...the state of California - one of the signatories - violated its constitution by essentially writing a blank checkA California judge actually said THAT?!?!
why doesn’t superman fly in a glacier and set it in the lake... oh that’s right the glaciers are melting too fast because of global warming.
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I got news for them, the river no longer makes it to the Sea of Cortez. The water all gets sucked out before it gets there.
Lived in SDiego County for 10 years and I have done as much as I can to reduce my water consumption. The stupid article mentioned low flow toilets. What a joke. That doesn’t save any water. Outside of industrial use, the biggest consumption is landscaping and it is ridiculus. San Diego is a desert and people should treat it as such. Consumers should be encouraged to rip out their yards and plant low water use plants and succulents. That would do more to reduce personal consumption than anything else, certainly more than low flow toilets and shower heads.
For example, I have removed all the grass from my front yard and replaced one half of my front yard with a paver patio, and the rest of it, and my side yard has low water use plants and succulents. I still have grass in my back yard because that is a play area, but we are looking at reducing that as much as possible too. The big thing is shutting off your sprinkler system during the rainy season. It is amazing how many homes and businesses will have their sprinklers systems on while it’s raining!
To give you an example, my monthly water consumption in the rainy winter months is 2-3 units per month. In the hottest driest summer months (Aug/Sep) it is about 14 units. So I use about 5-7 times more water in the summer... all because of landscaping that I have worked very hard to minimize. If I got rid of my back yard, I estimate my water consumption would still be 8-10 units in the summer to keep my shade, fruit trees, native plants and succulents alive.
On top of it, the cities and states don’t encourage the use of gray water systems (reclaimed water from laundry and bathrooms, minus toilet wastewater), and rainwater collection systems. The stupid regulations are so prohibitive that no one would spend the money to put the systems in because they are so cost prohibitive. For example, it is illegal to add rain barrels to your downspouts unless they are sealed systems because they breed mosquitos that can carry west nile virus. And the gray water systems have to be sealed underground systems also because of health concerns in spreading reclaimed water on the surface. But I guess their are no health concerns with letting your dog do their business in your yard!
Some home owners have installed artificial grass in their yards, but just last week the city of Glendale outlawed artificial grass in front yards. No one knows why, but it was probably the landscaping businesses that complained. As you can imagine, landscaping is BIG business in SoCal, so that is what is really driving all the water usage. The more water, the more plants, the more maintenance of the plants, and the more need for mexican gardners.
The whole Salton Sea mess is another fiasco. The Salton Sea is actually a MAN MADE inland sea that was created by a failure of the Colorado Levy System decades ago. So it’s not even a natural wetland, but it has existed so long that the enviromentalists treat it like a natural wetland. Sure it will affect wildlife if it disappears (mostly birds and fish), but these wouldn’t have existed anyway if Nature had it’s way because their never would have been a Salton Sea.
It’s so sad to see all the destroyed farmland in the central valley. Farmers are losing not only row crop production, but even drought tolerant crops like grapes, and nut and fruit trees are threatened. It’s so stupid to lose more industy (agriculture) to Mexico and South America because Californians can’t live without their lush tropical landscapes. I’m against over regulation, but there really is no common sense out here regarding how to manage water in a desert.