Posted on 03/16/2015 5:01:21 AM PDT by HomerBohn
Once upon a time, much of the state of California was a barren desert. And now, thanks to the worst drought in modern American history, much of the state is turning back into one. Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century that the state of California had seen in 1000 years. But now weather patterns are reverting back to historical norms, and California is rapidly running out of water. It is being reported that the state only has approximately a one year supply of water left in the reservoirs, and when the water is all gone there are no contingency plans. Back in early 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state, but since that time water usage has only dropped by 9 percent. That is not nearly enough. The state of California has been losing more than 12 million acre-feet of total water a year since 2011, and we are quickly heading toward an extremely painful water crisis unlike anything that any of us have ever seen before.
But don’t take my word for it. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jay Famiglietti “is the senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech and a professor of Earth system science at UC Irvine”. What he has to say about the horrific drought in California is extremely sobering…
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.
Are you starting to understand why so many experts are so alarmed?
For much more from Famiglietti, check out this 60 Minutes interview.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, essentially the entire state is suffering drought conditions right now. And as you can see from the map below, most of the state is currently experiencing either the highest or the second-highest classification of drought…
Nearly 40 million people live in the state of California at the moment.
What are they all going to do when the water is gone?
In some rural areas, reservoirs are already nearly bone dry. And in other areas, the water quality has gone way down. For example, in one Southern California neighborhood black water is now coming out of the taps…
Residents of a Southern California neighborhood are concerned about the fact that the water flowing out of the taps in their homes is the color black. That’s right; the water coming out of their faucets is indeed black — not gray, not cloudy — but black. Inky, opaque black water that the water company says is okay to drink.
Those who live in Gardena, California, are understandably skeptical when asked to consume water that strongly resembles crude oil or something emitted by a squid. The water reportedly also has an “odor of rotten eggs or sewer smell,” according to one resident.
Perhaps you don’t care about what happens to California.
Perhaps you believe that they are just getting what they deserve.
And you might be right about that.
But the truth is that this is a crisis for all of us, because an enormous amount of our fresh produce is grown in the state.
As I discussed in a previous article, the rest of the nation is very heavily dependent on the fruits and vegetables grown in California. The following numbers represent California’s contribution to our overall production…
-99 percent of the artichokes
-44 percent of asparagus
-two-thirds of carrots
-half of bell peppers
-89 percent of cauliflower
-94 percent of broccoli
-95 percent of celery
-90 percent of the leaf lettuce
-83 percent of Romaine lettuce
-83 percent of fresh spinach
-a third of the fresh tomatoes
-86 percent of lemons
-90 percent of avocados
-84 percent of peaches
-88 percent of fresh strawberries
-97 percent of fresh plums
Without the agricultural production of the state of California, we are in a massive amount of trouble.
And of course there are other areas all over the globe that are going through similar things. For instance, taps in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo are running dry as Brazil experiences the worst drought that it has seen in 80 years.
The world simply does not have enough fresh water left at this point, and that is why water is being called “the new oil”. The following comes from CBS News…
It’s been said that the wars of the 21st century may well be fought over water. The Earth’s population has more than doubled over the last 50 years and the demand for fresh water — to drink and to grow food — has surged along with it. But sources of water like rainfall, rivers, streams, reservoirs, certainly haven’t doubled. So where is all that extra water coming from? More and more, it’s being pumped out of the ground.
Water experts say groundwater is like a savings account — something you draw on in times of need. But savings accounts need to be replenished, and there is new evidence that so much water is being taken out, much of the world is in danger of a groundwater overdraft.
And if scientists are right, what we are experiencing right now may just be the very beginning of our problems. In fact, one team of researchers has concluded that the Southwestern United States is headed for a “megadrought” that could last for decades…
Scientists had already found that the Southwestern United States were at great risk of experiencing a significant megadrought (in this case meaning drought conditions that last for over 35 years) before the end of the 21st century. But a new study published in Science Advances added some grim context to those predictions.
Columbia University climate scientists Jason Smerdon and Benjamin Cook, and Cornell University’s Toby Ault were co-authors on the study. They took data from tree rings and other environmental records of climate from the Southwest and compared them to the projections of 17 different climate models that look at precipitation and soil moisture. When they made the comparison between past and future, they found that all the models agreed: the next big megadrought is coming, and it will be way worse than anything we’ve seen in over 1,000 years–including droughts that have been credited with wiping out civilizations.
Needless to say, along with any water crisis comes a food crisis.
Virtually everything that we eat requires a tremendous amount of water to grow. And at this point, the world is already eating more food than it produces most years.
So what is going to happen to us as this water crisis gets even worse?
Here in Kentucky the Ohio River has 6 to 8 feet of excess water right now. Where would California like us to send it?
Tell them they can pick up their delivery at the end of the Mississippi river.
Ditto; the wild grape vines here, in many areas, are as bad as Kudzu vines down south. Only tactical nukes work on them. Heh.
That is true, but the unintended consequences should be factored in. Abundance tends to lower prices, but production costs don't tend to follow. Less incentive to produce, or subsidies required. A balance has to be reached.
Greatly increased desalinization of ocean water would seem to be the obvious solution, but the environmentalists would probably claim that increasing the salt content of the ocean would harm seaweed, fish, whales, and dolphins, and the EPA would need 10 years for environmental impact studies.
Time yet?
Once California grabs ahold of another states water, there will be no end to it. You will be facing increasing water bills, rationing, and metering of private wells. California will suck you dry.
If gas is plentiful and easily obtained, great. But one of the better uses of wind and solar would be desalinization. Wind powered pumping, solar evaporation, and capture of water would appear to be far more cost effective, with gas as a backup when needed.
Where am I going wrong?
Subsidies are a whole different issue. For instance Michigan is the top tart cherry producer but subsidies are still given largely due to the financial hit caused by competition from overseas. Apples are taking a beating for the same reason.
I know that there is a subset of people who say they never need to buy anything at a grocery store because they grow all their own veggies, fruits, grains etc and raise their own chickens and beef cattle but for 98% of people in America that is not possible....nor believable..
what happens to California happens to the rest of us...
water shortages are not only hitting California, but Nevada, and Arizona and New Mexico and even in parts of Oregon and Washington...
I know they're trying different things in California but to me, the farms must be kept sustainable...
they need to cut the water to the private pools and seriously look at closing down golf courses...car washes few and far between...we even need to look at the amount of water each of us uses daily.....3" showers were the rule of the day in the past....
as child in upstate NY, there was a mystique about California and anyone who moved there was immediately rich...I'm not kidding...we all thought of it as paradise...which it truly is....
I've been lucky enough to travel by road thru Oregon and Washington and Nevada and Idaho and New Mexico recently....
people don't understand that the west is primarily in many parts semi arid or arid, and it doesn't take much of a drought to cause severe problems...
How far should take that?
Up here in the northland we fight to keep her chill at bay all winter long...
I grew up overseas and CA was one of our “dream” surfing destinations...not withstanding the girls either.
I lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years in the late 80s and was introduced to desert living...I was amazed at the amount of water Clark County “wasted” during that time...golf courses, casinos with huge water displays, large lawns front and back in houses, etc.
I’ve learned a lot about CA since moving here and primarily, the weather patterns are cyclic...something along the lines of every 200 years or so if I recall correctly.
I had always thought Catalina Island was some sort of tropical paradise...it’s anything but.
It’s really a desert island believe it or not...very little precipitation.
We’re doing our part here in the high desert...I’ve taken out all but one tree and rose bush from our property and looking at putting in fake turf in the back yard and taking the grass out of the front lawn and replacing it with decomposed granite and some rocks...
It’s a win/win for me...I don’t like lawn work and it saves me work on the sprinkler system and water ($$$).
There are folks who really do “waste” water...they don’t aim their sprinklers correctly, over water, water even during the winter when the grass goes dormant, etc.
I used to wash my truck about 3-4 times per year. I haven’t washed it in over a year now...
I can only attribute the wastefulness to those who moved here from the East Coast where water is regarded as “plentiful”...habits are hard to break.
The gov’t will figure out a way to get water and gardening/farming rights from those in rural areas. They will say, “It’s our fair share to take from you”.
Certainly if nothing else, it'd work for road salt in the Midwest to mitigate road ice.
Lot of water where I am, both in the state and locally. (I have 4 streams — or more — depending on what you consider a stream — on my 2 1/4 acres.
I can’t really argue your point because I don’t know the technical details of wind and solar.
I do know that Qatar built the Ras Abu Fontas A2 unit that is huge. It uses gas to turn sea water to potable water. There are quite a few others in the immediate region. So gas fired technology exists on a large scale.
I’m not familiar with the solar powered reverse osmosis on a grand scale to comment. ...... but I doubt it
I'm not familiar with that either; I was thinking along the lines of a lifeboat survival desaliator writ large. Very simple technology.
From places that flood regularly, to reservoirs in needy areas, during flood season. Win-win.
Eighty percent of California's water use is agricultural. Almond trees alone use three times more water than all of Los Angeles.
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