Posted on 03/13/2015 11:09:46 AM PDT by blam
Tyler Durden
03/13/2015
Authored by NASA Senior Water Scientist Jay Famiglietti, originally posted Op-Ed at The LA Times.
Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California's winter was as well.
As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We're not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we're losing the creek too.
Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir.
Statewide, we've been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011. Roughly two-thirds of these losses are attributable to groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley. Farmers have little choice but to pump more groundwater during droughts, especially when their surface water allocations have been slashed 80% to 100%. But these pumping rates are excessive and unsustainable. Wells are running dry. In some areas of the Central Valley, the land is sinking by one foot or more per year.
(snip)
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Ship water to them from the great lakes like we do with China. California can afford it. /s
A whole lot happened in the interim. The major water projects were developed by cities. Los Angeles built the Owens Valley aqueduct system in the early 20th century. San Francisco built Hetch Hetchy reservoir in the 30s. Smaller cities built similar systems around the state. So the much larger fight over water for agriculture vs. water for some of the country’s largest cities has been going on for over a century. The Endangered Species Act is just the latest wrinkle.
Raise taxes?? /sarc
Hey, I know, we could use nuclear electrical power to desalinate sea water! Oh ya, “no nukes.”
I know, we could use coal fired electrical power to desalinate sea water! Oo, “carbon footprint!”
I know, we could use hydroelectric power to desalinate sea water! D’oh! “native american salmon fishing rights.”
Fracking! Ugh.
One might start to realize that it is not energy/power production that is bad, it is out pacing the rest of the world that is bad, and they are going to kill the U.S. and Western Civilization to prescribe equality, if it kills us all.
Got ammo? Got the balls to use it?
I am a native Californian and I still live here, refuse to quit.
One piece of advice; those who are cowardly enough to run to your states; meet them at your boarders and SHOOT THEM DOWN AS QUICK AS YOU CAN..
IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE.
Oh yeah. We need HSR. Like we need a hole in our heads.
For years pol!kiticians and greens fought new reservoirs, dams etc.
MoonBeam vision.. From Drought to drought.
What is the common factor?
Our leadership has been AWOL.
The 800,000 acre feet of water currently devoted to the Delta Smelt is 1.8% of California’s annual water use.
When is this from? 20 years ago?
Letting California have access to your water is like letting Vladimir Putin have access to Crimea. It’s a bad idea.
Little do they know about humidity, snakes, cockroaches, tornadoes, hurricanes and kudzu.
Please pass the popcorn.
Hey, at least you care enough about our language to care about spelling. More and more it seems that Freepers have resigned themselves to letting the language fall into the gutter.
I know that seems ironic and stupid to us, but we're just a bunch of ignorant bitter clingers, who don't understand the depth and 'nuance' of librul thinking about such things. /s
Texas produces electricity from our own resources, from oil to wind, and is not as much a part of the grid as many other states-it also sells electricity to-California as well as other places-we would lose money if we no longer did that, but I don’t see that as all bad.
Where I live we get electricity from a rural coop-it is pretty “our” power, because we all own shares of the thing-unlike in a city. We get kickbacks of real money for solar and wind power, too. Rainwater capture and gray water, natural planting-including livestock pasturage-is encouraged, too since this is a semi arid area and droughts are cyclical-we don’t want Texas to end up like Cali.
Here, there a moratorium on development-no water well on less than 5 acres, no commercial concerns in rural areas-if we want crowding and noise, there is a city of 1 million or so less than 50 miles away, with plenty or burbs to live in.
I don’t live in a cave, nor does anyone else out here, and I am happy to be in favor of the sensible conservation of our natural resources-and I was not talking about anything other than yard plants/trees and the almond and avocados that are grown in your state-those are non-native, and they do take an enormous amount of water.
Pine and hardwood trees are grown for the purpose of making lumber for building just about everywhere and have been for a long, long time-native trees, not ones from South America or China-I see and use lumber almost every day, since I work in construction. The trees are grown on these places called tree farms, and because they grow naturally in that area they do not need enormous amounts of water-economical, renewable-just like planting beans or tomatoes.
The nearest grocery store has Texas produce and some from Mexico-like avocados-and almost none from California-the stuff from Texas and Mexico is less expensive and tastes just as good. Most of us grow our own seasonal veggies in our yards anyway.
If people where you are want to keep knocking down dams to save fish not even endangered, wasting water on tropical lawns and crops native to the tropics, I say let them go right ahead-but don’t bitch about it, or expect others to give or sell you more water to waste. If Cali really wants to have water next year, they’d best tell the Barbara Streisand crowd to turn off the sprinklers...
According to your logic, we may as well cede every square inch of America to the horde. I'm pretty sure you know we won't do that. At some point soon, Americans are going to realize that there's nowhere left to run to.
I agree with you-I’ve been ready since I was 14 and read “Atlas Shrugged”, and I’ll be glad to see it-bring it on...
I also said, “The great divorce will come soon. Whether peaceably, or with rancor, it will come.” That is my answer to “What California is now is no longer what you family fought for. For that matter, what our country is now is no longer what you family fought for.”
There is nowhere to run, but there are alternatives.
Remove the illegals and you’ll have enough water to last several generations...
Deport CA’s illegals and they’ll have more than enough water for the next hundred years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.