Posted on 12/17/2014 2:23:42 PM PST by grundle
California needs 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from its three-year drought, the US space agency said Tuesday after studying water resources by using satellite data.
The first of its kind calculation of how much groundwater would end the drought was led by Jay Famiglietti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and based on observations from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites.
California has experienced rainstorms in recent days but, while welcome, scientists warn that they are not enough to end the drought.
"It takes years to get into a drought of this severity, and it will likely take many more big storms, and years, to crawl out of it," said Famiglietti.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In June 21, 2011 the percentage of the state with no drought was 99.99% a year later 15%. So it happened pretty quickly.
Closer to home:
Lake Tahoe = 35 mi³,
Lake Shasta = 1.347 mi³.
The Pacific Ocean contains about 50% of all the earth’s oceanic water, and has a volume estimated at 714 million cubic kilometers of water. California has an 800 plus mile coastline on the Pacific Ocean. One word addresses their problem - desalinization.
They could also stop pouring the water down the river for the smelt.
A 1-inch rainstorm deposits 27,154 gallons on one acre, so during this storm, a city the size of Atlanta receives 2.28 billion gallons of water.
11 trillion gallons sounds possible if they continue to get widespread storms.
Yep! Nuclear power is the way to go!
I agree with you about nuclear power.
I’m pro-nuclear power too.
That’s the price in Israel, where they like to get things done. In bureaucratic California, it could be a lot more expensive.
Thanks for those numbers. That is indeed quite interesting.
Good for Tampa!
Thanks for the link.
California has an area of 163,696 sq mi. That is 104,765,440 acres. 1” over the entire state would be 2,844,800,757,760 gallons. Almost 3 trillion gals per inch.
Here’s a linky: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/resDetailOrig.action?resid=SHA
You can see by year what Shasta has done by scrolling in the window and clicking on the year. It will then draw you a chart for that year.
“If you fill the reservoirs up I don’t see what more you can do except maybe have people leave the state.”
The problem is that the population of California has doubled (at least, probably more) since the last storage reservoir was built. The a$$hole voters keep rejecting building more storage capacity because the envirowhackos convince them it’s wrong to dam up a valley and fill it up with water. We have a vacation rental property in Monterey County (well-known for envirowhackos). Last year our June tenants paid $123 for water. This year about the same amount of water cost $495. Monterey County has voted down reservoir construction for years and years. It leaves you wondering just what will awaken these idiots to the realities of life. But there are some bright spots. Sonoma County has done the right thing and they have enough water storage for seven years, but they are not the norm.
Solar energy works too and is probably less costly in infrastructure.
Solar is very costly as it is very inefficient (both in power conversion and land use) and requires replacement every 20 years or so due to the slow deterioration of the cells.
I had a similar thought years ago, about putting a massive drainage system in frequently flooded areas like the Mississippi River basin and moving the water to places where it is needed, using wind and solar to power the pumping stations where they are necessary. Sounds like a win-win to me, reduce flood damage and increase productive acreage, but folks pooh-poohed the idea as too costly. Like all that rebuilding every few years and the loss of usable land isn't costly?
Idiot leftist/environmentalist doctrine of “If we don’t build it, they won’t come.”
They'd also lie about other effects, like they do about fracking. I can hear them now!
"All that extra water going into the ground from increased agricultural use will lubricate the San Andreas and other fault lines and we'll have more earhquakes!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.