Our relatives have been patient. He worries because there isnt enough water now to properly irrigate the almonds, pistachios, and pomegranates. From the vaulted ceilings with gold-leaf moldings hung two blown-glass chandeliers. As the head of a quasi-public agency, he knows he cant completely blow off my questions. Im in a dire situation.. All of it was Lyndas doing, of course. He bought his first San Joaquin Valley parcel in 1994 when he invested in a foreclosed property in Kings County. Boswell pumps reach 2,500 feet into the earth looking for water to grow crops, looking for water to sell. This must be the spot the Wonderful field man was describing. But its here in the bottom of long-gone Tulare Lake, which once held more fresh water than Lake Tahoe, where a conflict has turned heated. 2019 - 2023 The San Joaquin Valley Sun, a project of, Meet the water baron you (likely) havent heard of, Calif. OKs 2036 ban on diesel truck sales, Newsom slaps down tax hike proposal to close deficit, Yosemite Valley reopens as flooding worries subside, Saints 4th round pick brings Fresno St.s Haener, Carr together, now writing exclusively for her own service, SJVWater. Deadly in the rush of harvest, deadly in the quiet of fog, deadly in the blur of Saturday nights when the fieldwork is done and the beer drinking becomes a second humiliation. I didnt see the tumbleweeds along the roadside and the strip of parched earth that separated what remained of the desert from the perfect rows of irrigated agriculture. On this same stretch of 99, I once wrote a story about farmworkers who moonlighted as meth cookers to make ends meet. The wide-open middle of California did its lullaby on me again. Correction: August 8, 2022 An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Stanford grad James Griffin "J.G." What happens to Wonderful? He emptied the sky of tens of millions of geese and drained the 800 square miles of Tulare Lake dry. It takes my visiting the irrigation district office during a public meeting for him to cough up more details. Its John Vidovich. When he materializes onstage, he is wearing narrow black jeans, a black mock turtleneck, and a dark jacket. She was aiming to surround herself with famous actors and artists and public intellectuals. The court settlement allows him to take the water to Dudley Ridge, but it cant go outside Kings County. Weve had our battles in the past, and I dont agree with everything hes doing. For the next two or three seconds, the almonds pour down like hail. He works year-round for Wonderful. Ive never seen her up close, never watched her in action. The new plantings arent cotton, alfalfa, or carrotsthe crops a farmer can decide not to seed when water becomes scarce. I pity the outsider trying to make sense of it. Here, a crew has dug a culvert beneath the road and hiked the pipeline under the asphalt that divides one field from another. It wouldnt even make a couple of sections of his almonds. Hes oblivious, or so it seems. This water basically came from a land owned by someone whos also a near billionaire a guy named John Vidovich. They were farmers back in San Antonio, growing lettuce, cilantro, and radishes on a small plot of land. Selfo works 50 hours a week as an irrigator. Its a water-saving method, Vidovich said. I kept my notes and tapes and waited for another day. Its gone, I say. California is free to return to its amnesia. When I started to realize the socioeconomic issues of the Central Valley, I decided to stop writing checks to other charities and bring my business acumen into the project. A husband and wife sharing the reins is rare for corporate America, rarer still for industrial agriculture. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. He isnt farming dirt, Arax wrote. The way the Bobcat goes full steam, it takes but a few seconds of splendid violence to uproot a tree. Like J.W. The states massive plumbing system is sending virtually nothing to farmers. The Mojave Water Agency in the high desert needed a backup supply to serve its growing communities of Barstow and Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville. If only Eve had offered Adam a pomegranate instead of an apple, Lynda wrote, every day could have been a holiday.. And in fact these guys were able to squeeze and buy water in the open market, and do a few other things to keep their crops going and they were in the midst of drought. Thats a billion-dollar crop. Is John Vidovich Planning to Sell Off the Valley's Lifeblood? The pistachio trees in Wonderful number 6 million. He takes a look at his watch. His grandfather Resnick had fled the Ukraine in the wake of another killing of Jews by Cossacks. For generations, the company has supplied steady work for Kings County families and has been an integral part of the regions identity, helping to build a community park, the YMCA, Corcoran District Hospital and the high school football stadium. The 20-year-olds look like 20-year-olds; the 30-year-olds, like 40-year-olds; the 40-year-olds, like 60-year-olds. He replenished it by shipping water from his property in Tulare County, 25 miles away, infuriating locals there. Scott: So we should talk about the labor that makes this all possible. What do you need to know, sir?, Whats it been like here during the drought?, Drought, no drought, makes no difference. The problem is this last drought lasted five years. During the drought, the Boswell Company has drilled 52 holes into the old lake bottomseven of these wells reaching a depth of 2,500 feet. Like the waters of the lake, the indent of the Resnicks will recede from the land, too. He found it. Vidovich has a unique perspective on Stewart Resnick and the acres of crops that have made Wonderful a success, as he tells Arax . He had an industrial machine, hardly used, that scrubbed and waxed floors. The extraction of water beneath the lake bottom wont last forever. They are still paying off the $27,000 debt to relatives who hired the coyote. She was in her late 20s, almost a decade younger than Stewart, and the mother of two children. Because the more you invested in your employees and their communities, the more productive they became. We hope you enjoy Finding Lost Hills., The 11-minute film opens with a shot of swirling dust. Rethink Your Drink is the latest slogan. You dont lose one drop at all.. Its loaded, Bernard says. That was eight or nine years ago. Conceived by Lynda, it cost one fortune to build and a second fortune to light up. Water is what led me to Stewart Resnick in the winter of 2003. And he was able to use canals and pumping stations to then get that water in this pipeline that very secretively was connected to irrigation ditches in Lost Hills. The project would take five days to completewhen the canal wasnt in use. Hes carrying 55,000 pounds of crop in two swaggering trailers open to the sun. I did not name the town, Lynda says. The sober man died. (SJV Water/ Lois Henry) A large water pipeline being built near Lemoore in Kings County is raising eyebrows as much for its possible uses as for the name associated with its construction John Vidovich. The junk scattered about could be a lot worse. Comprehensive company profiles. I walk to another part of the orchard and watch phase two. Three dogs, part pit bull, the menacing part, have given up on the shade and lie on the open road. Hes thankful to the Resnicks, especially Lady Lynda, for that. The Newsom Water Resilience Portfolio has seven investment principles, none of which includes the actions of water entrepreneurs, such as farmer John Vidovich who has been trying to put together a voluntary speculative groundwater market in Kern County for dry years. Through the haze I can see the knoll of the aqueduct come closer. You look like Border Patrol undercover.. If you study his moves, you can see a method to the acres he is accumulating. The helicopter buzzing started in February, scattering cattle. And so I began with slaughter and madness and then moved on to bartenders for fathers. This is a forgotten community. He saved up a down payment for a raisin ranch west of Fresno, where my father was born in the worst of the Great Depression. Groundwater agencies up and down the San Joaquin Valley had to file plans with the Department of Water Resources earlier this year showing . But she doesnt dictate this or that. Angelica would prefer not to get into the details of their financial arrangement. Each section of pipe is 40 feet long. No stranger enters this zone unless its to get rid of a body or dump waste from cooking meth or drown a hot car. No farmer ever is. I cut across Twisselman Road to the pipeline gliding along the aqueduct like a silver snake. His real estate empire became big enough to bring aboard each of his four children. From a safe, Ellsberg had lifted the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of how successive presidents lied to the public to cover up the failings of the Vietnam War. Im a billionaire. Hes got an awful temper hes trying to control through Kabbalah. She is here and there, but I have never seen her up close. In Vidovich, J.G. Shes now providing tutors and counselors in every region of California to boost the graduation rate. Were still trying to figure out who our typical customer is going to be, Angelica says. We changed the culture of safety, and we think we can do the same with health, Anzaldo says. He got himself into this jam. Thats our goal. The agency did not balk at the price tag: $5,321 an acre-foot. Ultimately,youre going to dry up that aquifer under the earth, and thats whats happening now. And that scares the hell out of everybody who lives here..