Posted on 05/30/2022 8:53:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
California residents were slapped with tighter water restrictions Tuesday two weeks after state officials spiked plans for a $1.4 billion saltwater desalination plant in Orange County amid a season of historic drought.
The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously voted to implement a statewide watering ban for ornamental lawns at businesses and commercial properties as residents brace for a prolonged drought, the driest drought of its length in 1,200 years. Local government will also be required to reduce water use by up to 20 percent.
“California is facing a drought crisis and every local water agency and Californian needs to step up on conservation efforts,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a press release upon adoption of the new restrictions. “These conservation measures are increasingly important as we enter the summer months. I’m asking all Californians to step up, because every single drop counts.”
The latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor updated Thursday shows the entire state under drought conditions. Reservoirs meanwhile remain depleted while snowpack is only at 8 percent of normal levels by this point in the year, according to state data.
Despite the dire drought conditions also placing an increasingly unreliable power grid in jeopardy of periodic blackouts, the California Coastal Commission rejected the latest proposal from a major water developer to construct a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. If built, the company behind the project, Poseidon Water, says the plant would make 50 million gallons of drinking water available to residents on a daily basis by next year. After a more than two-decade effort to appease public officials for a green light on construction, the state Coastal Commission unanimously turned it down based on routine concerns over risks to marine habitat and “environmental justice.” The commission argued the energy-intensive process of desalination presented too much of a coastal hazard while raising local water prices.
California, the most populated state with the fifth most coastline of any in the nation, has 12 desalination plants in operation as drought worsens across the western United States. Less than 8 percent of the western U.S. excluding Colorado and Wyoming are under normal water conditions, which are both entirely rated at minimum as “abnormally dry” by the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Un - effing - believable.
Only in California.....
Florida here is your chance to build the plants to improve Florida lives
Or Alabama
Drought, imagined, real, or manufactured has nothing whatsoever to do with the restrictions on water use.
It is all caused by storage restrictions. While CaCaLand’s population has doubled in 30 years no water storage facilities have been added. Why do reservoirs show record low depths? ‘Cause twice as many people have been drinking water yah dumbass!
Been here 30+ years. Droughts come and go on regular basis. In between are record rains — and we don’t catch anywhere near what the population needs. Why? Because this is a one-party communist state (extensive regulations amount to gov’mt ownership) that made a deal with the treehuggers to limit water storage and encourage wildfires.
This is deliberate.
Is desalinization the next nuclear power? We have a solution, but the government would rather have rationing... It almost sounds intentional.
“Droughts come and go on regular basis.”
Yup—human stupidity is the same.
“And they let vast amounts just run out to the sea to protect the Delta smelt...”
Ehhhh, not so much the fish.
The effluent rate is controlled to keep the fresh/salt water interface downstream of municipal water supply intakes as the tides rise and fall. On a rising tide, the fresh/salt interface zone pushes quite a ways back up the delta, and if there’s not enough fresh water coming down the river to keep it pushed back toward SF Bay, municipal water supplies could too easily get inundated with seawater.
how many MILLIONS of ILLEGAL ALIENS live in California?
Now.. just imagine how much more water they would have without those MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS using it up!
California allowed in cheap Mexicans to pick crops, like fruit. OK, but they took that fruit from other States to gain the cheap Mexican labor. Not OK. There was also no water to grow the crops. Still no water.
Colorado has continuous water restrictions so that the plentiful water in Colorado can be sent downstream to fill pools in the desert and water crops growing in the desert.
“Florida here is your chance to build the plants to improve Florida lives”
Why do we need to build desalination plants? We have water all over the place.
My understanding has been that south Florida does not have potable water, and the cities were rapidly running out aquafers were running dry.
Perhaps I am wrong.
Lets see, the oceans are suppose to rise because of global warming. So desalination plants would remove water and make the ocean levels drop......Two catastrophes avoided!! lol
You might not be wrong. It just seems silly to think you can’t scratch the surface here without a pool of water but we’re out of water...somehow. In Colorado, it takes about $24,000-$40,000 to drill a well 800 feet to an aquafer. In Florida, it takes $30 of PVC pipe and you just push it into the ground about 100 feet. Many homes have wells in Florida. Mine does for irrigation, but I could easily use it for the whole house if needed.
Welcome to FR, n00b.
IBTZ.
I think he was offended about California (topic of this thread) being a desert, or something like that (he/she/it must be from Cali).. so, he had to throw some insults toward other states with a ridiculous topic that has nothing to do with this thread (and was racist and appears to support abortion).
I’m thinking what you’re thinking!
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