Lake Mead, Americas largest reservoir, writes Jay Famigliett
Dear Jay,
In case you have not looked at a map lately, I would point to a formation in the upper Midwest, called the Great Lakes - the largest body of fresh water in the world and serves as a reservoir for states and cities dotted along the coast lines; Lake Mead holds only a fraction of the fresh water as compared to the Great Lakes - 35 km3 vs 4920 km3
I think Lake Mead is the largest man made reservoir in the country. Although, is it bigger than Lake Powell?
I guess Lake Powell was there, the dam just made it a lot bigger.
I think Lake Baikal in Siberia is the single largest freshwater lake in the world. Maybe when peoples water bills are more than the rest of their utility bills combined people will stop moving to the desert.
The late comedian Sam Kinisan had a routine where he joked about people dying over in places like Africa because they did not have enough water to grow food. He would yell: “we have deserts, we don’t live in them”. However, I guess we do.
The article states that 80% of the water goes to growing things like almonds, oranges, grapes, etc. Maybe, those crops are better grown in other places in the world. If there are not as many crops to pick in the central valley, maybe some of the illegals will go back to their home countries. I believe there are plans in the works to build multiple desalination plants along the coast. These will supply the metro areas, but they are not big enough to supply the central valley and grow celery, etc. I can live without grapes, almonds, celery, iceberg lettuce, and many other crops grown there.
Lastly, every time I read about California’s water problems, I think about John Huston’s character in the movie Chinatown. “ If we can’t bring the valley to the city, well bring the city to the valley”. If you recall the story was all about water rights, and control of water, power and incest. One of the greatest movies ever made, IMHO. Jake Giddes: “ Mrs Mullray, I G#d d@MN, nearly lost my nose and I like my nose, I like breathing through it.”
Also Faye Dunhaway to Jake: “She’s my sister, she’s my daughter, she’s my sister and my daughter, get it”.
Build a water pipeline./s