Posted on 02/09/2014 12:19:57 PM PST by James C. Bennett
Edited on 02/09/2014 1:47:47 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
California grows a mind-boggling amount of the nation's produce: 99 percent of artichokes, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, and on and on. That's why the record-breaking drought (yes, it's finally raining
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Folks, the simple solution is to provide the water at free market prices, There is no shortage, it’s just underpriced (to some customers).
The tiny price these farmers pay for water is nothing but corporate welfare. Yes, rip out some trees that were never cost effective without the subsidy,
OMG! I am going to miss my required one bag a week?
Once it hits the Corn then the Lobby will demand water!
>>The EPA has done more damage to the US economy than any other gov’t department, and I’m INCLUDING the IRS!<<
By the end of Zero’s term we should be reliant on 3rd world countries for just about everything and Sharia law will be enforced coast to coast.
I wouldn’t miss the artichokes or celery a damn bit, but almonds are tasty.
Mark Twain
BTW, Love those Israelis!
Water surplus in Israel? With desalination, the once unthinkable is possible.
From the above link:
"Drawn from deep in the Mediterranean Sea, the water has flowed through pipelines reaching almost 4,000 feet off of Israel’s coast and, once in Israeli soil, buried almost 50 feet underground. Now, it rushes down a tube sending it through a series of filters and purifiers. After 90 minutes, it will be ready to run through the faucets of Tel Aviv.
Set to begin operating as soon as next month, Israel Desalination Enterprises Technologies’ Sorek Desalination Plant will provide up to 26,000 cubic meters – or nearly 7 million gallons – of potable water to Israelis every hour....The company’s U.S. subsidiary is designing a new desalination plant in San Diego, the $922 million Carlsbad Desalination Project, which will be the largest desalination plant in America."
Smart technology and a can-do attitude. If the Israelis ran California, they'd feed the world. If the Californians ran Israel--- ouch, I don't even want to think of it.
That’s what I was thinking desal plants for the cities, and send the water from reservoirs, etc, to agriculture.
Delta Smelt in central California. A suckerfish in the Klammath Basin in the north. And salmon in the rest of the state. The environazis are destroying agriculture for a couple fish.
But good news for the citizens of the Sa Joaquin Valley. Obama will visit and sprinkle some magic light-worker magic potion on the land and all will be fine. If the SJV farmers were growing corn for ethanol Obama would move heaven and earth to get them all the water they need. BUT, since they are just stupid fruit farmers that tend to vote republican they are SOL. The smelt trumps all.
Could very well have come from Joe Biden, who couldn't spell either! ("Three letter word: JOBS!")
Yes. I think many people here don't realize how much this supposed drought is a "man-created catastrophe," as the Goricle would say, because there are ways around it but none of them have been used.
Even before the drought, CA had decided to starve out the farmers. I spent about a third of my life in CA but now am back East. However, I went to CA regularly and did an extended trip through the Valley about 4 years ago with my mother who was still living in CA (and is now with the saints). She pointed out billboards put up by the farmers asking for more water. Next to them on the highway were bizarre eco-anarchist signs.
I guess California believes that the eco-anarchists will some how come up with the money to make up for the almond crop. I feel terrible about things in CA. People on FR hate CA and NY, but both of them are great places that have been invaded by horrible politics supported by well meaning but stupid people. I don't know what can be done about that.
I looked up some numbers on this recently. CA cities are paying somewhere around $2.50/1000 gallons for water. Desal cost is somewhere in the $3.50 to $4.00 range.
I suspect farmers are paying a lot less than the cities are for water. Subsidized by the state and feds.
At any rate, given the ready availability of energy in CA, plus an entire ocean, providing sufficient water for whatever is desired is not an engineering issue. It’s simply one of finances and politics.
Which can be a great deal harder to solve.
BTW, I obviously agree that the State wastes an enormous amount of money on ineffective and even counter-productive programs.
It should be noted that CA’s location on the coast allows for the possibility of desal as a water resource at relatively low cost, at least for coastal cities.
Cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas, not so much. Megadroughts affecting the mountains where the water these cities depend on accumulates would leave them pretty much SOL.
Totally agree. In the early days of cities in California, farms were everywhere near and in city limits. I remember them as a youth, all just about disappeared over the last 60 years around SF. Then there was a shift during the 20th century of growth of the cities that pushed farms out of the cities. Only a few remain. Liberals came into power and forgot about the needs of the farmers, and so did regular folks. This whole water shortage thing is a political game caused by the Democrats taking power, a bunch of fools. The water should be there for the farmers, not so much for the cities that waste it.
Don’t use desalinated water to irrigate crops in the valley, build and use desalination plants in Southern California and stop shipping the Northern water south. That would leave a lot of water to irrigate the valley.
It’s China Town
I agree. But it should be noted that the west side of the southern valley is largely irrigated with water shipped from the northern valley.
If we hit a true megadrought there eventually just won’t be enough water for irrigation at all. Your distribution plans for something that is not available are irrelevant.
If the desalinization technology is good enough, and it looks like the Israeli technology is pretty good, then just send water over the Grapevine to the valley in the same pipes being used to send water to L.A. now. Ditto for the Coastal Aqueduct. Selling the water to the valley will fund a lot of excess capacity.
Yes desal will not work for agriculture. But use the desal for the populated coastal reason and the rivers for agriculture, flow to the sea or both.
I wonder why they never proceeded with the massive Auburn Dam project...
Oh, I forget. The environmentalists!
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