“The trouble with Scotland is that it’s full of Scots.”

(The English king Longshanks from the movie Braveheart)

 

After a fifteen year running battle that included petition drives, recall campaigns, verbal attacks on the mayor, buckets full of political mud and a tide of public acrimony; home owners in the City of Fresno are being forced to end their gallant rebellion and submit to the dominion of their water masters in the federal government.

 

The City of Fresno has been getting 40% of its water from the San Joaquin River through the federally administered Central Valley Project.  The problem for the rebels began when their 2006 contract renewal date began to approach.  Officials of the federal government, sensing the rebels’ vulnerability, demanded an unconditional surrender.   

 

Political pressure has been building for years as state and federal representatives, who represent cities and towns that live “with” water meters, have complained about those cities and towns that haven’t yet installed them. 

 

One by one the rebel outposts fell until there were only a few hold-outs left.  One was the City of Fresno.  Another is a suburb in Sacramento that somehow managed to get itself grandfathered into state water law.    

 

As the ramparts emptied, the citizens of Fresno found their position less and less defensible until now, with only 3% of the urban population of California living “without” meters, they were completely surrounded.

 

The end came on July 19, 2005, a day that will grate like sandpaper on their teeth for generations, when the Fresno City Council accepted the inevitable and agreed to a deal that will allow the city to continue using CVP water, but only on the condition that all homes in Fresno have water meters installed by 2013. 

 

Not everyone is happy.  Some are threatening to move into the hills of Bavaria to fight on, but the dye seems to be cast.