Posted on 03/16/2015 5:01:21 AM PDT by HomerBohn
Here in Kentucky the Ohio River has 6 to 8 feet of excess water right now. Where would California like us to send it?
Tell them they can pick up their delivery at the end of the Mississippi river.
Ditto; the wild grape vines here, in many areas, are as bad as Kudzu vines down south. Only tactical nukes work on them. Heh.
That is true, but the unintended consequences should be factored in. Abundance tends to lower prices, but production costs don't tend to follow. Less incentive to produce, or subsidies required. A balance has to be reached.
Greatly increased desalinization of ocean water would seem to be the obvious solution, but the environmentalists would probably claim that increasing the salt content of the ocean would harm seaweed, fish, whales, and dolphins, and the EPA would need 10 years for environmental impact studies.
Time yet?
Once California grabs ahold of another states water, there will be no end to it. You will be facing increasing water bills, rationing, and metering of private wells. California will suck you dry.
If gas is plentiful and easily obtained, great. But one of the better uses of wind and solar would be desalinization. Wind powered pumping, solar evaporation, and capture of water would appear to be far more cost effective, with gas as a backup when needed.
Where am I going wrong?
Subsidies are a whole different issue. For instance Michigan is the top tart cherry producer but subsidies are still given largely due to the financial hit caused by competition from overseas. Apples are taking a beating for the same reason.
I know that there is a subset of people who say they never need to buy anything at a grocery store because they grow all their own veggies, fruits, grains etc and raise their own chickens and beef cattle but for 98% of people in America that is not possible....nor believable..
what happens to California happens to the rest of us...
water shortages are not only hitting California, but Nevada, and Arizona and New Mexico and even in parts of Oregon and Washington...
I know they're trying different things in California but to me, the farms must be kept sustainable...
they need to cut the water to the private pools and seriously look at closing down golf courses...car washes few and far between...we even need to look at the amount of water each of us uses daily.....3" showers were the rule of the day in the past....
as child in upstate NY, there was a mystique about California and anyone who moved there was immediately rich...I'm not kidding...we all thought of it as paradise...which it truly is....
I've been lucky enough to travel by road thru Oregon and Washington and Nevada and Idaho and New Mexico recently....
people don't understand that the west is primarily in many parts semi arid or arid, and it doesn't take much of a drought to cause severe problems...
How far should take that?
Up here in the northland we fight to keep her chill at bay all winter long...
I grew up overseas and CA was one of our “dream” surfing destinations...not withstanding the girls either.
I lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years in the late 80s and was introduced to desert living...I was amazed at the amount of water Clark County “wasted” during that time...golf courses, casinos with huge water displays, large lawns front and back in houses, etc.
I’ve learned a lot about CA since moving here and primarily, the weather patterns are cyclic...something along the lines of every 200 years or so if I recall correctly.
I had always thought Catalina Island was some sort of tropical paradise...it’s anything but.
It’s really a desert island believe it or not...very little precipitation.
We’re doing our part here in the high desert...I’ve taken out all but one tree and rose bush from our property and looking at putting in fake turf in the back yard and taking the grass out of the front lawn and replacing it with decomposed granite and some rocks...
It’s a win/win for me...I don’t like lawn work and it saves me work on the sprinkler system and water ($$$).
There are folks who really do “waste” water...they don’t aim their sprinklers correctly, over water, water even during the winter when the grass goes dormant, etc.
I used to wash my truck about 3-4 times per year. I haven’t washed it in over a year now...
I can only attribute the wastefulness to those who moved here from the East Coast where water is regarded as “plentiful”...habits are hard to break.
The gov’t will figure out a way to get water and gardening/farming rights from those in rural areas. They will say, “It’s our fair share to take from you”.
Certainly if nothing else, it'd work for road salt in the Midwest to mitigate road ice.
Lot of water where I am, both in the state and locally. (I have 4 streams — or more — depending on what you consider a stream — on my 2 1/4 acres.
I can’t really argue your point because I don’t know the technical details of wind and solar.
I do know that Qatar built the Ras Abu Fontas A2 unit that is huge. It uses gas to turn sea water to potable water. There are quite a few others in the immediate region. So gas fired technology exists on a large scale.
I’m not familiar with the solar powered reverse osmosis on a grand scale to comment. ...... but I doubt it
I'm not familiar with that either; I was thinking along the lines of a lifeboat survival desaliator writ large. Very simple technology.
From places that flood regularly, to reservoirs in needy areas, during flood season. Win-win.
Eighty percent of California's water use is agricultural. Almond trees alone use three times more water than all of Los Angeles.
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