Posted on 04/03/2011 9:27:10 AM PDT by SmithL
Those who really believe California has a water shortage should spend five minutes standing in Old Sacramento, watching the Sacramento River.
Operators of the three major dams on the Sacramento and its tributaries – Shasta, Oroville and Folsom – have opened their gates widely, sending boiling torrents of water downstream. They must draw down reservoirs behind the dams to control anticipated runoff from one of the heaviest mountain snowpacks on record.
A week ago, Sacramento River flows hit 90,000 cubic feet per second, even with diversions into bypass channels. But on Friday, the flow was about 75,000 cfs, which meant that someone watching the river for five minutes at Old Sacramento would see nearly 170 million gallons of water – enough flow to fill an empty Folsom Lake in less than a week.
Let's put that in another context. The difference between California's having an adequate water supply and an inadequate supply is roughly 3 million acre-feet of water a year. That's the equivalent of just 20 days of current Sacramento River flow.
In a rational world, the extra flows in this and other high-water seasons would be diverted into what's called "off-stream storage," either into underground aquifers or into reservoirs . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Those who prefer high-density urban growth, rather than low-density suburbs, believe that restricting water supplies will help their cause. They don't, in other words, want Californians to have an abundant water supply for both agricultural and non-farm uses.These are the same people who want to restrict fuel supplies and think that land should belong to the government.
Conditions for major reservoirs
They're all topped up.
This extra water could have gone a long way toward recharging the underground aquifers of the Central Valley, long drawn down by well pumps. So not only is this policy wasteful, it has large adverse environmental consequences.
wouldn’t it make more sense to just charge farmers market value for water than to give it to them for next to nothing? Water consumption would drop sharply.
wouldn’t it make more sense to just charge farmers market value for water than to give it to them for next to nothing?
And then what will happen to food prices? Do you really think a producer is going to absorb a cost of doing business?
Had economics?
Perhaps the most 'unthought through' comment ever. Worthy of an economic genius like Obozo.
how is charging farmers regular water prices a bad idea? If they can’t farm without goverment subsidies why are they there in the first place?
There is also a process involves filling pools that drain into the aquifer. I don't know how much infrastructure there is to do it in the Central Valley, but the Santa Clara Valley has had such a system for quite some time with which the levels in the aquifer have been recharged and the subsidence problems we were seeing abated. Beyond that I don't know much, only that the process is done.
If global warming can cause cold weather, than high runoff can cause drought.
Watched a piece on the history channel a couple weeks ago about the levees there. Looked to be that they are in great fear of those breaching and really causing a disaster.
This could be the year.
The snowpack in the Sierra is over 200% of normal this year. Weatherman says heaviest snowfall since 1970 with over 50 feet of snow on Mammoth Mountain alone. Come May, look for a very heavy run off when the snow starts melting. Waterfalls in Yosemite should be spectacular this year.
There are 2, long established, "pools". The Tulare and Buena Vista Lake Basins. Both have been historically manageable by levy, allowing dual use for both storage/recharge and agriculture.
Uhh... Dan? Good morning. You're in California.
Central Valley farmers have been paying through the nose for water for years. Those in the Westlands water district, where water allocation was 10% of their normal allotment (yes, 10%!) still had to pay millions for the water that was never delivered in 2009, just to keep their place in line for their water contract. If you don’t pay, the next guy in line gets your spot when the water does begin to flow.
The storage capacity needs to go up. The state indulges in idiotic policies such as: let’s drain Millerton Lake to feed the unnecessary San Joaquin River which drains to the sea without watering a single inch of cropland, and don’t dare build dams above Sacramento, the lack of which puts them in grave danger of a major flood. I won’t even comment on the lunatics talking about draining Hetch Hetchy.
The people making the water decisions in California, along with the EPA, the Dept of Game and Fish, and the US Fish and Wildlife “Service” need to stand down so the the Central Valley farmers can survive and recover. This is no time to shaft the farmers any more than they’ve been shafted. And no, I’m not from Shafter.
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