Posted on 03/28/2015 9:10:54 PM PDT by Beave Meister
Last week when NASA announced that California is on its death bed and has only 12 months of water left, the news hit like a punch to the gut. “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,” writes Jay Famiglietti of NASA.
Famiglietti adds: “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.”
Tensions are high in the state, and small conflicts are breaking out as people are beginning to steal water from others. Caroline Stanley of Refinery 29 writes: “As Tom McKay points out, the water crisis will likely have the biggest impact on the state’s agricultural community — which currently accounts for a whopping 80% of its water usage. (According to Carolee Krieger, president and executive director of the California Water Impact Network, the almond crop alone uses enough water to supply 75 percent of the state’s population.) But, recently, your average citizens are feeling it, too. People in the Bay Area are actually stealing water from their neighbors.”
(Excerpt) Read more at feelguide.com ...
He hasn’t frittered our tax money away! He can always just raise the taxes some more! commiefornicans have an unlimited tax base. lol /s
They must be really thirsty by now! lol
There will be no action, and it is intended to be that way. Rich folks want Kaleephornya for themselves.
They will build de-sal plants after the rest of us have moved away. Those who can't move will become a permanent under-class who shine their shoes and pour their wine.
The time for California to get on with massive desalinization plant building was a decade or more ago, when the levels in Lake Mead were already dropping, and massive subsidence in the Central Valley was already a fact of life. Yes, they should still do it, but now they will be playing catchup and won’t avoid some of the problems they could now be avoiding. They didn’t want to pay for it then, and they’ll pay more for it now.
Just imagine how much taxes he will raise by taxing the illegal Mexican aliens he allows into Kalifornia. You can’t collect taxes from those who don’t pay them.
Yes indeed! Unless the folks in Florida are surviving on rum and mojitos, they still have water!
It’s sad. I know it’s run by libs and I’m surrounded by them, but not only are there great conservatives here (FR was started by one and there are so many of us), but some of my liberal friends really hate Obama and the way things are in this state. They are just busy people and they are liberal by default (media) not by dogma.
We are all in this mess.
And the weather where I live is just about 70 year round. For real. If you don’t go out late at night, you don’t need more than a cotton hoodie for warmth.
I wish we could tip CA over, and only those who believe in our Constitution would be able to hang on. Knock the rest into Mexico (sorry, Mexico, but it’s kinda your own fault for outsourcing your poverty to us for so long), and fill this lovely state up with FReepers. And desalinators!!!!
When California DOES get rain, does anybody notice how much runoff goes directly out to the ocean (the LA “River” comes to mind)
Need to build more dams, not tear them down.
mark
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