17 California communities running out of water

Washington Post ^ | 1-29-14

[afraidfortherepublic]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Seventeen rural communities in drought-stricken California are in danger of running out of water within four months, according to a list compiled by state officials.

Wells are running dry or reservoirs are nearly empty in some communities. Others have long-running problems that predate the drought.

[Huskrrrr]

To make matters worse:

http://capoliticalnews.com/2014/01/22/add-collapse-of-san-fran-water-and-power-infrastructure-to-the-calamities-of-california/

[oldenuff2no]

And I remember driving up the coast to the Oregon border and seeing mostly hippies once they killed the logging industry.

For most of us who live in northern cali SF is not considered northern Cali. If you look on a map, that is a stretch it is in the central part of the state. And you do need to look at a map, hopefully a topo map. You forgot the entire sierra nevada mountain range and the southern cascades in your shortsighted view of the logging industry here. The area you omitted is larger than most other states.

[artichokegrower]

California is running out of water because the environmentalists are tearing down dams

Crews break ground on largest California dam removal
Friday, June 21, 2013

By Laila Kearney

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Demolition crews on Friday began work on the biggest dam removal in California, a project aimed at protecting homes threatened by the aging, obsolete structure and restoring spawning grounds for native trout.

Plans call for the 94-year-old San Clemente Dam, built on the Carmel River about 120 miles south of San Francisco, to be torn down in stages over three years, followed by rerouting of the river around the dam site and wildlife restoration.

“In 10 years, when you come to the site, you won’t be able to tell there was a dam there,” said Jeff Szytel, founder of contractor Water Systems Consulting, who is overseeing the project.

The demolition is part of a larger safety and restoration effort that will include removal of a smaller dam downstream from San Clemente and recycling of sediment that has built up in the reservoir behind the dam.

The dam was designed to divert Carmel River water to the Monterey Peninsula, but with the reservoir nearly filled with silt that purpose is now carried out through groundwater pumping.

The 106-foot-tall (32-metre-tall) concrete arch dam was deemed seismically unsafe in the early 1990s by the California Department of Water Resources, which concluded that roughly 1,500 homes and public buildings downstream were vulnerable in the event of a major flood or earthquake.

The San Clemente is roughly twice as high as the 55-foot-tall (17-metre-tall) dam dismantled in the early 1970s near the northern California coastal town of Eureka, the largest previously removed in the state, Szytel said.

Tearing down the San Clemente Dam will enable the reopening of 25 miles of creeks and tributaries in the Carmel River watershed, allowing Central California Coast steelhead trout, listed as a threatened species, to return to native spawning areas.

The project’s cost, estimated at $84 million including wildlife restoration, will be shared between the dam’s current owners, the state and federal government.

Groundbreaking on the San Clemente removal follows federal recommendations to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California to resolve water allocation disputes and restore habitats for Coho salmon and other fish.

[trisham]

That should help.

[JoeProBono]

[nascarnation]

The really sad part is that even though California has exported a sh!tload of liberals to other states (with terrible outcomes: Colorado, etc), it’s more blue than ever.

[bert]

Solution:

Drill, frack, extract gas. Impose a state tax payable in gas.

use the gas to power desalinization plants

Qatar shows the way

[Michael.SF.]

Carlsbad desalination Plant now under construction.

50 mgd is the targeted out put (enough for about 650,000 people per day).

Pet peeve of mine, as I was involved in this project four years ago with a California engineering company.

The plant is being engineered by an Israeli company.

[Sivad]

I didn’t see where anybody claimed more California conservatives
than liberals but I would guess California has more conservatives than
many states have total voters. I’m a 4th generation native and I
will stay and be a pain in their ass. One reason I will stay is because
so many FRiends here on the this forum tell me ANY Californian
that moves to their state will ruin it because we’re all the same. My
experience is conservative friends move to Idaho (etc) because
libs have ruined our rural area. Sound like evil Kalifornians to you?

[Michael.SF.]

Just moved out of California myself, I am third generation native (my grandmother was born in Rutherford, Grandfather in Tulare).

Received an immediate 7% increase in take home pay based on tax rate differential.

[Jeff Chandler]

Out here in Arizona we love our Colorado River water:

[Churchillspirit]

California - home of Free Republic!

How tactless.

[TheDon]

Southern California should have desalination plants all along the coast. So called “environmentalists” should be fully on board as the amount of water from Northern Cali and the Colorado river could be substantially reduced if not eliminated with desalination plants.

[cripplecreek]

I’m guessing the biggest problem is getting enough water for farming. However we are growing a lot of things on land that wouldn’t be arable without irrigation.

I’m a big fan of keeping food production decentralized for exactly this reason.

[Uncle Chip]

I’ve seen this before — it’s an omen — an omen that California is about to be inundated with rain.

[Osage Orange]

Plenty used to live in OC...and RVSD.

But maybe that's changed since I got out of there...........

[afraidfortherepublic]

You are absolutely right. Except, that the blue coastal areas have the larger population and they outvote you every time. Or, they engage in fraud. I’m a 3rd generation native of the San Joaquin Valley, but I haven’t lived there since 1972. I’ve been going back to deal with my 100 year old mother’s affairs, and I am appalled at how the Valley looks.

Ditches are dry. Reservoirs are almost dry. The rivers are nearly dry.

Yards are dead. Dust is everywhere. And then there are the homeless wandering the streets, panhandling and dumpster diving.

I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. My grandmother used to talk about the Depression and how “good men sold apples on the street”, or the jobless would sometimes come to her back door and ask for a meal which she provided. But, I doubt that even the Depression was as bad as my home town is now. At least then, the people asking for the handouts would offer work in exchange.

[VerySadAmerican]

Back in the 80s people in Arkansas and Oklahoma were complaining because they were in a drought but Texas had plenty of water. And they were all talking about pumping water out of Texas. For the past few years Texas has been in a severe drought. Now what?

All of the farm states have irrigated so much that the water tables have dropped. The water in Eastern Arkansas, part of the Mississippi River aquifer, is undrinkable. And the water table gets lower every year. There is only so much water in our atmosphere. When we pump it out of the ground and it evaporates, it has to rain somewhere. But it doesn’t get back down into the ground from which it was pumped for millions of years.

[Repeat Offender]

I thought it was the non-native 3” delta smelt.......literally.

[Robwin]

Born in San Francisco, raised in Long Beach, my heart goes out to my home state, which I felt compelled to leave in the 70s. Like OR (Portland) and WA (Seattle/Tacoma) the blueness comes from the large cities in the western portions of the states. Move inland and the more sparsely settled interiors are red. But they will suffer and sink with the urbanites and there is little they can do about it.