - something the " White Men " will never, ever comprehend.
The Sacred Tuolumne River and other rivers - were welcomed by the Native Tribes - as the Salmon meandered to spawn and compete the Salmon's annual ritual - release its
eggs - spawn - and bid farewell at that point - when the salmon gives up its life.
The rituals - complete with fires welcoming the Salmon along the rivers - the tribes performing Sacred Rituals - and witnessing the spawning of the Salmon - giving more meaning to life and death.
Ending one circle of life and release opportunity for future life and existence.
The artificial intrusion by humans - collecting the salmon eggs - the creation and existence of fish nurseries.
Moving - moving the salmon from one area to another - often involving transporting far distances - all speak to an operation - that is interim at best - and artificial - contrary to nature.
People who do not respect Mother Earth - less are not spiritual - who are GREEDY - cause endless pain and suffering - and have destroyed ecological systems that were ones pristine - now polluted, contaminated and compromised.
The Salmon who swim the rivers to spawn and have made it to the Tuolumne Rivers - yearly gravitate to the Sacred Sites to spawn and then end their lives.
In the last 40 years more and more the Tuolumne River has been suffering.
The Native American Tribes - no more see a healthy Tuolumne River.
What they witness before their eyes - their heart very heavy - the pollution and contamination - which is too much to bear.
Over harvesting - and intrusion of pesticides and other toxic elements adversely impacting - all life.
The Native American Tribes own the river and the environs.
No determination linked to health and welfare of the Tuolumne River and other Rivers should be made without the Native American Elders - who should be present and allowed to deliberate at the table - without any hinderance.
The wisdom of the Elders is wanted in this meaningful dialogue - not the legalese and lying lawyers.
The lawyers are well known to gravitate towards money - foster GREED and are an anathema - to all things - decent and holistic.
The Native Americans - have for over 15,000 years - before the strangers came to Turtle Island - screwed it up for those that respect Mother Earth.
The Native American Tribes - kept the Tuolumne River pristine for thousands of years.
More than 15,000 years - this fact carbon dated - for the nay sayers.
The Native Americans are the only experts who have the wisdom to speak on behalf of the Salmon.
The Raker Act of 1913 was introduced in Congress by the crooks who led San Francisco - to steal the land, dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley, and destroy the very purpose of the Tuolumne River.
The source of the Tuolumne Rivers - once known - by those in touch with reality - as the " perpetual glacier " on the 13,000 foot high Mount Lyell.
The Raker Act spells the purpose of the Hetch Hetchy dam - the distribution of the water to San Francisco - some 160 miles plus from the Hetch Hetchy - the water, the river, the resources stolen from the Native American Tribes.
The Great Spirit sees it all - and today the strangers are at their wits end.
What will happen - when the waters fail them in the pursuit of greed and making more money - using resources that the Great Spirt gave - " water is life ".
There is NO one single document - suggestion or signaling - the Native American Tribes handed over or sold the land - in and around Yosemite.
More - the surrounding land - leases signed - willingly - nothing of that sort - ever happened. The land was stolen, the women raped, the children killed, and all this and more is never discussed - as part of a holistic way - looking at the situation.
We know who are the owners and we know who are the thieves.
On July 29, 1901 - San Francisco's Mayor Phelan filed for the water rights as a " private citizen ".
On October 15, 1901 he applied for the water rights at Hetch Hetchy and Lake Eleanor.
Mayor Phelan assigned his interests to the City of San Francisco in 1903.
This deceitful plan and concept must be noted - as it is the source of all - EVIL.
Mayor Phelan acting publicly in the name of the City of San Francisco would have risked losing out to the private capital of speculators. His plan from the inception was deceitful and remains so to this day.
First is was the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System - then the SF Water Department - today the SF Public Utilities Commission - formed in the year 1996 by a rogue Mayor - Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr.
At first the application to develop Hetch Hetcy was denied by Interior Secretary E. A. Hitchcock.
It was only in 1906 that an earlier Attorney General's opinion came to light, advising the Interior Secretary that he did in fact have the authority to negotiate and grant leases.
In early 1906 some 1,200 land owners in the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts feared for their rights linked to the Tuolumne River - they protested the moves made by San Francisco to have access to the Tuolumne River and more damming the river.
They petitioned the SF Board of Supervisors now controlled by Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz who succeeded Mayor Phelan in 1902.
Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz - promptly adopted resolution No. 6949 in February, 1902 - formally abandoning the Hetch Hetchy - project.
It was only after the 1906 Earthquake - there was a renewed interest in other sources for water that San Francisco badly needed.
Earlier papers that were filed with by Mayor Phelan were destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire.
On April 22, 1908 - City Engineer Madsen Manson filed duplicates of the Phelan maps with Secretary of Interior Garfeld - because the Federal Government has returned the originals in 1903.
He signed the rights over to the City of San Francisco for one dollar.
In between there were three or four rounds - vested interests protesting again building the Hetch Hetchy project. History has recorded it all - and I can go into the ins and outs - but it will take a lot of writing - suffice to say at one point the Hetch Hetch project resurrected - through the effort of William Randolph Hearst - the editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner.
William Randolph Hearst had the clout and this coast to coast chain of newspapers - was used to create a 16 page special edition about the forthcoming Hetch Hetchy project - the much need water needed by San Francisco - showcasing the 1906 Earthquake and Fire - and the urgent need to build a Water System and Dam at Hetch Hetchy.
On the front page were statement from the Vice President of the United States Thomas R. Marshall and the then Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, the Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, and the Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston.
The historic Examiner also printed a telegram from the parties that once did not support the plan - that they now supported it - the Irrigation Districts and their respective authorities - from Modesto and Turlock - advising of their joint meeting and decision to support San Francisco.
The Raker Act was signed into law on December 19, 1913.
The then President of the United States of America President Woodrow Wilson.
Suffice to say the mandates laid within the Raker Act have NOT been kept - and the enforcement comes from under certain mandates.
The Raker Act mandates and clearly states California State laws relating to the control and appropriation of water.
The water was of extremest importance to San Francisco - because the city holds water right under California law - not the Raker Act.
Suffice to say today the SF Public Utilities Commission has defied the will of the people - and hired unscrupulous employees the likes of Juliet Ellis - outsiders like Dwayne Jones - who waste millions - our Community Benefits - some $600 million.
The Water System Improvement Project (WSIP) has failed us - more at Mountain Tunnel, Calaveras Dam, Irvington Tunnel, over 1200 miles of clean water pipes leaching - all over San Francisco - a mere 10% replaced.
The Sewer System Improvement Project (SSIP) started as a $6 billion project and has now reached over $12 billion - without any accountability and transparency. Time will tell.
I have been monitoring the two project the WSIP and SSIP for the last 35 years. Watching the crooks like a hawk. Aho.
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