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Downloaded from
YTS.BZ

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.BZ

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[light buzzing]

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[traffic humming]

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[Yasha] Should we,
like, ring the doorbell?

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[intercom ringing]

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-[staff member] Hello?
-Yeah. Hi.

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My name is Yasha Levine.

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I'm a co-director of a documentary
about water in California.

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[staff member] Uh-huh.

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I'm wondering if I can get in touch

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with Lynda Resnick in some capacity here

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to ask her about the water and the drought

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and some of her work in Lost Hills.

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I've been trying to get in touch with her

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through her company,
but I've had no success there,

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so I'm just...

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[staff member] Okay.
Hold on for a moment.

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Sure.

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[intercom ringing]

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Hello.

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How's it going?

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-How are you?
-[security speaking indistinctly]

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Sorry, I can't hear you.

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Can you ask him just to stop filming?

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He wants you to stop filming.

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Um, I was trying to...

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I was talking to a young lady
that keeps cutting out.

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So I was trying to ask her
how I can get in touch with Lynda Resnick,

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because we're making a documentary
about water in California.

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I was trying to get in touch with her.

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The best person to talk to
is corporate offices.

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-Okay.
-If you have a number,

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I can give you the...

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[Yasha] Behind these gates
is one of the biggest mansions

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in Beverly Hills.

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The people who live here
aren't movie stars

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or Hollywood moguls.

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They're farmers.
The biggest in California.

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They're the ones
who make those crazy pistachio ads.

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[cracking]

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Pistachio.

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[tense sting]

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[Yasha] What am I doing here
outside their house?

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That's a long story. So let me back up.

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-[audio winding]
-[lively music]

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My name's Yasha Levine.

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I was born in the Soviet Union,
in Leningrad.

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[lively music]

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My parents always hated the Soviet system.

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They wanted to get us out
any way they could.

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[lively music]

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After spending time
in refugee camps in Europe,

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we ended up in San Francisco.

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[lively music]

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Arriving here as an immigrant kid
after living in Russia,

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what I remember most
was a sense of abundance.

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[lively music]

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I grew up thinking
California was a paradise.

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[mellow music]

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It wasn't until years later
when I started working as a journalist

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that my ideas about this place
started to change.

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[ominous music]

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In 2009, I was chasing down a story

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that took me
to the edge of California.

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Victorville, a suburb way out
in the middle of nowhere

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in the Mojave Desert.

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During the real estate boom years,

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Victorville was one of the
fastest-growing cities in America,

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a desolate, endless sprawl
of some of the cheapest homes

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that money could buy.

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[ominous music]

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It was right after
the 2008 Wall Street crash.

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It felt like a zombie apocalypse
had swept through town.

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[ominous music]

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I had moved there to investigate
the housing bubble,

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but I stumbled in another strange story.

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Victorville had expanded
so fast during the boom

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that it ran out of water.

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[ominous music]

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To keep feeding the growth,

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the city turned
to a shadowy private market.

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It was buying water from a wealthy farmer

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who lived hundreds of miles away,

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all the way north in Silicon Valley.

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The deals were worth millions

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and they were being funneled through
a privately owned water bank.

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As I dug into the details,

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I realized that this was much bigger
than just Victorville.

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It turned out that a small group
of powerful families

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had seized control
of California's water supply.

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Even weirder was that
the whole thing was being driven

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by a pair of high-society
billionaires from Beverly Hills.

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-[people chattering]
-[camera shutters clicking]

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They made their money off pistachios.

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-[bag pops]
-[mellow music]

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But what really made them stand out

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was that they owned more water
than anyone else on the planet.

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[mellow music]

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Maybe it's because I moved here as a kid,

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but I still had an idealized view
of California.

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This wasn't supposed to be
the kind of place

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where a pair of billionaires
could buy up the water supply.

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♪ I love you, California ♪

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[Yasha] So I roped in a filmmaker friend

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and we set out to tell their story.

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[ominous music]

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[ominous music]

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When we started filming,

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California was in the middle
of its worst drought in history.

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There were fires in the Hollywood Hills.

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It hadn't been this dry
in over a thousand years.

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We figured the best way to tell this story
was to take a road trip.

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So we packed up the car
and headed north out of Los Angeles.

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[tense music]

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When you think about wealth in California,

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you think Silicon Valley and Hollywood.

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No one thinks about the Central Valley.

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A flat and desolate landscape,

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carved up into never-ending farms
and feed lots.

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[ominous music]

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It's a part of California
no one wants to visit,

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much less pay any real attention to,

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and that suits the people
who own everything out here just fine.

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[ominous music]

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[ominous music continues]

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After about two hours on the road,

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we pulled off the main highway

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and headed for the west side
of the Valley.

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[tense music]

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From the road,
this place looks like nothing,

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but we're actually driving through
the largest farm in America.

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[ominous music]

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Even with a drone,
you can only capture small sections of it.

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It covers an area
10 times the size of Manhattan,

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mostly with almonds and pistachios.

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And the whole thing
belongs to just two people.

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Stewart and Lynda Resnick.

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If you see them out in public,

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it's probably gonna be
on the red carpet in LA.

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There's a whole wing with their name on it
at the city's art museum.

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[tense music]

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They're billionaires many times over.

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They live in the biggest, ritziest mansion
on Sunset Boulevard,

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famous for its celebrity parties.

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-[upbeat music]
-[people chattering]

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Driving around this dusty backwater,

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you have to wonder,
how did two Beverly Hills types

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end up out here
as America's biggest farmers?

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Well, it's actually a love story
that goes back 50 years.

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[mellow music]

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Stewart came to California
from New Jersey.

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He says he grew up poor.

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That's the way I worked
my way through college,

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was cleaning windows
in park La Brea Towers.

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[Yasha] He managed to flip a janitorial
business he started in college

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for millions of dollars.

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Then he opened up a private security firm

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and quickly built it
into the largest in LA.

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He had 3,000 armed agents

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and a former chief of police
on his payroll.

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-[engine roaring]
-[tense music]

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In the 1970s,

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his company was running security
at LA's main airport.

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It was all going great

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right up until his guards got busted
smuggling blocks of pure heroin.

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[tense music]

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The FBI said the company
was linked to organized crime.

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[tense music]

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None of the charges ever stuck to Stewart,

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but he has hinted in interviews
that he grew up around the Mob.

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Lynda was born in Philly,
but she grew up in Hollywood.

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Her father was a movie producer,

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famous for making a 1950s cult hit

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The Blob.

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[announcer] Every one of you
watching this screen, look out.

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The most horrifying monster menace
ever conceived

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will be oozing into this theater.

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-[tense music]
-[group screaming]

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On our fifth date, I confessed to Stewart

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that I once xeroxed
some top-secret papers.

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He didn't believe me.

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But he did believe me months later

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when the FBI came to the house
armed with a subpoena

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to appear before the grand jury
the next morning.

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[Yasha] In the '60s,
Lynda hung out in radical circles.

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I owned an A12 copier

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that Daniel Ellsberg used
to copy the Pentagon Papers.

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[sparse applause]

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[Yasha] She likes to talk up
her counterculture cred,

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but really, she was always
more of a marketing person.

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She started her own agency
at the age of 19, Lynda Limited.

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That's how she and Stewart
first got together.

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Well, we met because
I had an advertising agency

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and I was pitching his account,
so to speak.

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He didn't give me the account,
but he sure gave me the business.

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[audience laughing]

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[mellow music]

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[Yasha] After they got married,
with Stewart's money,

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they started buying up companies.

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The sorts of places Lynda could juice up
with her marketing skills,

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mostly trinkets and tacky gifts.

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[ominous music]

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They got into farming almost by accident,

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first buying up land as a hedge
against inflation in the 1970s.

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As they were picking up land,

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they also picked up another company,
Paramount Farms.

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And just like that,
they were in the agriculture business.

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[tense music]

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[narrator] The wagons
came in a rush then

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as the lure of gold drew them

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with promise of great and sudden wealth.

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[Yasha] Farming in California
goes right back to the Gold Rush.

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It was a land grab and a free-for-all.

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[ominous music]

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California's first big cattle baron,
Henry Miller,

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built an empire
the length of the state.

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In large part
by using corrupt courts and fraud.

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[ominous music]

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Even a century ago,

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farm families had mansions
in San Francisco and Oakland.

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They lived like a new aristocracy,

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socializing among themselves
and intermarrying.

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Farmers owned banks and railroads.

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They sat on the boards
of major corporations.

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It's always been a conservative

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and almost exclusively Anglo world.

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For generations, these farmers
had mostly kept to themselves,

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operating in the background.

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That is until the Resnicks arrived.

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[suspenseful music]

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[Lynda] "Rubies in the Orchard"
will show you

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how to discover the intrinsic rubies

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00:12:29,583 --> 00:12:34,622
in your metaphorical orchard,
in your business, your cause,

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and even if the brand is you.

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[suspenseful music]

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[Yasha] The thing
that set the Resnicks apart

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was Lynda's background in marketing.

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They took whatever crops
were growing on their land

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and turned them into high-end products.

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Stewart was very much
into this pomegranate idea.

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I wrote these letters on a piece of paper

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and I said,
"Here's the name of your product."

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And that was like divine intervention.

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[Yasha] Their first big hit
was a pomegranate juice.

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They used their LA connections
to get celebrity endorsements,

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and the product took off.

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-Pomtini.
-Yes.

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So we fill our...
One and a half ounces of vodka.

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00:13:14,562 --> 00:13:15,495
Yeah.

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[Yasha] They hit upon a formula
that was actually pretty simple.

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Take a dull snack food and launch it
with a huge ad campaign.

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["Gangnam Style" by PSY]

254
00:13:27,775 --> 00:13:28,908
♪ Gangnam style ♪

255
00:13:28,975 --> 00:13:31,045
♪ Crack, crack, crack, crack ♪

256
00:13:31,112 --> 00:13:32,445
♪ Cracking Gangnam style ♪

257
00:13:32,513 --> 00:13:34,982
♪ Eh-eh-eh, eh-eh-eh ♪

258
00:13:35,048 --> 00:13:36,683
♪ Gangnam style ♪

259
00:13:36,750 --> 00:13:37,752
[Yasha] Before the Resnicks,

260
00:13:37,818 --> 00:13:39,387
people barely ate these things in America.

261
00:13:39,453 --> 00:13:41,288
♪ Eh-eh-eh, eh-eh-eh ♪

262
00:13:41,355 --> 00:13:42,388
[thud]

263
00:13:42,455 --> 00:13:44,625
[Yasha] Now they're
in every supermarket.

264
00:13:44,692 --> 00:13:48,328
Folks, evidently, sales of pistachios
have not skyrocketed

265
00:13:48,395 --> 00:13:51,532
in the last 30 seconds
due to a lack of branding.

266
00:13:51,598 --> 00:13:53,133
Well, let's take care of that.

267
00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:55,937
Pistachio, pistachio, wait for it.

268
00:13:56,003 --> 00:13:57,103
[cracking]

269
00:13:57,170 --> 00:13:58,272
Pistachio.

270
00:13:58,338 --> 00:13:59,373
[tense sting]

271
00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,575
[ominous music]

272
00:14:01,642 --> 00:14:04,545
[Yasha] The marketing was such a hit,
it triggered a boom.

273
00:14:07,982 --> 00:14:10,417
Farmers all over the Valley
followed their lead

274
00:14:10,483 --> 00:14:11,785
and planted pistachios.

275
00:14:16,090 --> 00:14:18,958
You know, it's just luck and privilege

276
00:14:19,025 --> 00:14:21,028
that I'm able to do this.

277
00:14:21,095 --> 00:14:23,997
[Yasha] As they went
from multimillionaires to billionaires,

278
00:14:24,063 --> 00:14:25,900
the Resnicks climbed the social ladder.

279
00:14:25,967 --> 00:14:29,870
So I realized that that is my obligation

280
00:14:29,937 --> 00:14:32,773
as a human being on this planet,
to give back as much as I can.

281
00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:34,675
[audience applauding]

282
00:14:38,312 --> 00:14:40,580
[Yasha] They brought all
their products under one brand

283
00:14:40,647 --> 00:14:42,683
and called it The Wonderful Company.

284
00:14:43,617 --> 00:14:47,822
We believe that we can do well
by doing good.

285
00:14:47,888 --> 00:14:50,490
[Yasha] They started to market
their company and themselves

286
00:14:50,557 --> 00:14:52,225
as a new way of doing business.

287
00:14:52,292 --> 00:14:53,660
[lively music]

288
00:14:55,595 --> 00:14:57,898
We started in a little town
called Lost Hills,

289
00:14:57,965 --> 00:15:02,235
2,500 people, 41% of the households
work for our company,

290
00:15:02,302 --> 00:15:04,972
one of our companies
out there in the Valley and...

291
00:15:05,038 --> 00:15:07,073
[Yasha] They like to highlight
their work in Lost Hills,

292
00:15:07,140 --> 00:15:11,112
a small, impoverished town populated
mostly by the company's own workers.

293
00:15:12,078 --> 00:15:14,013
[man] I was contacted by Lynda.

294
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:15,882
You could tell at the beginning
of the phone call,

295
00:15:15,950 --> 00:15:17,685
she was ready to change
the Central Valley.

296
00:15:18,185 --> 00:15:21,522
She wanted to change
the quality of life in Lost Hills.

297
00:15:21,588 --> 00:15:24,692
[Lynda] I had reached a moment in my life

298
00:15:24,758 --> 00:15:29,397
where I had to give back
in a meaningful way.

299
00:15:29,463 --> 00:15:31,032
[lively music]

300
00:15:31,098 --> 00:15:33,467
I did not name the town. [chuckling]

301
00:15:33,533 --> 00:15:36,403
But I couldn't have picked
a more cinematic name

302
00:15:36,470 --> 00:15:39,707
than Lost Hills
because it's so much fun to say

303
00:15:39,773 --> 00:15:41,742
that Lost Hills has been found.

304
00:15:42,643 --> 00:15:44,578
[children chattering]

305
00:15:44,645 --> 00:15:46,647
[ominous music]

306
00:15:52,853 --> 00:15:55,422
[Yasha] The town is way out
on the western edge of the Valley,

307
00:15:55,488 --> 00:15:57,290
north of the company's fields.

308
00:15:59,092 --> 00:16:00,627
Besides a truck stop off the highway,

309
00:16:00,693 --> 00:16:02,328
it's miles away from anywhere.

310
00:16:02,395 --> 00:16:04,398
[ominous music]

311
00:16:07,233 --> 00:16:10,270
As you drive in from the south,
the place doesn't look so bad.

312
00:16:12,038 --> 00:16:13,807
There's a nicely renovated promenade

313
00:16:13,873 --> 00:16:16,043
leading up
to a park in the center of town.

314
00:16:17,177 --> 00:16:19,880
-[water pattering]
-[children chattering]

315
00:16:23,083 --> 00:16:24,452
We were meeting a local health worker

316
00:16:24,518 --> 00:16:26,553
who had agreed to show us around.

317
00:16:26,620 --> 00:16:28,755
-There were spec monitors.
-Yeah, and you can

318
00:16:28,822 --> 00:16:31,258
almost even see it on the map now.

319
00:16:31,325 --> 00:16:33,693
It wasn't long before someone
from the company turned up,

320
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:35,095
wanting to know what was going on.

321
00:16:35,162 --> 00:16:37,297
I'm Dr. Rosanna Esparza. Who are you?

322
00:16:37,363 --> 00:16:38,898
I'm [speaks faintly].

323
00:16:38,965 --> 00:16:40,233
-Oh, nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you.

324
00:16:40,300 --> 00:16:41,935
We have community meetings
here all the time.

325
00:16:42,002 --> 00:16:43,237
She was here for a number of years.

326
00:16:43,303 --> 00:16:45,372
Do you mind if we not film this?

327
00:16:45,872 --> 00:16:46,873
Do you have permission...

328
00:16:46,940 --> 00:16:48,642
'Cause this is a commercial
documentary you're making.

329
00:16:48,708 --> 00:16:50,443
Do you have permission
from the county to be out here?

330
00:16:50,510 --> 00:16:51,478
-[Rosanna] Mm-hmm.
-Do you mind

331
00:16:51,545 --> 00:16:53,180
-if I see the permits?
-[Rosanna] Do you have a card?

332
00:16:53,247 --> 00:16:55,615
[Yasha] If you take a deeper look
around this town,

333
00:16:55,682 --> 00:16:58,452
it's clear why the company gets nervous
about people with cameras.

334
00:16:59,820 --> 00:17:01,322
Once you get off the main drag,

335
00:17:01,388 --> 00:17:03,157
the place looks nothing
like their corporate PR.

336
00:17:05,358 --> 00:17:07,895
There's no infrastructure here,
so there's no bank,

337
00:17:07,962 --> 00:17:09,228
there's no libraries,

338
00:17:10,997 --> 00:17:12,365
there's no pharmacy.

339
00:17:12,432 --> 00:17:15,568
I could go on and on
and list everything that is not.

340
00:17:17,002 --> 00:17:18,838
[Yasha] Rosanna grew up
out here in California.

341
00:17:20,173 --> 00:17:21,442
After she got her PhD,

342
00:17:21,508 --> 00:17:23,242
she came back to work in the community.

343
00:17:23,310 --> 00:17:24,478
Hello.

344
00:17:25,744 --> 00:17:27,280
[Yasha] Do people know you around here?

345
00:17:27,347 --> 00:17:29,817
Oh, not really.
I mean, I come to do the health surveys

346
00:17:29,883 --> 00:17:33,853
and I come and I ask people
to participate in our monthly meetings,

347
00:17:34,522 --> 00:17:36,657
trying to familiarize them with me.

348
00:17:37,690 --> 00:17:41,228
Do you drink the water here
out of the faucet?

349
00:17:41,295 --> 00:17:44,030
Yeah, and you don't think
it tastes funny or anything?

350
00:17:44,965 --> 00:17:47,233
-I drink soda.
-[Yasha] You drink soda only?

351
00:17:47,300 --> 00:17:48,602
What's your favorite soda?

352
00:17:49,670 --> 00:17:50,803
[child] Dr. Pepper.

353
00:17:51,438 --> 00:17:53,407
[Rosanna] You drink water too?

354
00:17:54,140 --> 00:17:56,877
[Yasha] The Central Valley is one
of the poorest places in America

355
00:17:57,543 --> 00:17:59,245
and Lost Hills is poor,

356
00:17:59,312 --> 00:18:01,582
even by the standards
of the Central Valley.

357
00:18:03,350 --> 00:18:04,885
There really is nothing here.

358
00:18:05,552 --> 00:18:08,522
The town center is just the intersection
of two busy highways.

359
00:18:10,290 --> 00:18:12,292
[ominous music]

360
00:18:12,358 --> 00:18:14,628
If you drive past
the spruced-up promenade,

361
00:18:14,695 --> 00:18:16,930
you hit an oil field and a refinery.

362
00:18:16,997 --> 00:18:18,965
[ominous music]

363
00:18:19,032 --> 00:18:21,902
It was the site of one
of the biggest well blowouts in history.

364
00:18:22,535 --> 00:18:25,138
A giant gas fire
that took two weeks to put out.

365
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:28,142
[indistinct radio chatter]

366
00:18:29,275 --> 00:18:32,813
The fumes from the oil refinery
add to air quality problems here.

367
00:18:33,747 --> 00:18:37,283
Number three, this one,
we're getting a lot of benzene,

368
00:18:37,350 --> 00:18:39,385
benzene and ethyl benzene.

369
00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:44,992
[Rosanna in Spanish] These young men
are making a movie.

370
00:18:45,058 --> 00:18:46,960
[in English] Forty years she's lived here.

371
00:18:47,027 --> 00:18:52,165
[in Spanish] At first, I worked
15 years in the pistachio fields.

372
00:18:52,232 --> 00:18:57,603
[Rosanna in Spanish] Was it at Paramount
pistachios and almonds? Or...

373
00:18:57,670 --> 00:18:59,907
Yes, it was almonds and pistachios.

374
00:18:59,973 --> 00:19:05,678
But because I'm living here, I get asthma.

375
00:19:05,745 --> 00:19:10,617
They say that it's the soil,
that there's something in the air.

376
00:19:11,652 --> 00:19:16,590
Did you ever have problems
with your "thyoritis"?

377
00:19:16,657 --> 00:19:17,992
Thyroids?

378
00:19:18,058 --> 00:19:20,527
They removed it because I had a growth.

379
00:19:20,593 --> 00:19:22,262
[Rosanna in English]
We have someone else joining us.

380
00:19:22,328 --> 00:19:23,363
[woman in Spanish] Come in!

381
00:19:23,430 --> 00:19:27,167
[Rosanna in Spanish]
We are here with our friends.

382
00:19:28,802 --> 00:19:31,372
-[Rosanna] Asthma?
-Headaches. Always the headaches.

383
00:19:31,438 --> 00:19:32,572
[Rosanna in English] Always a headache.

384
00:19:32,638 --> 00:19:34,808
[Yasha in English] What, do they spray
from an airplane or...?

385
00:19:34,875 --> 00:19:37,177
[in Spanish] Sometimes from a plane.

386
00:19:37,243 --> 00:19:39,478
It depends on what kind of spray
they want to use.

387
00:19:40,847 --> 00:19:42,950
Well, yeah. I have all
the diseases in the world.

388
00:19:43,017 --> 00:19:44,017
[group chuckling]

389
00:19:44,083 --> 00:19:45,485
[Yasha] As we talked to more people,

390
00:19:45,552 --> 00:19:46,953
we found that the other big issue here

391
00:19:47,020 --> 00:19:49,322
is that the tap water is undrinkable.

392
00:19:49,388 --> 00:19:52,192
[in Spanish] Yes, well, it seems like
they put a lot of chemicals in it

393
00:19:52,258 --> 00:19:57,330
so you can't just drink the water easily,

394
00:19:57,397 --> 00:19:59,365
unless it's an emergency.

395
00:19:59,432 --> 00:20:02,568
That's why we don't drink it.

396
00:20:02,635 --> 00:20:05,638
Is there anyone in the bathroom, Martha?

397
00:20:05,705 --> 00:20:07,273
They're in new condition... from here.

398
00:20:07,340 --> 00:20:09,242
But see what the water is doing, look.

399
00:20:10,177 --> 00:20:11,645
The faucet is rotten.

400
00:20:11,712 --> 00:20:13,447
[Yasha] People said
it rotted their pipes

401
00:20:13,513 --> 00:20:15,382
and gave their children skin problems.

402
00:20:15,448 --> 00:20:18,718
Anything the water touched built up
a weird chemical residue.

403
00:20:19,620 --> 00:20:22,155
[rooster crowing]

404
00:20:22,222 --> 00:20:25,192
[in Spanish] This one,
the motor just stopped working.

405
00:20:25,258 --> 00:20:27,693
Look, it got all tangled up.

406
00:20:29,228 --> 00:20:34,668
Look at how it's already building up,
all that... all that stuff.

407
00:20:35,668 --> 00:20:39,405
Like I was saying, here it's already
beginning to expel this... this thing.

408
00:20:39,472 --> 00:20:40,873
It's this, look.

409
00:20:40,940 --> 00:20:45,912
If they could examine this,
they would notice that like over there

410
00:20:45,978 --> 00:20:47,547
it turned to salt.

411
00:20:47,613 --> 00:20:49,282
[chickens clucking]

412
00:20:51,217 --> 00:20:54,622
[Rosanna] Did this happen
to any of your other children?

413
00:20:54,688 --> 00:20:58,625
[man] He's been scratching it,
and the more he scratches it...

414
00:20:58,692 --> 00:21:01,528
I think this problem
is because of the water.

415
00:21:02,795 --> 00:21:07,100
It starts off with a little speck,
and he keeps scratching it.

416
00:21:07,167 --> 00:21:11,838
But we put...
and we took him to the doctor.

417
00:21:13,707 --> 00:21:15,842
[Yasha] The problem
began a few years back

418
00:21:15,908 --> 00:21:17,610
when the town started using a new system

419
00:21:17,677 --> 00:21:20,213
to treat unsafe levels of arsenic
in the water.

420
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:21,982
[Yasha] Do you remember
when you were younger,

421
00:21:22,048 --> 00:21:23,683
that people drank from the tap?

422
00:21:23,750 --> 00:21:26,085
Yeah, I used to drink
from the tap water.

423
00:21:26,152 --> 00:21:27,187
When did it change?

424
00:21:27,253 --> 00:21:28,288
-When?
-Yeah.

425
00:21:28,355 --> 00:21:32,358
Probably about,
maybe like five years ago.

426
00:21:32,425 --> 00:21:33,960
I mean, people still do it,

427
00:21:34,027 --> 00:21:36,830
but it's just their choice, you know?

428
00:21:38,065 --> 00:21:39,132
[Yasha] The day we came through,

429
00:21:39,198 --> 00:21:41,535
Rosanna was helping residents
take their complaints

430
00:21:41,602 --> 00:21:42,835
to the local water board.

431
00:21:42,902 --> 00:21:44,537
Give you a breakdown of it.
It's your responsibility.

432
00:21:44,603 --> 00:21:45,438
No, but you just came in

433
00:21:45,505 --> 00:21:46,407
-and told us.
-I did.

434
00:21:46,473 --> 00:21:48,508
And it disagrees with what
our people are telling us.

435
00:21:48,575 --> 00:21:50,810
-Of course it disagrees with you.
-It's not of course.

436
00:21:50,877 --> 00:21:52,845
-Of course it disagrees with you.
-We would like to see if it does.

437
00:21:52,912 --> 00:21:54,047
This is your report.

438
00:21:54,113 --> 00:21:56,817
We're looking to see if you're accurate
in your reading of it.

439
00:21:56,883 --> 00:21:59,787
I am telling you,
you cannot have disinfect--

440
00:21:59,853 --> 00:22:01,588
He's telling you just the opposite.

441
00:22:01,655 --> 00:22:04,490
You cannot have disinfectants
in your water

442
00:22:04,557 --> 00:22:06,560
without there being some type of buildup.

443
00:22:06,627 --> 00:22:08,095
Well, any disinfectant in our water,

444
00:22:08,162 --> 00:22:09,963
the government is requiring us
to put it in.

445
00:22:10,030 --> 00:22:11,130
And why is that?

446
00:22:11,197 --> 00:22:13,067
The government is telling us to do that.

447
00:22:13,133 --> 00:22:15,602
Why are your disinfectant levels
as high as they are?

448
00:22:15,668 --> 00:22:17,637
Apparently, they're not.

449
00:22:17,703 --> 00:22:19,205
Apparently, they are,

450
00:22:19,272 --> 00:22:21,842
because that's
what's causing your overall problem.

451
00:22:22,908 --> 00:22:24,978
[man] I don't think
you can make that statement.

452
00:22:26,713 --> 00:22:29,282
But thank you very much.
We're gonna look into that.

453
00:22:29,348 --> 00:22:30,617
We'll pull that report out

454
00:22:30,683 --> 00:22:33,120
and see if it's accurate,
what you're saying.

455
00:22:33,187 --> 00:22:34,755
[Yasha] The meetings
were being run from the floor

456
00:22:34,822 --> 00:22:36,122
by an out-of-town lawyer.

457
00:22:37,990 --> 00:22:40,627
No one wanted to acknowledge
there was a problem,

458
00:22:40,693 --> 00:22:42,962
but you could see it in
The Wonderful Company's park.

459
00:22:44,597 --> 00:22:46,700
Even the playground
they built right across the road

460
00:22:46,767 --> 00:22:48,668
got taken out by the corrosive water.

461
00:22:49,970 --> 00:22:51,972
[ominous music]

462
00:22:54,073 --> 00:22:57,810
All the cosmetic improvements in Lost
Hills made for great PR,

463
00:22:59,512 --> 00:23:02,615
but for the underlying problems,
nothing really changed.

464
00:23:03,450 --> 00:23:06,953
If anything, Lost Hills was run more like
an old company town.

465
00:23:09,288 --> 00:23:10,490
[ominous music]

466
00:23:10,557 --> 00:23:13,993
Farms in the area were making billions
for The Wonderful Company,

467
00:23:14,060 --> 00:23:16,530
but there was no real local wealth.

468
00:23:16,597 --> 00:23:18,898
All the money was sucked out
to Beverly Hills.

469
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,002
[suspenseful music]

470
00:23:25,938 --> 00:23:27,473
To add to the cruel irony,

471
00:23:27,540 --> 00:23:31,177
when you leave town,
you drive over an aqueduct full of water,

472
00:23:31,243 --> 00:23:32,478
fresh from the mountains.

473
00:23:34,647 --> 00:23:37,517
But it's not piped in
for towns like Lost Hills.

474
00:23:40,953 --> 00:23:43,590
[tranquil music]

475
00:23:43,657 --> 00:23:45,992
[narrator]Often called the Golden State,

476
00:23:46,058 --> 00:23:47,793
the real gold of California

477
00:23:47,860 --> 00:23:50,097
is not the yellow metal out of the earth.

478
00:23:50,163 --> 00:23:55,035
Infinitely more valuable is the clean,
fresh water that falls from the sky,

479
00:23:55,102 --> 00:23:58,172
for fresh water is the white gold
of the great Central Valley.

480
00:24:01,642 --> 00:24:04,743
[Yasha] In California, most of the water
comes from the north.

481
00:24:06,513 --> 00:24:08,782
It falls as snow in the mountains.

482
00:24:08,848 --> 00:24:10,450
[suspenseful music]

483
00:24:11,685 --> 00:24:14,888
In spring, the snow melts,
swelling the rivers.

484
00:24:14,955 --> 00:24:17,290
[suspenseful music]

485
00:24:19,658 --> 00:24:22,262
Under the natural pattern,
for much of the year,

486
00:24:22,328 --> 00:24:25,332
the Valley was a floodplain
teeming with life.

487
00:24:25,398 --> 00:24:26,933
[suspenseful music]

488
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,402
But by summer, it was bone dry.

489
00:24:30,003 --> 00:24:31,872
[suspenseful music]

490
00:24:31,938 --> 00:24:34,573
Early farmers built dams and levees,

491
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,312
but the technology for managing
water was relatively simple.

492
00:24:38,378 --> 00:24:40,113
Unless you owned land near a river,

493
00:24:40,180 --> 00:24:42,048
there was no year-round supply.

494
00:24:42,515 --> 00:24:44,317
[lively music]

495
00:24:47,087 --> 00:24:50,057
The invention of the centrifugal
pump changed all that.

496
00:24:50,723 --> 00:24:52,858
[mellow music]

497
00:24:52,925 --> 00:24:55,728
Farmers spread out
into the driest parts of the state.

498
00:24:56,963 --> 00:25:00,700
For the first time, California
became the bread basket of America.

499
00:25:00,767 --> 00:25:02,768
[mellow music]

500
00:25:04,570 --> 00:25:06,138
[narrator] However, continued pumping

501
00:25:06,205 --> 00:25:09,208
without replenishment
of the underground reservoir

502
00:25:09,275 --> 00:25:11,277
is known as mining water.

503
00:25:12,512 --> 00:25:13,913
[suspenseful music]

504
00:25:13,980 --> 00:25:15,248
[Yasha] The water they were pumping

505
00:25:15,315 --> 00:25:18,183
had been collecting underground
for thousands of years.

506
00:25:19,252 --> 00:25:21,555
They drained it
within a matter of decades.

507
00:25:22,222 --> 00:25:25,092
[reporter] Millions of acres
and a million people in this valley

508
00:25:25,158 --> 00:25:27,127
depend on a supply of fresh water.

509
00:25:29,695 --> 00:25:31,230
[suspenseful music]

510
00:25:31,297 --> 00:25:32,665
[Yasha] California's big farmers

511
00:25:32,732 --> 00:25:35,135
needed a new source of water
to keep expanding.

512
00:25:36,970 --> 00:25:39,940
Lucky for them, the government
came in to bail them out.

513
00:25:40,007 --> 00:25:41,675
[mellow music]

514
00:25:43,877 --> 00:25:45,312
Under the New Deal,

515
00:25:45,378 --> 00:25:48,213
a massive public program
of dam building began.

516
00:25:49,882 --> 00:25:52,485
[reporter] A colossal dam will be built,

517
00:25:52,552 --> 00:25:55,088
rising higher
than the Washington Monument,

518
00:25:55,155 --> 00:25:57,657
the highest overflow
type of dam in the world.

519
00:26:00,427 --> 00:26:02,862
Plenty of water falls and flows,

520
00:26:02,928 --> 00:26:04,463
but in the wrong places.

521
00:26:05,532 --> 00:26:07,533
[Yasha] Within just a few decades,

522
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,768
every major and minor river was dammed

523
00:26:09,835 --> 00:26:12,238
with water diverted into concrete canals

524
00:26:12,305 --> 00:26:13,740
that crisscrossed the state.

525
00:26:13,807 --> 00:26:16,008
[reporter] Precise water control is vital

526
00:26:16,075 --> 00:26:17,777
in operating an aqueduct.

527
00:26:18,512 --> 00:26:20,480
[suspenseful music]

528
00:26:21,580 --> 00:26:25,152
[Yasha] California's rivers were turned
into a technological system.

529
00:26:25,218 --> 00:26:26,953
A computer-controlled environment

530
00:26:27,020 --> 00:26:28,922
where water could be turned on or off

531
00:26:28,988 --> 00:26:31,323
moved hundreds of miles
at the push of a button.

532
00:26:31,390 --> 00:26:32,825
[suspenseful music]

533
00:26:34,660 --> 00:26:37,463
It was the biggest network
of aqueducts in the world.

534
00:26:38,665 --> 00:26:40,400
[reporter] History will bear out

535
00:26:40,467 --> 00:26:42,768
how we fulfilled our obligations
to the future.

536
00:26:43,337 --> 00:26:47,407
Not an easy task in a world
strained by many things.

537
00:26:49,308 --> 00:26:50,877
[lively music]

538
00:26:50,943 --> 00:26:52,545
The population of this arid land

539
00:26:53,078 --> 00:26:58,150
has doubled since 1950,
and now shows signs of tripling.

540
00:26:58,217 --> 00:27:00,320
[suspenseful music]

541
00:27:01,888 --> 00:27:03,923
[Yasha] The development
of these dams and aqueducts

542
00:27:03,990 --> 00:27:05,425
was always sold as being necessary

543
00:27:05,492 --> 00:27:07,393
for California's growing population.

544
00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:09,462
[suspenseful music]

545
00:27:10,663 --> 00:27:11,497
But in reality,

546
00:27:11,563 --> 00:27:14,367
only a fraction of the water
ever made it to the cities.

547
00:27:16,302 --> 00:27:18,838
Most of it went to a small
clique of corporate farmers

548
00:27:19,372 --> 00:27:21,473
who grew crops for export.

549
00:27:21,540 --> 00:27:23,543
[suspenseful music]

550
00:27:25,178 --> 00:27:27,180
[ominous music]

551
00:27:30,783 --> 00:27:32,385
Over the course of the century,

552
00:27:32,452 --> 00:27:35,488
the Central Valley was converted
from a lush natural habitat

553
00:27:36,255 --> 00:27:39,258
into a high-tech agricultural wasteland.

554
00:27:48,502 --> 00:27:50,703
These days, it's a dumping
ground for all the things

555
00:27:50,770 --> 00:27:53,607
that the rest of the state
would rather keep out of sight.

556
00:27:55,708 --> 00:27:57,243
The place is littered with oil wells,

557
00:27:57,310 --> 00:27:59,178
prisons, and garbage pits.

558
00:28:00,380 --> 00:28:02,348
It's an inhospitable dead zone.

559
00:28:02,415 --> 00:28:04,417
[ominous music]

560
00:28:08,053 --> 00:28:09,855
Driving around, it feels more like one

561
00:28:09,922 --> 00:28:12,992
of Elon Musk's Mars colonies
than any sort of farm.

562
00:28:16,295 --> 00:28:17,730
It's not really what
you imagine when you think

563
00:28:17,797 --> 00:28:21,333
of California with its green image
and organic produce.

564
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,403
[ominous music]

565
00:28:25,738 --> 00:28:27,440
We were following Rosanna

566
00:28:27,507 --> 00:28:29,908
as she did environmental work
around the Valley.

567
00:28:31,443 --> 00:28:34,180
She set up a small event
overlooking an oil field

568
00:28:34,247 --> 00:28:36,415
to raise awareness about water pollution.

569
00:28:36,482 --> 00:28:38,552
We're not trying to shut anybody down.

570
00:28:38,618 --> 00:28:41,687
We're trying to bring awareness
and education to the community.

571
00:28:41,755 --> 00:28:44,357
[Yasha] We arrived just
as she was being swamped

572
00:28:44,423 --> 00:28:45,658
by oil industry people.

573
00:28:45,725 --> 00:28:46,927
-Would you like some information?
-I'm okay.

574
00:28:46,993 --> 00:28:48,428
-I got it.
-Oh, okay.

575
00:28:48,495 --> 00:28:50,197
California has decided that fracking

576
00:28:50,263 --> 00:28:52,932
-can be done safely, okay?
-[Rosanna] The CCST Report,

577
00:28:52,998 --> 00:28:55,168
-sir, did not say that.
-Very clear about that.

578
00:28:55,235 --> 00:28:57,303
It's very clear about that.
So let's just be clear.

579
00:28:57,370 --> 00:28:59,138
[man] It's been done safely for 60 years.

580
00:28:59,205 --> 00:29:01,942
-That's right.
-Show me the dead bodies, lady.

581
00:29:03,108 --> 00:29:05,945
Show me the dead bodies.
Put a name on it.

582
00:29:06,012 --> 00:29:07,313
[Rosanna]
Would you like some information,

583
00:29:07,380 --> 00:29:09,615
so you can be more clear in your facts?

584
00:29:10,783 --> 00:29:14,187
Nothing I like better
than reading drivel and lies.

585
00:29:14,253 --> 00:29:15,255
Okay. Thank you very much.

586
00:29:15,322 --> 00:29:18,090
Thanks for coming out too. Appreciate it.

587
00:29:18,157 --> 00:29:21,293
[Rosanna] You guys, don't be so upset.

588
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,997
When anybody like you
wants to run my life,

589
00:29:24,063 --> 00:29:25,632
-I get upset.
-You are being aggressive

590
00:29:25,698 --> 00:29:27,033
-in your language.
-Nobody's running your life.

591
00:29:27,100 --> 00:29:28,868
-You're trying to.
-If you'd like to work

592
00:29:28,935 --> 00:29:31,370
in the oil industry,
that's your right.

593
00:29:31,437 --> 00:29:33,707
I have a right to be an environmentalist.

594
00:29:33,773 --> 00:29:36,075
Yeah, you can be as stupid as you want.

595
00:29:36,142 --> 00:29:38,612
And you have that privilege.

596
00:29:38,678 --> 00:29:40,580
If you could move out of the way
and let us have an opportunity.

597
00:29:40,647 --> 00:29:43,182
We didn't get in your guys' way,
so that'd be great.

598
00:29:43,248 --> 00:29:44,150
Thank you.

599
00:29:44,217 --> 00:29:46,953
Columbia and Venezuela,
we're talking about countries

600
00:29:47,020 --> 00:29:49,422
that we fight billion-dollar
cocaine wars with, okay?

601
00:29:49,488 --> 00:29:52,025
We're talking about countries
that suppress women and gays

602
00:29:52,092 --> 00:29:54,260
and every time you stop
an oil project here,

603
00:29:54,327 --> 00:29:56,028
you are supporting that.

604
00:29:56,095 --> 00:29:57,630
I know that you don't believe that,

605
00:29:57,697 --> 00:29:59,632
but that is exactly what is happening.

606
00:29:59,698 --> 00:30:01,935
[people chattering]

607
00:30:02,002 --> 00:30:04,470
[ominous music]

608
00:30:07,307 --> 00:30:09,775
[Yasha] Oil is the other
big industry out here.

609
00:30:11,477 --> 00:30:14,213
In most places, it's been around
longer than farming.

610
00:30:16,515 --> 00:30:18,952
When the Resnicks
were first buying up land,

611
00:30:19,018 --> 00:30:20,853
a lot of it came from oil companies,

612
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:22,755
Mobil and Chevron.

613
00:30:22,822 --> 00:30:25,992
Their farms sit right
on top of an active oil field.

614
00:30:26,058 --> 00:30:28,327
[whirring]

615
00:30:31,197 --> 00:30:33,098
You can see oil derricks everywhere,

616
00:30:33,165 --> 00:30:35,335
some of them
right in the middle of orchards.

617
00:30:37,137 --> 00:30:39,605
[derrick whirring]

618
00:30:39,672 --> 00:30:43,175
All this drilled-out land was
going cheap back in the 1970s.

619
00:30:43,242 --> 00:30:46,045
Now it's where The Wonderful Company
grows its healthy snacks.

620
00:30:47,713 --> 00:30:48,715
What I'm checking here,

621
00:30:48,782 --> 00:30:50,417
I always check these almonds right here,

622
00:30:50,483 --> 00:30:52,918
because here
they had the big drilling pit.

623
00:30:54,020 --> 00:30:55,722
And when these almonds get a little bigger

624
00:30:55,788 --> 00:30:57,157
and their roots go a little deeper,

625
00:30:57,223 --> 00:31:00,427
they're gonna be in this waste
from drilling these wells,

626
00:31:01,293 --> 00:31:02,995
which is buried right here.

627
00:31:03,663 --> 00:31:05,598
-But I'm waiting to see.
-[Yasha] Are you telling me that

628
00:31:05,665 --> 00:31:09,435
he grew carrots and potatoes
right in the...

629
00:31:09,502 --> 00:31:10,737
-Yeah, right here.
-...waste earth

630
00:31:10,803 --> 00:31:12,672
that they were dugging up
from the oil well?

631
00:31:12,738 --> 00:31:14,373
They were dumping
everything into these pits,

632
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:15,875
'cause nobody's watching.

633
00:31:15,942 --> 00:31:17,377
That's all buried right here.

634
00:31:18,612 --> 00:31:21,547
They were caught doing that
'cause I took a video of them.

635
00:31:21,613 --> 00:31:25,252
[Yasha] This is Tom Frantz,
a local almond farmer.

636
00:31:27,353 --> 00:31:28,420
He's showing us where he caught

637
00:31:28,487 --> 00:31:29,922
a company dumping fracking waste

638
00:31:29,988 --> 00:31:31,925
in the middle of an orchard.

639
00:31:31,992 --> 00:31:33,960
There was no cleanup order.

640
00:31:34,027 --> 00:31:36,930
Every one of these wells
you see had a pit like that

641
00:31:36,997 --> 00:31:40,132
where that stuff is buried
now just under the surface.

642
00:31:45,070 --> 00:31:47,507
[Yasha] Tom's a rare character
for these parts.

643
00:31:48,407 --> 00:31:49,508
There aren't many people here

644
00:31:49,575 --> 00:31:51,243
who speak out about the oil industry.

645
00:31:55,582 --> 00:31:58,885
They drain it down into
this first pond right here.

646
00:31:58,952 --> 00:32:01,320
And there's a lot of oil in there still.

647
00:32:01,387 --> 00:32:04,823
So then they take water from
underneath, the oil's on top.

648
00:32:04,890 --> 00:32:06,258
When it rains up in here,

649
00:32:06,325 --> 00:32:08,662
that gully is like a flash flood,

650
00:32:08,728 --> 00:32:11,197
and all this contamination
gets washed

651
00:32:11,263 --> 00:32:13,733
all the way down to Poso Creek.

652
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:15,468
We don't know what toxic chemicals

653
00:32:15,535 --> 00:32:16,668
might be in this wastewater.

654
00:32:16,735 --> 00:32:19,572
We know it's very salty.
We know there's still oil in it.

655
00:32:22,508 --> 00:32:24,043
[Yasha] Oil companies
dump their wastewater

656
00:32:24,110 --> 00:32:26,112
in isolated spots all over the Valley.

657
00:32:27,180 --> 00:32:30,015
It mostly just sits there,
leaching into the ground.

658
00:32:32,352 --> 00:32:34,453
It's expensive to get rid of it.

659
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:36,188
It's always been a problem
for the industry.

660
00:32:37,257 --> 00:32:39,458
[ominous music]

661
00:32:39,525 --> 00:32:42,528
Tom took us to a larger set
of pools run by Chevron.

662
00:32:43,763 --> 00:32:44,630
As we drove up,

663
00:32:44,697 --> 00:32:47,167
we could smell the petroleum
wafting in the air.

664
00:32:49,068 --> 00:32:51,070
[ominous music]

665
00:32:52,238 --> 00:32:53,807
These pits didn't look quite as foul

666
00:32:53,873 --> 00:32:55,307
as some of the smaller ones.

667
00:32:56,442 --> 00:32:59,345
That's because Chevron was
preparing the water for farm use.

668
00:32:59,412 --> 00:33:02,915
The filtration we understand
is some walnut shells,

669
00:33:02,982 --> 00:33:06,618
about 8 to 10 miles upstream of here,

670
00:33:06,685 --> 00:33:09,188
where the water's coming by a pipeline.

671
00:33:10,423 --> 00:33:11,623
You see the crud floating.

672
00:33:11,690 --> 00:33:16,095
It's several hundred
thousand gallons per minute.

673
00:33:17,730 --> 00:33:20,667
Letting it flow like this
by gravity to some farmers

674
00:33:20,733 --> 00:33:21,900
who are desperate for water

675
00:33:21,967 --> 00:33:25,103
is really a money-saving
enterprise for Chevron.

676
00:33:26,572 --> 00:33:27,940
[Yasha] For the last 20 years,

677
00:33:28,007 --> 00:33:30,943
Chevron has been dumping its wastewater
into irrigation canals

678
00:33:31,810 --> 00:33:34,880
and bizarrely marketing
the whole thing as a recycling initiative.

679
00:33:37,117 --> 00:33:40,018
[man 1] Most oil fields produce water

680
00:33:40,085 --> 00:33:42,222
as a byproduct or a waste product.

681
00:33:42,288 --> 00:33:45,725
Chevron in the Kern River field
takes that water, conditions it,

682
00:33:45,792 --> 00:33:48,027
and brings it into agricultural use.

683
00:33:48,093 --> 00:33:49,728
[man 2] I've always felt
that we could feed the world

684
00:33:49,795 --> 00:33:51,397
if they would allow us enough water.

685
00:33:51,463 --> 00:33:54,433
They do care.
Chevron has stepped up to the plate,

686
00:33:54,500 --> 00:33:57,603
not just with words, but with actions.

687
00:33:57,670 --> 00:34:00,038
And we're really happy that they're here.

688
00:34:00,105 --> 00:34:02,108
[mellow music]

689
00:34:09,282 --> 00:34:11,449
[Yasha] We wanted to see
who was using this water,

690
00:34:11,516 --> 00:34:14,453
so we traced the canal all the way down
to a pumping station.

691
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:17,322
[ominous music]

692
00:34:18,290 --> 00:34:21,260
All around us were orchards
owned by The Wonderful Company.

693
00:34:23,362 --> 00:34:26,032
Not only were their farms
right on top of an oil field,

694
00:34:26,632 --> 00:34:29,002
it turned out they were using
oil wastewater

695
00:34:29,068 --> 00:34:30,168
to irrigate their crops.

696
00:34:30,235 --> 00:34:32,237
[suspenseful music]

697
00:34:34,773 --> 00:34:37,677
News about this got out
just as we were filming

698
00:34:37,743 --> 00:34:39,411
and it blew up as a minor scandal.

699
00:34:39,478 --> 00:34:42,248
[protesters] Don't pollute our fruit!

700
00:34:42,315 --> 00:34:43,415
[protesters clapping]

701
00:34:43,482 --> 00:34:45,985
Don't pollute our fruit!

702
00:34:46,784 --> 00:34:49,688
[Yasha] People protested
at the company's headquarters,

703
00:34:49,755 --> 00:34:53,125
but they brushed it off
and insisted it was all perfectly safe.

704
00:34:53,192 --> 00:34:55,327
[protesters] Don't pollute our fruit!

705
00:34:56,295 --> 00:34:57,763
[Yasha] The story eventually disappeared

706
00:34:57,830 --> 00:34:59,065
into the news cycle.

707
00:34:59,132 --> 00:35:01,133
[ominous music]

708
00:35:03,870 --> 00:35:05,838
Once you know how things work out here,

709
00:35:05,905 --> 00:35:07,440
it's not that surprising that farmers

710
00:35:07,507 --> 00:35:09,375
would be irrigating with oil waste.

711
00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:12,512
You can see the promise of this place.

712
00:35:12,578 --> 00:35:15,748
It's a vast, expansive land,
perfect for farming.

713
00:35:17,082 --> 00:35:18,885
The only thing holding back business

714
00:35:18,952 --> 00:35:21,187
is access
to a steady supply of water.

715
00:35:22,655 --> 00:35:25,023
No one's paying attention
to what you do out here,

716
00:35:25,090 --> 00:35:27,360
so you grow with whatever you can get.

717
00:35:40,573 --> 00:35:42,575
-[engine roaring]
-[leaves rustling]

718
00:35:59,025 --> 00:36:00,893
The thing about pistachios,

719
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:02,995
it takes a lot of water to grow them.

720
00:36:05,632 --> 00:36:07,367
By the time they make it to harvest,

721
00:36:07,433 --> 00:36:10,570
every pound of pistachios
has used over a thousand gallons.

722
00:36:13,705 --> 00:36:16,542
And the trees need a constant
supply of water to survive.

723
00:36:17,410 --> 00:36:18,810
If you hit a dry year,

724
00:36:18,878 --> 00:36:21,313
you have to rip out
your orchard and start again.

725
00:36:26,818 --> 00:36:29,855
The Resnicks learned this
the hard way back in the 1980s.

726
00:36:31,190 --> 00:36:33,025
California was hit by a major drought

727
00:36:33,092 --> 00:36:35,327
and the state simply cut off their supply.

728
00:36:35,393 --> 00:36:37,397
[ominous music]

729
00:36:39,432 --> 00:36:42,468
This happened just as their
new ag business was taking off.

730
00:36:43,868 --> 00:36:45,437
They realized how dependent they were

731
00:36:45,503 --> 00:36:46,972
on government-supplied water.

732
00:36:47,038 --> 00:36:49,542
[ominous music]

733
00:36:51,577 --> 00:36:53,078
By the 1970s,

734
00:36:53,145 --> 00:36:56,415
California's water system
was so heavily built out,

735
00:36:56,482 --> 00:36:58,883
the states started running out
of rivers to dam,

736
00:37:00,285 --> 00:37:02,555
so they looked for other ways
to store water.

737
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:09,295
South of the Resnick's fields,

738
00:37:09,362 --> 00:37:13,198
just off the highway,
you can find one of those projects.

739
00:37:13,265 --> 00:37:17,002
It's a giant natural aquifer
developed into a water bank.

740
00:37:19,372 --> 00:37:22,140
In wet years, water from
the aqueducts and local rivers

741
00:37:22,207 --> 00:37:24,377
is pumped here and stored underground.

742
00:37:25,243 --> 00:37:28,547
It can hold enough water to supply
Los Angeles for a year.

743
00:37:28,613 --> 00:37:30,617
[ominous music]

744
00:37:31,983 --> 00:37:34,753
It was intended to protect cities
in the event of a drought,

745
00:37:35,553 --> 00:37:38,390
but for the Resnicks,
the bank was a prime target.

746
00:37:39,858 --> 00:37:42,495
In the '90s, they lobbied to privatize it.

747
00:37:42,562 --> 00:37:44,563
[ominous music]

748
00:37:47,232 --> 00:37:49,368
It all happened in a backroom deal

749
00:37:49,435 --> 00:37:51,503
and they got it for basically nothing.

750
00:37:52,405 --> 00:37:56,242
At the same time, they rewrote the rules
for water in California,

751
00:37:56,308 --> 00:37:59,912
allowing it to be sold on open markets
like any other commodity.

752
00:38:02,448 --> 00:38:05,183
That water deal
that I came across in Victorville,

753
00:38:05,250 --> 00:38:07,787
the one that got me started
on this whole story,

754
00:38:07,853 --> 00:38:09,088
it came from here.

755
00:38:09,988 --> 00:38:11,557
[eerie music]

756
00:38:11,623 --> 00:38:13,025
Controlling the bank

757
00:38:13,092 --> 00:38:16,262
allowed them to expand
their orchards on a massive scale.

758
00:38:17,330 --> 00:38:18,630
As they expanded,

759
00:38:18,697 --> 00:38:21,133
the amount of water
they controlled also grew.

760
00:38:24,070 --> 00:38:26,072
Today, their farms use more water

761
00:38:26,138 --> 00:38:28,240
than California's biggest cities.

762
00:38:29,142 --> 00:38:30,408
In a single year,

763
00:38:30,475 --> 00:38:33,578
enough to supply
San Francisco for a decade.

764
00:38:33,645 --> 00:38:35,647
[ominous music]

765
00:38:38,883 --> 00:38:42,320
These days, the Resnicks' stake
in the water bank alone

766
00:38:42,388 --> 00:38:44,057
is worth around a billion dollars.

767
00:38:44,123 --> 00:38:47,025
[suspenseful music]

768
00:38:55,902 --> 00:38:58,070
From the water bank,
we drove up north.

769
00:39:00,005 --> 00:39:03,608
After a few hours, we arrived
at a place known as the Delta.

770
00:39:05,477 --> 00:39:07,713
It's where California's
biggest rivers meet

771
00:39:07,780 --> 00:39:10,548
before they flow out into
the San Francisco Bay.

772
00:39:10,615 --> 00:39:12,250
[suspenseful music]

773
00:39:12,317 --> 00:39:15,287
Compared to the South,
it's green and full of life,

774
00:39:16,122 --> 00:39:18,690
a patchwork of rivers and small farms.

775
00:39:21,127 --> 00:39:22,160
[mellow music]

776
00:39:22,227 --> 00:39:24,163
All the water that feeds
California's aqueducts

777
00:39:24,230 --> 00:39:25,932
is pumped out of here.

778
00:39:27,467 --> 00:39:29,868
What used to be
a free-flowing river estuary

779
00:39:29,935 --> 00:39:32,203
is now a heavily managed
network of canals.

780
00:39:34,207 --> 00:39:36,542
[reporter] The salmon
and steelhead come on their way

781
00:39:36,608 --> 00:39:39,145
to ancestral spawning grounds.

782
00:39:39,212 --> 00:39:42,113
The migrants, guided by
a rack that blocks the river,

783
00:39:42,180 --> 00:39:45,752
ascend the fish ladder,
which leads to a holding pond.

784
00:39:47,653 --> 00:39:49,388
[Yasha] As they modified the rivers,

785
00:39:49,455 --> 00:39:52,792
all sorts of high-tech systems
were put in place to help the fish,

786
00:39:53,758 --> 00:39:55,193
but it doesn't take a genius

787
00:39:55,260 --> 00:39:56,695
to see they were doomed to fail.

788
00:39:56,762 --> 00:39:59,632
[reporter] In specially refrigerated
and aerated trucks,

789
00:39:59,698 --> 00:40:01,433
the fingerlings are hauled downstream

790
00:40:01,500 --> 00:40:04,670
and released a safe distance
from the intake.

791
00:40:06,005 --> 00:40:08,540
[Yasha] Since the aqueducts
were built in the 1970s,

792
00:40:08,607 --> 00:40:11,210
fish populations
have dropped to near zero.

793
00:40:11,277 --> 00:40:13,045
[ominous music]

794
00:40:13,112 --> 00:40:16,548
The whole area is on the verge
of a mass extinction.

795
00:40:16,615 --> 00:40:18,517
[ominous music]

796
00:40:22,187 --> 00:40:23,988
[birds chirping]

797
00:40:24,055 --> 00:40:26,958
Even in parts of the Delta
that have been preserved,

798
00:40:27,025 --> 00:40:28,360
there's an eerie calm.

799
00:40:28,427 --> 00:40:30,428
[engine rumbling]

800
00:40:31,697 --> 00:40:34,700
Just a generation ago, people
talked about flocks of birds

801
00:40:34,767 --> 00:40:36,368
that blacked out the sky.

802
00:40:37,703 --> 00:40:40,272
It used to be one of the best
fishing spots in the country.

803
00:40:42,608 --> 00:40:44,810
Now it's basically a dead zone.

804
00:40:44,877 --> 00:40:46,645
[ominous music]

805
00:40:47,947 --> 00:40:49,382
In spite of all the problems,

806
00:40:49,448 --> 00:40:52,417
there's a longstanding plan
to expand the aqueducts.

807
00:40:54,487 --> 00:40:57,690
Two giant tunnels that would grab one
of the rivers feeding the Delta

808
00:40:57,757 --> 00:40:59,558
and funnel it directly south.

809
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:02,495
[ominous music]

810
00:41:02,562 --> 00:41:04,730
Environmental groups here
said the Resnicks

811
00:41:04,797 --> 00:41:07,298
were behind a new effort
to push the tunnels through.

812
00:41:07,365 --> 00:41:11,870
Stewart Resnick,
through Paramount Farms,

813
00:41:11,937 --> 00:41:15,407
created a group called
Californians for Water Security.

814
00:41:15,473 --> 00:41:17,910
They are the marketing umbrella

815
00:41:17,977 --> 00:41:21,480
for the Delta Tunnels project
to the rest of the state.

816
00:41:21,547 --> 00:41:24,783
Basically, what they did was
they put together a coalition

817
00:41:24,850 --> 00:41:28,687
of special money interests
to do focus group messaging

818
00:41:28,753 --> 00:41:30,288
on how to sell the tunnels to people.

819
00:41:31,457 --> 00:41:33,625
[Yasha] As well as a big PR campaign,

820
00:41:33,692 --> 00:41:35,962
the Resnicks called in
favors from a senator

821
00:41:36,028 --> 00:41:39,432
to try and bury reports on the project's
environmental impacts.

822
00:41:40,632 --> 00:41:42,033
-[rattling]
-[actor whistles]

823
00:41:42,100 --> 00:41:43,168
The thing is,

824
00:41:43,235 --> 00:41:45,470
the less fresh water
you have flowing through the Delta,

825
00:41:45,537 --> 00:41:47,438
the more ocean water creeps in.

826
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:51,910
The whole area gets turned into
a dead salty marsh.

827
00:41:51,977 --> 00:41:56,015
Trying to get you some really
good ones here in the shade.

828
00:41:56,782 --> 00:41:59,618
[Yasha] Jerry's family
has been farming here for generations.

829
00:41:59,685 --> 00:42:02,855
When we were younger,
we used to carry a salt shaker

830
00:42:02,922 --> 00:42:04,557
around with us in our pickup all the time.

831
00:42:04,623 --> 00:42:06,625
You get hungry,
just stop and get a couple.

832
00:42:07,392 --> 00:42:11,563
But we're in a struggle now
for a commodity that's short,

833
00:42:11,630 --> 00:42:13,165
and it's water.

834
00:42:13,232 --> 00:42:15,667
And either they win and we go broke

835
00:42:15,733 --> 00:42:21,173
or we win and they have to contract
the size of these operations.

836
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:24,175
Trouble is, they take
our water away, we're done,

837
00:42:24,243 --> 00:42:26,278
'cause they're still gonna
get what little water

838
00:42:26,345 --> 00:42:27,913
or as much water as they can,

839
00:42:27,980 --> 00:42:29,648
they'll still be able to grow with it.

840
00:42:29,715 --> 00:42:32,652
But if we end up with water
that's 10 times saltier

841
00:42:32,718 --> 00:42:35,553
than it is now, we can't grow
this kind of crop down here.

842
00:42:35,620 --> 00:42:36,888
When somebody's down there

843
00:42:36,955 --> 00:42:38,990
who can call up the senator on the phone

844
00:42:39,057 --> 00:42:40,358
and say, "We need more water down here."

845
00:42:40,425 --> 00:42:42,193
And then the senator calls up the bureau

846
00:42:42,260 --> 00:42:43,962
and says, "What can you do to
get more water down there?"

847
00:42:44,028 --> 00:42:48,333
"Send me four tickets to your
$25,000-a-plate fundraiser."

848
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:49,468
[John] That's true.

849
00:42:50,868 --> 00:42:52,037
[Yasha] You've never been invited?

850
00:42:52,103 --> 00:42:53,338
No. Not yet.

851
00:42:53,405 --> 00:42:54,540
You know, those guys,

852
00:42:54,607 --> 00:42:59,143
you're talking about
Paramount Farms and Resnick.

853
00:42:59,210 --> 00:43:00,612
Paramount Farms sound like farmers,

854
00:43:00,678 --> 00:43:02,447
but those people aren't farmers.

855
00:43:02,513 --> 00:43:06,485
They're in it for the scalping
what they can now

856
00:43:06,552 --> 00:43:09,555
and two or three generations from now,
they could care less.

857
00:43:10,288 --> 00:43:11,957
You know, that's the way it is.

858
00:43:12,023 --> 00:43:15,860
This is pretty much family farming
up here in Northern California.

859
00:43:15,927 --> 00:43:17,930
[eerie music]

860
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,235
[Yasha] It's not the first time
in California's history

861
00:43:23,302 --> 00:43:26,272
that a small farming region
got screwed over for its water.

862
00:43:27,773 --> 00:43:29,475
The whole story is a straight rerun

863
00:43:29,542 --> 00:43:31,777
of California's most infamous water heist.

864
00:43:34,647 --> 00:43:36,648
[ominous music]

865
00:43:43,188 --> 00:43:45,190
[ominous music continues]

866
00:43:46,858 --> 00:43:49,260
If you drive up into the
Sierra Nevada mountains

867
00:43:49,328 --> 00:43:52,363
and follow the river down,
you'll find the Owens Valley.

868
00:43:53,232 --> 00:43:54,900
[ominous music]

869
00:43:54,967 --> 00:43:56,335
At the turn of the last century,

870
00:43:56,402 --> 00:43:58,403
there was a big pristine lake here.

871
00:43:58,470 --> 00:44:00,472
[ominous music]

872
00:44:05,843 --> 00:44:08,080
Today, it's completely drained,

873
00:44:08,147 --> 00:44:10,148
a toxic stain on the landscape.

874
00:44:11,150 --> 00:44:13,152
[ominous music]

875
00:44:18,123 --> 00:44:19,825
In the early 1900s,

876
00:44:19,892 --> 00:44:22,293
the population of Los Angeles
was exploding,

877
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:23,928
doubling every couple of years.

878
00:44:23,995 --> 00:44:25,997
[lively music]

879
00:44:27,665 --> 00:44:31,603
There was plenty of land,
but the developers needed water.

880
00:44:32,738 --> 00:44:34,807
They set their sights on the Owens Valley

881
00:44:34,873 --> 00:44:37,910
and lobbied to fund
construction of the LA Aqueduct.

882
00:44:37,977 --> 00:44:39,812
[lively music]

883
00:44:52,490 --> 00:44:54,493
[lively music]

884
00:44:57,328 --> 00:45:00,732
Today the Owens River winds
through barren, abandoned farmland.

885
00:45:02,467 --> 00:45:05,537
Its water owned by suburbs
hundreds of miles away.

886
00:45:06,772 --> 00:45:08,773
[ominous music]

887
00:45:16,013 --> 00:45:18,017
[ominous music continues]

888
00:45:24,790 --> 00:45:26,325
[ominous music continues]

889
00:45:30,395 --> 00:45:33,865
The Owens Valley was drained
to feed LA's suburban sprawl.

890
00:45:35,100 --> 00:45:36,235
Now The Wonderful Company

891
00:45:36,302 --> 00:45:38,803
is trying to destroy
the biggest river estuary

892
00:45:38,870 --> 00:45:40,372
on the West Coast of America,

893
00:45:40,438 --> 00:45:41,873
all to feed a snack food bubble.

894
00:45:41,940 --> 00:45:43,942
[ominous music]

895
00:45:45,077 --> 00:45:46,378
We wanted to get the Resnicks,

896
00:45:46,445 --> 00:45:48,013
or at least someone from the company

897
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:49,715
on camera to answer some questions.

898
00:45:49,782 --> 00:45:51,183
Yeah. Hi, how's it going?

899
00:45:51,250 --> 00:45:52,483
My name is Yasha Levine.

900
00:45:52,550 --> 00:45:55,987
I'm the co-director of a documentary
about water in California.

901
00:45:56,053 --> 00:45:57,522
I've been trying to get
in touch with someone

902
00:45:57,588 --> 00:45:59,157
from The Wonderful Company.

903
00:45:59,223 --> 00:46:01,893
We had been putting out
calls and emails for months.

904
00:46:02,627 --> 00:46:03,795
Just got redirected.

905
00:46:04,663 --> 00:46:06,632
Since we were back in LA,

906
00:46:06,698 --> 00:46:09,067
we decided to try just turning up
at their office.

907
00:46:09,133 --> 00:46:09,968
Ready?

908
00:46:15,807 --> 00:46:17,142
[people chattering]

909
00:46:17,208 --> 00:46:18,877
Hey, how's it going?

910
00:46:18,943 --> 00:46:19,878
Who's this guy?

911
00:46:19,945 --> 00:46:21,447
Oh, he's just the operator.

912
00:46:21,513 --> 00:46:23,848
We're making a documentary
about water in California

913
00:46:23,915 --> 00:46:27,485
and so just trying to get in touch
with The Wonderful Company.

914
00:46:27,552 --> 00:46:29,655
What I suggest is you go online

915
00:46:29,722 --> 00:46:32,223
and get the information
for the person you need to talk to.

916
00:46:32,290 --> 00:46:33,125
Yep.

917
00:46:33,192 --> 00:46:34,927
And make an appointment,
and then they would see you.

918
00:46:34,993 --> 00:46:38,230
Unfortunately, I've been trying
to do that for the past couple weeks.

919
00:46:40,132 --> 00:46:42,968
It's pretty much impossible
to get in touch with them.

920
00:46:43,035 --> 00:46:46,070
That's the process.
We can't do anything for you.

921
00:46:46,137 --> 00:46:48,540
-But this is their building, right?
-Yeah. This is the building.

922
00:46:48,607 --> 00:46:50,808
Yeah, and so you nothing you can...

923
00:46:50,875 --> 00:46:52,610
No one you can call down from...

924
00:46:53,478 --> 00:46:56,282
You have a card
I can pass information on?

925
00:46:56,348 --> 00:46:59,183
[Yasha] Short of trying to get arrested
in some kind of stunt,

926
00:46:59,250 --> 00:47:01,553
we weren't gonna get any closer than this.

927
00:47:01,620 --> 00:47:04,088
[ominous music]

928
00:47:04,155 --> 00:47:06,725
The reality is that unless
you're doing a puff piece,

929
00:47:06,792 --> 00:47:08,460
there's no way to get to these people.

930
00:47:08,527 --> 00:47:10,362
[intercom ringing]

931
00:47:10,428 --> 00:47:12,263
Hello, I'm Lynda Resnick,

932
00:47:12,330 --> 00:47:14,198
and today we're talking
about making a difference.

933
00:47:14,265 --> 00:47:15,800
[Yasha] There's endless interviews

934
00:47:15,867 --> 00:47:17,135
where they talk about their marketing

935
00:47:17,202 --> 00:47:19,203
and their philanthropy.

936
00:47:19,270 --> 00:47:21,773
My passion today is giving back

937
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:25,443
and I think the thing
that excites me the most

938
00:47:25,510 --> 00:47:27,078
is the philanthropy that we do.

939
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:29,380
[Yasha] But no one ever
gets to ask them about

940
00:47:29,447 --> 00:47:32,583
how they managed to grab enough water
to supply this whole city.

941
00:47:34,085 --> 00:47:36,087
[ominous music]

942
00:47:40,392 --> 00:47:42,427
It's hard to fully grasp
what private control

943
00:47:42,493 --> 00:47:44,863
of California's water supply really means.

944
00:47:46,063 --> 00:47:47,665
But when we traveled to a small town

945
00:47:47,732 --> 00:47:49,433
hit hard by the drought,

946
00:47:49,500 --> 00:47:51,903
we found a version
of the bigger story playing out

947
00:47:51,970 --> 00:47:53,172
on a local level.

948
00:47:53,238 --> 00:47:55,240
[suspenseful music]

949
00:47:56,275 --> 00:47:59,377
East Porterville is a small town
on the east side of the Valley

950
00:47:59,443 --> 00:48:01,847
in the foothills
of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

951
00:48:03,782 --> 00:48:07,218
As the drought peaked
all over town, the wells went dry.

952
00:48:08,087 --> 00:48:11,523
People were living off makeshift tanks
for bathing and cleaning.

953
00:48:11,590 --> 00:48:12,992
[ominous music]

954
00:48:13,458 --> 00:48:16,295
We met up with Donna,
a local who was organizing deliveries

955
00:48:16,362 --> 00:48:17,997
of donated bottled water.

956
00:48:20,398 --> 00:48:22,500
It was a miserable situation.

957
00:48:22,567 --> 00:48:24,703
A lot of people barely had any support.

958
00:48:25,170 --> 00:48:28,440
So this is the water
that you have to work with.

959
00:48:28,507 --> 00:48:29,540
This is the house water?

960
00:48:29,608 --> 00:48:31,443
-Mm-hmm.
-Instead of the tap?

961
00:48:31,510 --> 00:48:34,045
I don't wanna do nothing
because I don't have water.

962
00:48:34,112 --> 00:48:37,348
And, yes, I wanna live.
I don't wanna clean...

963
00:48:37,415 --> 00:48:40,518
How can I clean my house? How?

964
00:48:40,585 --> 00:48:42,587
-Yeah.
-Just with this water or...

965
00:48:43,522 --> 00:48:45,523
-[bird cooing]
-[ominous music]

966
00:48:47,058 --> 00:48:48,593
-[woman] Juana?
-Hmm?

967
00:48:48,660 --> 00:48:53,298
Do you have a knife or something
that you get the thing open?

968
00:48:53,365 --> 00:48:56,468
Open this. Do you have
something to stick over?

969
00:48:56,535 --> 00:48:59,070
I know I have to have
a knife to open ours.

970
00:49:01,473 --> 00:49:03,542
-These are heavy.
-Can I help you out?

971
00:49:04,777 --> 00:49:06,143
[water burbling]

972
00:49:08,547 --> 00:49:10,082
Let's get a couple more in there.

973
00:49:16,355 --> 00:49:18,190
As we did the rounds with Donna,

974
00:49:18,257 --> 00:49:20,125
we saw how many people were affected.

975
00:49:21,727 --> 00:49:25,130
Over a thousand homes
had lost access to running water.

976
00:49:25,197 --> 00:49:27,198
[Donna] Like I said,
she's the oldest member

977
00:49:27,265 --> 00:49:29,467
-of our Out of Water Club.
-She has been my angel.

978
00:49:29,533 --> 00:49:30,768
I swear to God.

979
00:49:31,603 --> 00:49:34,405
She... I don't know
what I would've done without her.

980
00:49:34,472 --> 00:49:36,007
[Yasha] Yeah. When
did you run out of water?

981
00:49:36,073 --> 00:49:37,408
Well, I was real upset

982
00:49:37,475 --> 00:49:39,543
because I've never been alone, you know,

983
00:49:39,610 --> 00:49:42,013
without anything like that.

984
00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:43,548
And it was hard, you know?

985
00:49:43,615 --> 00:49:45,217
But she came right in

986
00:49:45,850 --> 00:49:47,685
and did it.

987
00:49:47,752 --> 00:49:49,922
Most of all, taking a bath every night,

988
00:49:49,988 --> 00:49:53,358
I miss that terribly, so.

989
00:49:54,258 --> 00:49:57,462
And then having to wash
my hair once a week.

990
00:50:01,265 --> 00:50:03,468
I watched her struggle so much.

991
00:50:03,535 --> 00:50:04,737
She was always so sweet

992
00:50:04,803 --> 00:50:07,072
and she kept trying to keep all her trees

993
00:50:07,138 --> 00:50:09,742
and her plants alive
and then a lot of them died.

994
00:50:09,808 --> 00:50:11,677
And one day, I came with a reporter.

995
00:50:11,743 --> 00:50:14,478
Oh, my God, she was crying.

996
00:50:16,213 --> 00:50:20,752
She said she was watching
everything she had die and...

997
00:50:23,288 --> 00:50:26,190
We were all kind of going
through it at that time.

998
00:50:26,257 --> 00:50:28,127
Hi, you big mean boy.

999
00:50:28,793 --> 00:50:29,895
Hi.

1000
00:50:31,963 --> 00:50:34,532
[Yasha] All sorts of people
had been cut off.

1001
00:50:34,598 --> 00:50:37,135
For a while, the story
was all over the news.

1002
00:50:37,835 --> 00:50:40,038
[ominous music]

1003
00:50:40,772 --> 00:50:43,075
It was covered like a natural disaster.

1004
00:50:43,142 --> 00:50:45,843
Like the only reason for the shortage
of water was the drought.

1005
00:50:45,910 --> 00:50:48,413
[suspenseful music]

1006
00:50:49,782 --> 00:50:52,217
But after we spent a few weeks
hanging around town,

1007
00:50:52,283 --> 00:50:54,887
a whole other side to the story emerged.

1008
00:50:56,287 --> 00:50:58,357
So are you talking about the dam
of Lake Success?

1009
00:50:58,423 --> 00:50:59,290
No, no, no, no.

1010
00:50:59,357 --> 00:51:00,592
[Yasha] Which dam are you talking about?

1011
00:51:00,658 --> 00:51:05,363
It's a dam that when
you cross the river below the park,

1012
00:51:05,430 --> 00:51:08,433
below the park, there is a bridge.

1013
00:51:08,500 --> 00:51:10,235
And as soon as you cross the bridge,

1014
00:51:10,302 --> 00:51:13,037
you can see the water right there
running through the river.

1015
00:51:13,105 --> 00:51:16,240
But about 600 or 800 feet below,

1016
00:51:16,307 --> 00:51:17,708
there is a company

1017
00:51:17,775 --> 00:51:22,013
that established themselves
as, I don't know.

1018
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:23,515
Water belongs to everybody.

1019
00:51:23,582 --> 00:51:25,017
[Yasha] What does the company do?

1020
00:51:25,083 --> 00:51:27,418
They dam the water and they pump it,

1021
00:51:27,485 --> 00:51:31,657
and they pump it up to the fields,
up to the south.

1022
00:51:31,723 --> 00:51:34,725
[Yasha] I see. So it's for agriculture?

1023
00:51:34,793 --> 00:51:36,762
[resident] It's for agriculture. Yes.

1024
00:51:37,562 --> 00:51:40,498
[Yasha] Upstream, the river
that fed the town's wells was running.

1025
00:51:40,565 --> 00:51:43,635
There you have it.
What do you think it is?

1026
00:51:46,705 --> 00:51:47,872
[Yasha] But the water disappeared

1027
00:51:47,938 --> 00:51:49,640
after it passed through some private land.

1028
00:51:49,707 --> 00:51:51,408
Why does no one talk about it?

1029
00:51:51,477 --> 00:51:53,978
Why? Because they are afraid.

1030
00:51:54,045 --> 00:51:56,582
-Money.
-Money, money.

1031
00:51:57,482 --> 00:51:58,717
Hmm, that's what it is.

1032
00:51:58,783 --> 00:52:00,618
-They don't wanna reveal a scam.
-They don't wanna,

1033
00:52:00,685 --> 00:52:03,155
and they don't wanna
put themselves in danger.

1034
00:52:03,222 --> 00:52:06,323
Actually, if they kill me,
they do me a favor.

1035
00:52:06,390 --> 00:52:08,760
I'm dying already. So, what the heck?

1036
00:52:08,827 --> 00:52:12,330
You know, this is totally wrong.

1037
00:52:13,532 --> 00:52:14,933
This is totally wrong.

1038
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,302
[Yasha] Sure enough,
just a mile downstream,

1039
00:52:17,368 --> 00:52:19,003
everything was bone dry.

1040
00:52:19,803 --> 00:52:21,172
[resident speaking in Spanish]

1041
00:52:21,238 --> 00:52:24,242
[Yasha] As we filmed,
another local showed up.

1042
00:52:24,308 --> 00:52:26,477
He wanted to blow the whistle
on his ex-boss.

1043
00:52:26,545 --> 00:52:28,613
But I'm getting tired
of seeing this theft

1044
00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:30,082
and I've been wanting
to see somebody with a camera.

1045
00:52:30,148 --> 00:52:32,217
I saw you when I was driving,
I turned around, and came back.

1046
00:52:32,283 --> 00:52:33,185
[Yasha] Rod Hudson, right?

1047
00:52:33,252 --> 00:52:34,318
-Yes, sir.
-Rod Hudson.

1048
00:52:34,385 --> 00:52:37,355
I was the oversight for
Rosedale Water Company all the way

1049
00:52:37,422 --> 00:52:40,325
up till June of 2015.

1050
00:52:40,392 --> 00:52:42,327
They just voted me out.

1051
00:52:42,393 --> 00:52:44,362
He's got a pond back there.

1052
00:52:44,428 --> 00:52:47,032
He put a pump on the river in 1998

1053
00:52:47,765 --> 00:52:49,667
and started pulling water
out of that river

1054
00:52:49,733 --> 00:52:51,502
and putting it into his pond

1055
00:52:51,570 --> 00:52:53,438
to supply these guys with water.

1056
00:52:53,505 --> 00:52:55,607
[Yasha] The whole story
was mixed up in a divorce

1057
00:52:55,673 --> 00:52:57,008
and a local feud.

1058
00:52:57,075 --> 00:52:59,945
But Rod said he could show us
the secret dam on the river.

1059
00:53:00,012 --> 00:53:02,047
I can take you down there.

1060
00:53:02,113 --> 00:53:04,348
-Uh-huh, is that gonna--
-And I have share,

1061
00:53:04,415 --> 00:53:05,883
I'm a shareholder with the company,

1062
00:53:05,950 --> 00:53:07,352
so I have a right to go down there,

1063
00:53:07,418 --> 00:53:09,653
but I can't be around my wife

1064
00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:11,657
'cause we're going through
a divorce over all this.

1065
00:53:11,723 --> 00:53:13,725
-I see.
-Because of Mitch Brown.

1066
00:53:14,725 --> 00:53:16,728
So I'ma drive down here
with you and show you this.

1067
00:53:16,795 --> 00:53:18,028
[Yasha] Okay, but, yeah, be careful.

1068
00:53:18,095 --> 00:53:19,563
You know, we don't want you to violate

1069
00:53:19,630 --> 00:53:21,265
-your restraining order.
-It's all good.

1070
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:24,668
[tense music]

1071
00:53:25,370 --> 00:53:27,572
This company here is
Rosedale Water Company,

1072
00:53:27,638 --> 00:53:29,840
which Mitch Brown's the vice president of.

1073
00:53:29,908 --> 00:53:31,843
[engine roaring]

1074
00:53:31,910 --> 00:53:34,712
And they're pumping 800 gallons a minute

1075
00:53:34,778 --> 00:53:37,048
right here on this site.

1076
00:53:37,115 --> 00:53:39,750
Plus, there's a pump line
right over there.

1077
00:53:39,817 --> 00:53:42,087
It goes across the river
in those three pumps over there,

1078
00:53:42,153 --> 00:53:44,422
and they're pumping 300 gallons a minute.

1079
00:53:44,488 --> 00:53:46,692
They're only allowed 675 gallons a minute

1080
00:53:46,758 --> 00:53:48,493
out of all four of those pumps.

1081
00:53:49,393 --> 00:53:51,228
So they're illegally pumping water.

1082
00:53:52,463 --> 00:53:55,433
You see the dam, it's all overgrown,
but he built a dam.

1083
00:53:55,500 --> 00:53:57,402
Step over there, and you
can get a real good picture

1084
00:53:57,468 --> 00:53:59,103
from that way, that way.

1085
00:53:59,170 --> 00:54:01,338
He's built a dam and made
the water go over that way

1086
00:54:01,405 --> 00:54:03,007
to where it gets closer to his property.

1087
00:54:03,073 --> 00:54:05,343
[Yasha] So the illegal pumping
that you're saying,

1088
00:54:05,410 --> 00:54:06,978
-is it directly affecting the wells?
-Yes.

1089
00:54:07,045 --> 00:54:08,613
So why is that not being talked about?

1090
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:10,448
Because money.

1091
00:54:12,283 --> 00:54:14,818
American greed, thank you.

1092
00:54:17,022 --> 00:54:19,290
[Yasha] From the air, you could see
that orchards and a rock plant

1093
00:54:19,357 --> 00:54:21,258
were pulling water from the river,

1094
00:54:21,325 --> 00:54:22,993
hoarding it in a giant pond.

1095
00:54:23,795 --> 00:54:26,597
As we asked around,
other locals backed up the story.

1096
00:54:27,165 --> 00:54:29,267
He gave me a donation.

1097
00:54:29,333 --> 00:54:33,638
[Yasha] Okay, that's nice of him.

1098
00:54:33,705 --> 00:54:35,473
Yeah, that's what I thought too.

1099
00:54:38,142 --> 00:54:44,148
[Yasha] There's some people that say
he's diverting water from the river.

1100
00:54:47,852 --> 00:54:48,787
[Yasha chuckles]

1101
00:54:50,822 --> 00:54:54,725
According to Rod, there was a sort
of old boys network in town.

1102
00:54:54,792 --> 00:54:58,430
The newspaper, the cops,
Mitch, they were all buddies.

1103
00:54:59,963 --> 00:55:01,265
We tried to get ahold of Mitch,

1104
00:55:01,833 --> 00:55:03,402
but figured we'd have about
as much luck

1105
00:55:03,468 --> 00:55:05,570
getting him on camera
as we had with the Resnicks.

1106
00:55:05,637 --> 00:55:07,072
He's out of town today?

1107
00:55:07,138 --> 00:55:09,507
We're... It's an independent documentary

1108
00:55:10,308 --> 00:55:14,145
about water in California
and the drought in California.

1109
00:55:14,212 --> 00:55:15,247
It's an independent documentary,

1110
00:55:15,313 --> 00:55:18,417
so we're not making it
for any TV news station

1111
00:55:18,483 --> 00:55:19,550
or anything like that.

1112
00:55:20,018 --> 00:55:22,353
[line ringing]

1113
00:55:23,722 --> 00:55:26,457
To our surprise,
after a couple of days of calling,

1114
00:55:26,523 --> 00:55:28,727
someone got back to us
with a direct number.

1115
00:55:31,428 --> 00:55:32,530
Hello?

1116
00:55:32,597 --> 00:55:33,498
Hello, this is Mitch.

1117
00:55:33,565 --> 00:55:34,698
Hey, Mitch. How's it going?

1118
00:55:34,765 --> 00:55:37,468
-This is Yasha Levine.
-[Mitch] Hey, how are you?

1119
00:55:37,535 --> 00:55:39,003
-Hey, thanks.-Is it Yash?

1120
00:55:39,070 --> 00:55:41,505
It's, yeah, I mean,
Yash, you can go Yash.

1121
00:55:41,572 --> 00:55:42,673
I mean, Yasha is the full name.

1122
00:55:42,740 --> 00:55:44,375
-Yash.
-It's a Russian name.

1123
00:55:44,442 --> 00:55:46,677
Yeah, I was born in Russia.

1124
00:55:47,778 --> 00:55:51,048
Mitch said he was happy
to give us his side of the story.

1125
00:55:51,115 --> 00:55:52,583
As well as the rock plant,

1126
00:55:52,650 --> 00:55:55,987
he had orchards, a ranch,
and was a major local landlord.

1127
00:55:57,355 --> 00:56:00,158
He even had his fingers
in the waste management business.

1128
00:56:01,392 --> 00:56:02,860
[ominous music]

1129
00:56:04,662 --> 00:56:06,263
We arranged to meet him
as he started to work

1130
00:56:06,330 --> 00:56:08,332
for the day at the crack of dawn.

1131
00:56:09,167 --> 00:56:10,735
[staff member] Nelson, Stevo.

1132
00:56:11,803 --> 00:56:15,173
[Yasha] How are you, guys?
What are these logos on your shirt?

1133
00:56:15,240 --> 00:56:16,742
Does that have to do with the...

1134
00:56:16,808 --> 00:56:18,577
Oh, this is a team-roping shirt I got.

1135
00:56:18,643 --> 00:56:21,980
It's one of the ones
I won in Reno roping up

1136
00:56:22,047 --> 00:56:24,015
up in Reno here a few years back.

1137
00:56:24,082 --> 00:56:25,450
This is an '09 shirt, just...

1138
00:56:25,517 --> 00:56:28,252
-Roping cattle?
-Rope, yeah, team roping.

1139
00:56:28,318 --> 00:56:29,820
You know, we'll probably get in trouble

1140
00:56:29,887 --> 00:56:34,292
for not wearing my hard hat in the plant.
You know, don't show this part.

1141
00:56:34,358 --> 00:56:36,193
-[group chuckling]
-[engine rattling]

1142
00:56:37,228 --> 00:56:39,030
And you can see
all the water that funnels down

1143
00:56:39,097 --> 00:56:40,565
to the two sand screws.

1144
00:56:40,632 --> 00:56:42,633
That goes back out the back,

1145
00:56:42,700 --> 00:56:44,368
and we'll head back over to the silt pond

1146
00:56:44,435 --> 00:56:46,938
and show you where that
water circulates from,

1147
00:56:47,005 --> 00:56:50,073
and show you how we keep it
in a closed-loop system here.

1148
00:56:50,142 --> 00:56:51,275
[Yasha] As he told it,

1149
00:56:51,342 --> 00:56:53,177
the plant had a sort of recycling system

1150
00:56:53,243 --> 00:56:54,245
for the water it used.

1151
00:56:54,312 --> 00:56:55,347
[Mitch] We have several wells.

1152
00:56:55,413 --> 00:56:59,250
I think that we probably
replenish our own wells

1153
00:56:59,317 --> 00:57:01,452
just because it's such
a sand and gravel area.

1154
00:57:01,518 --> 00:57:03,420
And our wells are very shallow here.

1155
00:57:03,488 --> 00:57:07,758
We keep a lot of people busy,
and so we need water to do that.

1156
00:57:07,825 --> 00:57:08,860
And without the water,

1157
00:57:08,927 --> 00:57:12,530
we're gonna send 50, 60
people home without a job.

1158
00:57:13,430 --> 00:57:15,267
I even forget what they call these,

1159
00:57:15,333 --> 00:57:16,567
but these are old trees

1160
00:57:16,633 --> 00:57:19,503
that my grandfather probably
planted here in the 1930s.

1161
00:57:19,570 --> 00:57:23,040
These trees are probably
60 years old, some of these.

1162
00:57:23,107 --> 00:57:27,045
But that is a good...

1163
00:57:27,112 --> 00:57:28,980
-Yeah. Oh, these are...
-These are great,

1164
00:57:29,047 --> 00:57:30,215
-so, eat.
-Thank you.

1165
00:57:30,282 --> 00:57:31,682
There's your orange juice
for the morning.

1166
00:57:31,748 --> 00:57:33,518
-Exactly.
-That'll keep you nice and strong.

1167
00:57:33,585 --> 00:57:34,618
[both chuckling]

1168
00:57:34,685 --> 00:57:35,953
Thank you. All right.

1169
00:57:37,555 --> 00:57:39,923
We own all of this country over here.

1170
00:57:39,990 --> 00:57:42,827
We own from there about three miles,

1171
00:57:42,893 --> 00:57:45,062
I own clear over to the
backside of the lake.

1172
00:57:45,128 --> 00:57:46,630
-Wow.
-I own...

1173
00:57:46,697 --> 00:57:49,833
So my mom and dad,
when I was a kid, we own...

1174
00:57:49,900 --> 00:57:51,903
I planted... I helped my grandfather

1175
00:57:51,970 --> 00:57:54,005
and my dad plant every one of these trees.

1176
00:57:54,072 --> 00:57:55,138
[Yasha] According to Mitch,

1177
00:57:55,207 --> 00:57:57,942
Rod was an old friend
who had gone off the rails.

1178
00:57:58,008 --> 00:57:59,110
[Mitch] What can I tell you?

1179
00:57:59,177 --> 00:58:01,345
I've known him
ever since we've been kids.

1180
00:58:01,412 --> 00:58:04,715
And in the last five years,

1181
00:58:04,782 --> 00:58:07,652
he has chosen the path of drugs

1182
00:58:08,352 --> 00:58:14,058
and alcohol and gotten
away from the church.

1183
00:58:14,125 --> 00:58:18,162
He's gotten away from everything
that has any value in life.

1184
00:58:18,228 --> 00:58:21,398
Family, everything,
he's gotten away from that.

1185
00:58:21,465 --> 00:58:23,768
The board took his...

1186
00:58:27,572 --> 00:58:31,408
His position away from him
and gave it to his wife

1187
00:58:31,475 --> 00:58:32,843
because the wife could manage that,

1188
00:58:32,910 --> 00:58:34,378
and Sandy still manages it.

1189
00:58:34,445 --> 00:58:37,882
And she is a great gal, does her job,

1190
00:58:37,948 --> 00:58:39,750
but with Rod's addiction,

1191
00:58:39,817 --> 00:58:43,287
and he just has gone off the deep end.

1192
00:58:43,353 --> 00:58:46,323
We've had a couple of
people say that, you know,

1193
00:58:46,390 --> 00:58:48,358
there's like a dam up here,

1194
00:58:48,425 --> 00:58:51,662
like a secret dam that's being
sort of used to hold the water back,

1195
00:58:51,728 --> 00:58:55,198
and that's why
it's not reaching the lower parts

1196
00:58:55,267 --> 00:58:56,935
of the river and recharging the aquifers.

1197
00:58:57,002 --> 00:58:59,570
That is incorrect, for sure.

1198
00:58:59,637 --> 00:59:02,040
'Cause I border most of
the river all the way down.

1199
00:59:02,107 --> 00:59:03,975
I probably own

1200
00:59:05,643 --> 00:59:08,947
you know, half a mile's
worth of river frontage

1201
00:59:09,013 --> 00:59:10,448
down through here and there's--

1202
00:59:10,515 --> 00:59:12,950
-So there's no secret dam?
-No, there's no secret dam.

1203
00:59:14,185 --> 00:59:15,453
[Yasha] When we came back later

1204
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:17,722
to shoot more footage of the dam,

1205
00:59:17,788 --> 00:59:19,190
the whole area had been dug out

1206
00:59:19,257 --> 00:59:21,125
and the water was flowing again.

1207
00:59:22,593 --> 00:59:24,262
When we phoned Mitch about it,

1208
00:59:24,328 --> 00:59:27,132
he spun a story
about a digger stolen from his plant

1209
00:59:27,198 --> 00:59:30,200
and warned us about Rod,
saying he was a wife-beater.

1210
00:59:31,635 --> 00:59:33,638
But trying to pin down
who really had rights

1211
00:59:33,705 --> 00:59:36,707
to this river water and how much
was no easy task.

1212
00:59:37,575 --> 00:59:38,743
Upstream from all this,

1213
00:59:38,810 --> 00:59:40,712
there's a much bigger dam for the town.

1214
00:59:41,345 --> 00:59:43,748
And as far as the people
running it were concerned,

1215
00:59:43,815 --> 00:59:46,850
this water was almost entirely
owned by private companies.

1216
00:59:47,585 --> 00:59:49,720
Mitch had explained the same thing to us.

1217
00:59:49,787 --> 00:59:52,623
When people, you know, built the dam,

1218
00:59:52,690 --> 00:59:56,260
there were people
that paid to build the dam.

1219
00:59:56,327 --> 00:59:58,997
Because of the expense
that they had to forego,

1220
00:59:59,063 --> 01:00:02,300
they got to, in fact, store water

1221
01:00:02,367 --> 01:00:04,802
and they could use it when they needed it,

1222
01:00:04,868 --> 01:00:07,172
but the first water users are, you know,

1223
01:00:07,238 --> 01:00:10,508
obviously upstream,
and then it flows downstream

1224
01:00:10,575 --> 01:00:13,110
to the lesser shares.

1225
01:00:14,278 --> 01:00:16,280
[ominous music]

1226
01:00:21,285 --> 01:00:23,620
[Yasha] As far as local
businesses were concerned,

1227
01:00:23,688 --> 01:00:25,623
the river was more like
an irrigation ditch

1228
01:00:25,690 --> 01:00:27,892
for transferring water
to different owners.

1229
01:00:28,525 --> 01:00:31,495
If some of that water was trickling down
into residential wells,

1230
01:00:31,562 --> 01:00:33,665
well, those people were lucky,

1231
01:00:33,732 --> 01:00:35,700
but they had no real legal claim to it.

1232
01:00:37,102 --> 01:00:39,103
[ominous music]

1233
01:00:40,705 --> 01:00:43,207
The people who run this system
are good at making it sound

1234
01:00:43,273 --> 01:00:45,308
like it's all totally above board.

1235
01:00:45,377 --> 01:00:47,145
It's all about who's upriver

1236
01:00:47,212 --> 01:00:48,947
and who developed their claim first.

1237
01:00:51,615 --> 01:00:53,150
We saw that there was
a Native American tribe

1238
01:00:53,217 --> 01:00:55,252
further upstream from the dam,

1239
01:00:55,318 --> 01:00:58,188
so we drove up to ask them
about their water rights.

1240
01:00:59,757 --> 01:01:02,493
They stole it. They didn't buy nothing.

1241
01:01:02,560 --> 01:01:04,595
They stole it just like...

1242
01:01:04,662 --> 01:01:06,863
Just like if you left
a thousand dollars sitting

1243
01:01:06,930 --> 01:01:08,833
on your seat of your car, and it was...

1244
01:01:08,900 --> 01:01:11,802
I walked out there and your car
wasn't locked, and I seen it,

1245
01:01:11,868 --> 01:01:12,937
and I took that money.

1246
01:01:13,003 --> 01:01:14,638
-Yeah.
-Straight up stole it.

1247
01:01:14,705 --> 01:01:16,773
That's what I'm talking about.

1248
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:19,110
[Yasha] Back in the 1930s,
an official who said

1249
01:01:19,177 --> 01:01:21,378
they were acting on the tribe's behalf

1250
01:01:21,445 --> 01:01:23,313
signed away all their rights
to the river.

1251
01:01:24,648 --> 01:01:27,052
They've been fighting
to get them back ever since.

1252
01:01:28,118 --> 01:01:30,120
[ominous music]

1253
01:01:31,322 --> 01:01:33,323
The people in East
Porterville never questioned

1254
01:01:33,390 --> 01:01:36,560
who had rights to the river
before their wells went dry.

1255
01:01:36,627 --> 01:01:38,228
But as soon as there was a shortage,

1256
01:01:38,295 --> 01:01:40,498
it became clear who really had control.

1257
01:01:42,333 --> 01:01:45,570
The big farmers and landowners
here took what they needed,

1258
01:01:45,637 --> 01:01:48,638
even if that meant cutting off
water to thousands of people.

1259
01:01:48,705 --> 01:01:50,708
[ominous music]

1260
01:02:03,553 --> 01:02:05,857
You could see this all over the Valley.

1261
01:02:06,723 --> 01:02:07,592
As the drought raged

1262
01:02:07,658 --> 01:02:10,662
and people in cities
had to cut back on water,

1263
01:02:10,728 --> 01:02:12,363
farmers were putting in new plantings

1264
01:02:12,430 --> 01:02:14,598
of almonds and pistachios.

1265
01:02:14,665 --> 01:02:17,202
Everywhere you looked,
there were new trees going in.

1266
01:02:17,268 --> 01:02:19,103
Thousands and thousands of acres.

1267
01:02:19,170 --> 01:02:21,372
[ominous music]

1268
01:02:21,438 --> 01:02:24,575
Drought or no drought, some
farmers had plenty of water,

1269
01:02:24,642 --> 01:02:26,277
and they were always expanding.

1270
01:02:26,343 --> 01:02:28,345
[ominous music]

1271
01:02:42,058 --> 01:02:44,062
[ominous music]

1272
01:02:50,835 --> 01:02:52,470
The last stop on our trip

1273
01:02:52,537 --> 01:02:54,672
was the American Pistachio
Growers Convention

1274
01:02:54,738 --> 01:02:56,640
down in Palm Springs.

1275
01:02:56,707 --> 01:02:58,708
[lively music]

1276
01:03:03,680 --> 01:03:07,785
♪ Every time it rains
It rains ♪

1277
01:03:07,852 --> 01:03:10,020
♪ Pennies from heaven ♪

1278
01:03:11,155 --> 01:03:14,492
♪ Don't you know each cloud contains ♪

1279
01:03:15,593 --> 01:03:18,228
♪ Pennies from heaven ♪

1280
01:03:18,963 --> 01:03:21,898
♪ You find your fortune ♪

1281
01:03:21,965 --> 01:03:23,367
[audience applauding]

1282
01:03:23,433 --> 01:03:26,270
The funny thing is, I see an awful
lot of water around here.

1283
01:03:26,337 --> 01:03:27,572
[audience laughing]

1284
01:03:27,638 --> 01:03:30,107
And I'd really like to know
what their deal is.

1285
01:03:30,173 --> 01:03:32,108
-[audience laughing]
-[man speaks indistinctly]

1286
01:03:32,177 --> 01:03:33,978
Huh? [chuckles]

1287
01:03:34,045 --> 01:03:36,613
[Yasha] We didn't really know
what to expect here,

1288
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:39,183
but along with water, to our surprise,

1289
01:03:39,250 --> 01:03:42,453
they started talking about
the industry's rivalry with Iran.

1290
01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:45,690
The Iranian packaging that we've seen,

1291
01:03:45,757 --> 01:03:47,858
do we think it's more
sophisticated than ours?

1292
01:03:47,925 --> 01:03:50,193
And my answer to that
would be no, not at all,

1293
01:03:50,260 --> 01:03:53,330
based on my observation.

1294
01:03:53,397 --> 01:03:57,835
As a result of the negotiation
on the Iran nuclear deal,

1295
01:03:57,902 --> 01:04:01,505
Iranian pistachios
will now be allowed into the U.S.

1296
01:04:01,572 --> 01:04:05,342
[Yasha] One of the most bizarre things
about California's pistachio industry

1297
01:04:05,408 --> 01:04:07,143
is that it was born
out of America's meddling

1298
01:04:07,212 --> 01:04:08,412
in the Middle East.

1299
01:04:08,478 --> 01:04:11,515
I wanna go all the way back to 1979

1300
01:04:11,582 --> 01:04:16,920
when Iranian students
took our embassy officials hostage.

1301
01:04:16,987 --> 01:04:19,023
[Yasha] After the Iranian revolution,

1302
01:04:19,090 --> 01:04:20,592
the U.S.-backed monarch was thrown out.

1303
01:04:20,658 --> 01:04:22,793
[crowd cheering]

1304
01:04:22,860 --> 01:04:24,462
American hostages were taken

1305
01:04:24,528 --> 01:04:27,532
and the U.S. retaliated
by blocking trade with Iran.

1306
01:04:29,100 --> 01:04:30,835
Historically, Iran has always been

1307
01:04:30,902 --> 01:04:33,237
the world's biggest
exporter of pistachios,

1308
01:04:33,837 --> 01:04:36,573
but the embargo allowed
California's tiny industry

1309
01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:38,142
to get a global foothold.

1310
01:04:40,243 --> 01:04:43,113
And after several decades
of continued hostility and sanctions,

1311
01:04:44,148 --> 01:04:47,217
the U.S. industry grew
from being almost non-existent

1312
01:04:47,285 --> 01:04:48,585
to number one in the world.

1313
01:04:51,655 --> 01:04:54,292
A lot of pistachio farmers
we had met on our trip

1314
01:04:54,358 --> 01:04:55,693
were familiar with the history.

1315
01:04:55,760 --> 01:04:58,997
Okay, back in the days
when the Shah was still there

1316
01:04:59,463 --> 01:05:02,733
and we had open trade
with Iran for pistachios,

1317
01:05:02,800 --> 01:05:04,702
all of our pistachios came from there.

1318
01:05:04,768 --> 01:05:06,270
I don't even know if we grew any here.

1319
01:05:06,337 --> 01:05:10,775
When the Shah was kicked out
and we broke relations

1320
01:05:10,842 --> 01:05:14,312
and stopped importing
pistachios from there,

1321
01:05:14,378 --> 01:05:18,983
we kind of took on the
challenge of growing pistachios.

1322
01:05:19,050 --> 01:05:20,283
[Yasha] Even to this day,

1323
01:05:20,350 --> 01:05:23,187
farmers are aware
that improving relations with Iran

1324
01:05:23,253 --> 01:05:24,688
would be bad for business.

1325
01:05:24,755 --> 01:05:26,623
The Iran embargo was,

1326
01:05:26,690 --> 01:05:31,962
they can't sell their fruit to
anybody else but Iran, okay?

1327
01:05:32,028 --> 01:05:36,033
And they can't go over to
the Saudis or anybody else

1328
01:05:36,100 --> 01:05:38,102
because we put the embargoes on them

1329
01:05:38,168 --> 01:05:39,937
and that was hurting them.

1330
01:05:40,003 --> 01:05:43,207
But now with this new,
this president that we got now,

1331
01:05:43,273 --> 01:05:46,777
[scoffs] jeez-o-pete,
he's just screwing the pooch.

1332
01:05:46,843 --> 01:05:50,113
We have Arabs that live around here.

1333
01:05:50,180 --> 01:05:53,650
We have Arabs that take care of--
That own pistachio orchards.

1334
01:05:53,717 --> 01:05:55,452
Well, how do you feel?

1335
01:05:55,518 --> 01:05:58,288
You know, does the Muslim bother you?

1336
01:05:58,355 --> 01:06:00,725
[Yasha] Seeing the reactions
of these small-time farmers,

1337
01:06:00,792 --> 01:06:03,693
we couldn't help but wonder
what the Resnicks were doing.

1338
01:06:03,760 --> 01:06:07,665
Their company alone was bigger
than the rest of the industry combined,

1339
01:06:07,732 --> 01:06:10,433
and they've been very open about
their competition with Iran.

1340
01:06:10,500 --> 01:06:12,770
[ominous music]

1341
01:06:12,837 --> 01:06:15,138
When we dug into some records,

1342
01:06:15,205 --> 01:06:16,740
we found that they were giving millions

1343
01:06:16,807 --> 01:06:18,808
to all sorts of lobby groups,

1344
01:06:18,875 --> 01:06:21,712
slush funds that channeled money
into pushing for sanctions

1345
01:06:21,778 --> 01:06:24,082
and pumping out anti-Iran propaganda.

1346
01:06:25,548 --> 01:06:28,485
They also made big donations
to California Republicans

1347
01:06:28,552 --> 01:06:29,920
who were hawkish on Iran.

1348
01:06:31,522 --> 01:06:33,523
What is Iran doing around the world?

1349
01:06:33,590 --> 01:06:35,358
Well, they're funding terrorism.

1350
01:06:35,425 --> 01:06:40,497
The Iranian state is the
largest funding mechanism,

1351
01:06:40,563 --> 01:06:42,933
as a nation state,
of terrorism around the globe.

1352
01:06:44,268 --> 01:06:46,237
[Yasha] More surprisingly,
they were on the board

1353
01:06:46,303 --> 01:06:47,938
of several major think tanks,

1354
01:06:48,805 --> 01:06:51,742
including the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.

1355
01:06:53,010 --> 01:06:55,345
They've been on the board
for over a decade.

1356
01:06:55,412 --> 01:06:58,982
It's an organization that
badly wants war with Iran.

1357
01:06:59,050 --> 01:07:02,720
I frankly think that crisis
initiation is really tough

1358
01:07:02,787 --> 01:07:04,522
and it's very hard for me to see

1359
01:07:04,588 --> 01:07:08,292
how the United States President

1360
01:07:08,358 --> 01:07:09,827
can get us to war with Iran.

1361
01:07:09,893 --> 01:07:13,263
One can combine other means
of pressure with sanctions.

1362
01:07:13,330 --> 01:07:17,333
I mentioned that explosion on August 17th.

1363
01:07:17,402 --> 01:07:18,935
We could step up the pressure.

1364
01:07:20,503 --> 01:07:21,472
I mean, look, people,

1365
01:07:21,538 --> 01:07:23,573
Iranian submarines periodically go down.

1366
01:07:23,640 --> 01:07:26,677
Someday one of them might not
come up. Who would know why.

1367
01:07:29,513 --> 01:07:30,380
[Yasha] When you look through

1368
01:07:30,447 --> 01:07:32,148
the Washington Institute's members,

1369
01:07:32,215 --> 01:07:35,618
it's like a Who's Who
of familiar faces from the Iraq War.

1370
01:07:35,685 --> 01:07:37,387
All of us do know
each other rather well,

1371
01:07:37,455 --> 01:07:39,990
and I see some good friends
in the audience.

1372
01:07:40,892 --> 01:07:44,362
I'm proud to say your former
deputy director, John Hanna,

1373
01:07:44,428 --> 01:07:47,565
is now my assistant
for national security affairs

1374
01:07:47,632 --> 01:07:49,133
and you can't have him back yet.

1375
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:50,467
[Colbert] Thank you. Please sit down.

1376
01:07:50,533 --> 01:07:53,003
Please, please, please.

1377
01:07:53,070 --> 01:07:55,572
I'm sorry, I just...
I'm sorry, I wasn't prepared.

1378
01:07:55,638 --> 01:07:58,008
I was just... [chuckling]

1379
01:07:58,075 --> 01:08:02,245
You caught me in the middle of flipping
through my Iraq War scrapbook.

1380
01:08:02,312 --> 01:08:03,313
[audience laughing]

1381
01:08:03,380 --> 01:08:05,582
Many of us are convinced
that Saddam Hussein

1382
01:08:05,648 --> 01:08:08,285
will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.

1383
01:08:08,352 --> 01:08:10,720
There is no doubt that he is amassing them

1384
01:08:10,788 --> 01:08:13,923
to use against our friends,
against our allies,

1385
01:08:13,990 --> 01:08:15,192
and against us.

1386
01:08:15,258 --> 01:08:16,359
When the speech was over,

1387
01:08:16,426 --> 01:08:18,928
there was not a dry eye in the house,

1388
01:08:18,995 --> 01:08:23,332
nor an un-crapped pair
of pants in America.

1389
01:08:23,399 --> 01:08:26,603
[Yasha] It's kind of weird
watching these old Colbert clips now.

1390
01:08:26,670 --> 01:08:29,207
Stephen. Isn't he brilliant?

1391
01:08:29,939 --> 01:08:32,008
[audience laughing]

1392
01:08:32,075 --> 01:08:35,979
You think I'm kidding. Anyway. [chuckles]

1393
01:08:36,046 --> 01:08:38,448
I follow her everywhere with that.

1394
01:08:38,515 --> 01:08:40,649
-[laughing]
-[audience laughing]

1395
01:08:40,716 --> 01:08:42,185
I have no pride.

1396
01:08:42,252 --> 01:08:45,287
Anyway, Stephen's fantastic,

1397
01:08:45,354 --> 01:08:48,125
and I guess it takes a nut to
sell a nut, what do you think?

1398
01:08:48,192 --> 01:08:50,093
[Yasha] The whole time,
the Resnicks had Stephen Colbert

1399
01:08:50,160 --> 01:08:51,728
as their brand mascot.

1400
01:08:51,795 --> 01:08:54,096
They've been in bed
with the neoconservative crowd

1401
01:08:54,165 --> 01:08:55,598
lobbying for war.

1402
01:08:56,200 --> 01:09:00,270
The secret to world peace is pistachios.

1403
01:09:00,803 --> 01:09:02,138
[clicks]

1404
01:09:03,307 --> 01:09:05,943
[announcer] Dennis Rodman
does it because he's nuts.

1405
01:09:06,710 --> 01:09:10,180
Wonderful Pistachios.
Get crackin'.

1406
01:09:17,220 --> 01:09:18,988
[Yasha] In a long line
of wealthy farmers

1407
01:09:19,055 --> 01:09:20,756
to plunder the Central Valley,

1408
01:09:20,823 --> 01:09:22,593
the Resnicks aren't anything new.

1409
01:09:23,859 --> 01:09:27,130
The liberal social politics,
the flashy marketing,

1410
01:09:27,197 --> 01:09:30,767
they're just a modern flavor of something
as old as America itself.

1411
01:09:30,832 --> 01:09:32,837
[ominous music]

1412
01:09:33,470 --> 01:09:34,772
Farming here isn't so different

1413
01:09:34,837 --> 01:09:37,575
from the historic booms in gold and oil.

1414
01:09:37,642 --> 01:09:39,542
It's an extraction industry.

1415
01:09:39,609 --> 01:09:42,813
But the resource that's being
mined to depletion is water.

1416
01:09:45,983 --> 01:09:48,051
It might make sense
if the food they were growing

1417
01:09:48,118 --> 01:09:49,653
was necessary for survival,

1418
01:09:50,687 --> 01:09:52,657
but it's mostly crops for export,

1419
01:09:52,723 --> 01:09:55,792
nuts where the entire demand
was created by marketing.

1420
01:09:58,128 --> 01:09:59,330
These companies don't care

1421
01:09:59,397 --> 01:10:01,465
if they suck the rivers completely dry

1422
01:10:01,532 --> 01:10:03,833
or if they're lobbying for war.

1423
01:10:03,900 --> 01:10:06,670
Nothing matters
but the quest for endless growth.

1424
01:10:06,737 --> 01:10:09,005
-[group screaming]
-[tense music]

1425
01:10:10,340 --> 01:10:13,077
It's like the blob mindlessly expanding,

1426
01:10:13,143 --> 01:10:15,412
swallowing everything in its path.

1427
01:10:15,478 --> 01:10:17,247
[people screaming]

1428
01:10:24,822 --> 01:10:25,990
Looking at this bizarre,

1429
01:10:26,057 --> 01:10:28,525
bleak landscape in the Central Valley,

1430
01:10:28,592 --> 01:10:31,162
it's what the planet would
look like if it was terraformed

1431
01:10:31,228 --> 01:10:32,963
to meet the needs of billionaires.

1432
01:10:34,063 --> 01:10:36,200
All of nature turned into a commodity,

1433
01:10:36,933 --> 01:10:38,802
optimized for wealth extraction.

1434
01:10:39,770 --> 01:10:42,338
A dystopian future
right in front of our eyes.

1435
01:10:45,175 --> 01:10:50,180
♪ It is home sweet home to me ♪

1436
01:10:51,148 --> 01:10:52,950
[Yasha] My family fled the Soviet Union

1437
01:10:53,017 --> 01:10:54,685
right as the whole thing
was crashing down.

1438
01:10:58,155 --> 01:11:01,058
My story should've been about a young man

1439
01:11:01,125 --> 01:11:02,827
being saved from a grim fate.

1440
01:11:04,362 --> 01:11:07,097
But here too,
even if you try to ignore it all,

1441
01:11:07,163 --> 01:11:08,432
the cracks are showing.

1442
01:11:11,035 --> 01:11:14,203
I realized that my family
escaped one failed system

1443
01:11:14,270 --> 01:11:15,905
only for us to arrive in another.

1444
01:11:16,840 --> 01:11:19,242
And this time, there isn't any alternative

1445
01:11:19,310 --> 01:11:20,843
or another place to run.

1446
01:11:20,910 --> 01:11:22,913
[ominous music]

1447
01:11:34,223 --> 01:11:35,792
[coyote howling]

1448
01:11:42,432 --> 01:11:44,435
-[ominous music]
-[coyote howling]

1449
01:11:48,138 --> 01:11:53,143
It's times like these that make
what we do even more important.

1450
01:11:53,210 --> 01:11:55,645
Many of you have asked from time to time

1451
01:11:55,712 --> 01:11:58,182
why Stewart and I do what we do.

1452
01:11:58,248 --> 01:12:00,783
Why do we care so much about giving back?

1453
01:12:00,850 --> 01:12:04,888
Let me show you my recent
art project to help explain.

1454
01:12:08,458 --> 01:12:12,262
I took a virtual class in memento mori.

1455
01:12:12,328 --> 01:12:14,832
It was an art class where you make things,

1456
01:12:14,898 --> 01:12:20,303
mementos to remind you that
eventually you're going to die.

1457
01:12:20,370 --> 01:12:23,807
-[ominous music]
-[coyote howling]

1458
01:12:23,873 --> 01:12:26,743
There are pistachios and bottles of wine,

1459
01:12:26,810 --> 01:12:31,013
halos and little FIJI Water bottles
and tiny pomegranates,

1460
01:12:31,082 --> 01:12:33,783
all the things that have
helped make my life,

1461
01:12:33,850 --> 01:12:36,220
our lives truly wonderful.

1462
01:12:36,287 --> 01:12:39,723
-[soothing music]
-[coyotes howling]

1463
01:12:39,790 --> 01:12:42,960
The important part
is what's written at the bottom.

1464
01:12:43,027 --> 01:12:45,995
"Hearses don't have luggage racks."

1465
01:12:48,665 --> 01:12:52,803
But in these times
of social unrest and agitation,

1466
01:12:52,870 --> 01:12:55,105
there is more need than ever.

1467
01:12:55,172 --> 01:12:58,775
And I believe if you can do more
for the common good

1468
01:12:58,842 --> 01:13:01,878
and you don't, you're committing a sin.

1469
01:13:01,945 --> 01:13:03,947
[soothing music]

1470
01:13:15,825 --> 01:13:17,828
[soothing music continues]

1471
01:13:30,073 --> 01:13:32,075
[coyotes howling]

1472
01:13:38,482 --> 01:13:40,483
[soothing music continues]

1473
01:13:48,025 --> 01:13:50,027
[soothing music continues]

1474
01:13:58,235 --> 01:14:00,237
[soothing music continues]

1475
01:14:03,907 --> 01:14:04,942
[music fades out]

1476
01:14:05,008 --> 01:14:07,010
-[crickets chirping]
-[coyotes howling]