“the solution is to get silicon valley to develop desalination tech so that its cheaper/environmentally safe to desalinate seawater than to take water from the central valley and the california canal”
The San Joaquin valley from Fresno to Bakersfield needs several billion acre feet of water every year.
That’s a LOT of desalination waiting to be pumped over the coast range (2000-4000 ft elevation).
It should go back to desert scrub and grazing.
My impression is that a lot of the water that goes to LA comes from various parts of the central valley.
If LA didn’t need that water due to desalination—then that water could be allocated to central valley farmers
I don’t think he means shipping desalinated water from the coast to the valley. I think he means that the coastal regions, which are populated by millions, desalinated their own water and the valley using water from the Sierra watersheds. Which makes absolute sense to me.