most of the water is in the northern part of the state. the snow packs, reservoirs, dams. that has to be brought south, and there is a lot of ground water underneath that you pump up. farmers, residents, businesses are getting water from the state but people have, say i m a rice farmer which by the way we grow rice in the desert, which is weird. say i m a rice or almond farmer, very water intensive, and i have a plot of land. i m not growing it from what is falling from the sky. no, it is irrigated from a river or something. and i have a right to that?
we have all seen china town. we have a vague idea of the west was a desert. someone came in and figured out how to get water to people to make it bloom. where is it and how did they get access to it? basically a lot of the water you are talking about is in the northern part of the state, up in the mountains, the big reservoirs and dams. that has to be brought south. farmers, residents, businesses are getting water from a combination of state and federal government projects. there is a system of local water authority. but people have say i am a rice farmer. by the way, america, we grow rice in the desert which is weird. say i am a rice or almond
charlie matthews floods his rice fields with millions of gallons of water, but some of his fellow farmers may stay dry. choosing instead to sell their water south for more money than they d make growing rice. doesn t this create an interesting dilemma for you? are you a water seller or a rice farmer? we re primarily want to be a rice farmer but in order to be a rice farmer we have to have the water. reporter: matthews took us to the reservoir supplying his northern california district which struck a deal to sell some of its water to the los angeles area, not abeasy decision for him, but he says a necessary one. if we don t find a way for the people in the south to get water when they desperately need t we re afraid they ll change our water rights so if we don t sell it to them they ll find a way to take it. reporter: farmers like matthews stand to make $700 an acre foot by not farming some land and selling allocated water 400 miles south to jeffrey cut linger s district. give m
this time the president of the utility company that owns the stricken fukushima nuclear plant has been hospitalized. word is he is suffering from high blood pressure and dizziness. meanwhile, the u.s. is now sending robots to the facility. they will provide video, readings and other data from areas of the facility that are inaccessible to humans. those robots are heading into the nuclear danger zone but there are some citizens living there who simply never left. our neal karlinsky tells us their story. reporter: it is a roadblock few have dared to cross. the sign says, danger and, it is the edge of the restricted zone, 20 kilometers, about 12 miles, from the nuclear plant. a japanese team has ventured in to check on whether anyone has refused to evacuate. they find a rice farmer, who seems to have ignored pleas to leave and all commonsense about the radiation filling this place. there aren t many goods
she heard the sirens signaling a tsunami was on the way. what did this 83-year-old do? translator: after the tsunami warning, i got on my bicycle by myself and rode away. reporter: that s right. suma escaped the tsunami on her bike. she spent her life as a rice farmer and takes pride in her physical stamina. when she saw the waters devouring her city, she couldn t believe it. translator: i thought japan would disappear. i thought japan would disappear under water. reporter: like so many people on the japanese pacific coast, suna s house is now flooded. translator: it s totally messed. i went to see it, i couldn t enter the house. it s totally messed. reporter: everyone in the shelter is of course also consumed by the frightening nuclear reactor drama the situation has special