The politicians and others on California have known for a long time, that the state is in a precarious position regarding the amount of water available from year to year, and the state's dependency on snow runoff.
Has California attempted to build even one desalinization plant? Of course not.
If a program had been started years ago, would they now be able to ameliorate today's situation?
Just ask the city of Tampa, Florida.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/docs/desalination-in-florida-report.pdf
Carlsbad will open in 2016. City initiative with private industry. 10 years to get permits. 3 years to get court ok when the people who lost at administrative hearings challenged in court (two bites of the apple).
I thought, "Why not desalinize ocean water?
Ten years go by.
Twenty years go by.
Thirty years go by and somebody's raising a stink about Delta Smelt.. Forty years and they're still talking about investing major money in Bullet Trains that nobody rides, and Embryonic Stem Cell technologies which have not and will not cure anybody.
Israel gets four plants currently in operation, all built since 2005, and a fifth slated to go into service this year. Each of Israel’s plants cost between $300 million and $450 million to build.The plants are privately owned and operated, under a contract with the government, which buys the water from the plants. The budget for water purchases comes from water charges to consumers. The plants are not subsidized.
Meanwhile in California, the greatest farmers on the greatest farmland in the world are ruined.
There have been revolutions for less than that.