Author Topic: California Drought  (Read 5977 times)

blackeye

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California Drought
« on: September 17, 2014, 08:10:24 PM »
Having recently driven I-5 from Bellingham to LA and back, I was amazed to see how low Lake Shasta water levels are. Central Valley farmers are pissed-off for sure, and the price of my lettuce in Vancouver keeps rising. But in LA, cars were clean and shiny, lawns were green and we could wash our boat down with a firehose.

I have photos, but these are better:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dramatic-California-drought-before-and-after-5756861.php#photo-6851694

The article says the drought has been three years, and water levels are at 60-70% depleted, therefor a depletion rate of 20-23% per year is in play. What happens in two more years of drought?


PonoBill

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2014, 08:12:05 PM »
Everyone that likes water gets to move. This has been coming a long time.
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Zooport

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2014, 08:18:54 PM »
Having recently driven I-5 from Bellingham to LA and back, I was amazed to see how low Lake Shasta water levels are. Central Valley farmers are pissed-off for sure, and the price of my lettuce in Vancouver keeps rising. But in LA, cars were clean and shiny, lawns were green and we could wash our boat down with a firehose.

I have photos, but these are better:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dramatic-California-drought-before-and-after-5756861.php#photo-6851694

The article says the drought has been three years, and water levels are at 60-70% depleted, therefor a depletion rate of 20-23% per year is in play. What happens in two more years of drought?



I agree and I can't believe how lightly people are taking this.  All of my neighbors have lovely green lawns.  I quit watering my lawn several months ago and it looks like heck.  Trying to conserve in every way possible, but it sometimes feels like I'm the only one.  What really bothers me is that, when mandatory water conservation is enacted, they are going to use my already conservative usage as their baseline and I will be required to cut from there on the same percentage as all the hogs.  So I will be punished for being a good citizen. 
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PonoBill

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2014, 08:24:35 PM »
Yup. Oddly enough they did a similar thing here in Portland, where we're buried in the stuff. Enacted emergency water restrictions, didn't punish anyone who ignored them, then used usage as a baseline to charge a premium for anything above the baseline. I went to a town meeting on the thing. I thought I was mad, but I was the voice of reason (go figure). Those shitheads were lucky to get out with their lives. The crowd was in a lynching mood.
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Zooport

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2014, 07:55:14 PM »
Guess I should start taking really long showers and watering my dead lawn again until water rationing starts.  I'm only half kidding. 
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Ichabod Spoonbill

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2014, 08:55:38 PM »
I was amazed after my week in California how dry it was. It makes me wonder why all that agriculture is out there instead of the wet northeast. Seems like practically every farm out here has been turned into a housing development.

Actually, I know why all that agriculture is out there — the warm climate — but that's got to come to an end somehow. It seems like everyone's driving towards a cliff out there. How many more years does California have?
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Califoilia

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2014, 11:52:43 AM »
Guess I should start taking really long showers and watering my dead lawn again until water rationing starts.  I'm only half kidding.
Yep, damned if you do, and damned if you don't....

Man who stopped watering lawn due to drought fined for not maintaining lawn....go figure.
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TallDude

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2014, 02:04:47 PM »
Blame Mulholland. Or you could just blame the Irish....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mulholland
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SUPcheat

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2014, 02:13:43 PM »
Supposed to rain next week in NoCal.  September rain is a good omen.  That is, if you believe in omens.
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stoneaxe

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2014, 06:34:29 PM »
Good article in last months National Geographic. It's going to take some serious civil and social engineering to do something about it. Restrictions, reuse, desalinization, longer pipelines...
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SCruzSUPr

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2014, 06:53:35 PM »
Everyone that likes water gets to move. This has been coming a long time.

+1

People don't seem to realize how long ago they shoulda stopped watering lawns, golf courses, medians on roads.  Out of the last 12 years we've only had 2 with near average rainfall, all the others have been seriously dry.  The aquifers will take decades, not years, to replenish themselves - not that we'll ever give 'em a chance....

The rest of the world uses 1/2 to 1/3 as much water as we do in the U.S. per capita (http://chartsbin.com/view/1455)

But not to worry, people have been living in places like Saudi Arabia, Nevada and Australia without a lot of water for a long time!
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SeaMe

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Re: California Drought
« Reply #11 on: October 08, 2014, 07:59:33 PM »
The article says the drought has been three years, and water levels are at 60-70% depleted, therefor a depletion rate of 20-23% per year is in play. What happens in two more years of drought?

They get to plead "water emergency" and attempt to convince the Feds to let them tap aquifers in other states and under national parks/land.

Cynthia Barnett is much wiser on the subject of water conservation than I, and the talk she gave at the University Arkansas back in 2012 (in support of her book, Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis) is worth a listen:

http://clintonschoolspeakers.com/lecture/view/blue-revolution/
« Last Edit: October 08, 2014, 08:27:10 PM by SeaMe »
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