NASA - "One Year of Water Left in California"

[Raptor Witness]

NASA - "California has about one year of water left" - LA Times, March 12, 2015

Statewide, we've been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011. Roughly two-thirds of these losses are attributable to groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley. Farmers have little choice but to pump more groundwater during droughts, especially when their surface water allocations have been slashed 80% to 100%. But these pumping rates are excessive and unsustainable. Wells are running dry. In some areas of the Central Valley, the land is sinking by one foot or more per year.

I have to give them credit, lately NASA has been on the front lines of this issue. It's a welcome sight.

Of course, leaving out the "non-scientific" component, doesn't inspire much imagination.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

What's he solution though?

Here in Oz, when it's drought season, we just ration water, ho longer then 4 minutes in the shower, keep to your allocated supply or else, that sort of thing. Can't see that washing in the US though, that's too much like the evils of Socialism.

[Harte]

What's he solution though?

Here in Oz, when it's drought season, we just ration water, ho longer then 4 minutes in the shower, keep to your allocated supply or else, that sort of thing. Can't see that washing in the US though, that's too much like the evils of Socialism.

That would work fine if it weren't for the humongous needs of California agriculture.

Harte

[Aus Der Box Skeptisch]

Why do they not desalinate? Its not like they are landlocked.

[Babe Ruth]

What's he solution though?

Here in Oz, when it's drought season, we just ration water, ho longer then 4 minutes in the shower, keep to your allocated supply or else, that sort of thing. Can't see that washing in the US though, that's too much like the evils of Socialism.

Reverse osmosis, desalinization machines? Apparently San Diego is building the largest in the world, but they say trouble is that water returned to the ocean is very high in salinity.

There may be no real or long term solution.

[Aus Der Box Skeptisch]

Reverse osmosis, desalinization machines? Apparently San Diego is building the largest in the world, but they say trouble is that water returned to the ocean is very high in salinity.

There may be no real or long term solution.

Keep the salt and sell it as real californian sea salt. I still dont see the issue.

[Babe Ruth]

Keep the salt and sell it as real californian sea salt. I still dont see the issue.

I don't either, really. It seems like the only choice. Tampa has had a large RO operation going for years.

[SHaYap]

There are contracts to be honored , quotas to be filled and deep deep pockets that might sue or worse ... lobby against your political ambitions ~

[Raptor Witness]

There are no real, effective short-term solutions, other than perhaps towing some icebergs, and/or the depopulation of the state.

Agriculture and people, one or the other will have to go, based upon NASA's projections.

I want to see Gov. Brown on top of one of those icebergs hammering in the toe line, himself.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Raptor Witness

[Sundew]

In some states it's supposedly illegal to collect rain water if I remember correctly, but if it's legal in Cali, why not start a business combining a leaf excluding gutter system with a huge cistern. Yes, I know the problem is that it just doesn't rain all that much, but it does rain some and a roof has a huge surface area. One good rain could fill, or nearly fill, a 1500 gallon storage tank and the water could be used for any purpose the homeowner desired, washing cars, watering landscaping, whatever, and if used outdoors much of it would return to the soil anyway. It would take some of the pressure off of the municipal potable water supply, and once installed it would began to pay for itself since rainwater is free.

[theotherguy]

People have started collecting rainwater. Part of the problem is that it's not raining at all. San Francisco recorded no rain in the month of January. San Diego got less than half of its average annual precipitation last year, and not much more in the years before that. Or snowing in the Sierra Nevada, so that the summer snowpack melt isn't there. Last year, in one of the largest agricultural regions of the country, farmers received 0% (that means none) of their federal water allocation, if they had a contract with the Central Valley Project. It's looking like it might be a single digit year this year, too. Desalinization is apparently going to be a major player in the near future, but there aren't enough desal plants currently operating to supply all the urban and rural areas that desperately need water.

[Raptor Witness]

Okay, so throw a few penguins in for extra flavor.

[Indiogene]

CA needs extensive desalinization projects and build some pipes or type of aqueduct to send water into inland valleys. Currently, high temps are 90+F in the Palm Springs area and we had a dry winter, except we had 3 rain days and still not enough for us. Most water use goes to yard lawns, swimming pools or fancy fountains, not going to human consumption. We're going to learn not to have two lawns (back yards out here tend not to be as green) and sacrifice the swimming pool, at least until the drought ends.

[StRoostifer]

Not that I take the issue lightly, but I'm waiting for some idiot in government to come out and start blaming the outdoor cannabis cultivators.

The people in OZ have the right idea, start rationing the water, take short showers and even learn to wash up with a sink full of water. We all might have to do this someday.

[Raptor Witness]

This will be the greatest migration of Americans since gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, but as long as the short sellers on Wall Street are still in denial, nothing that NASA says, matters.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Raptor Witness

[Harte]

In some states it's supposedly illegal to collect rain water if I remember correctly...

California is one of those states.

Harte

[Harte]

CA needs extensive desalinization projects and build some pipes or type of aqueduct to send water into inland valleys.

Already hard at it.

Harte

[Raptor Witness]

Already hard at it.

Harte

Per your "miracle" projections.

A worker walks by racks containing the reverse osmosis cartridges at the $1 billion Carlsbad desalination plant in Carlsbad, Calif., on Monday, May 5, 2014. When completed in 2016, it will be the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere and will produce 50 million gallons per day. ...

- San Jose Mercury News 5-29-2014

Versus the Hard Reality

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that California uses about 38 billion gallons of water per day.

That includes water pumped from wells plus all of the water taken from sources such as rivers, canals and reservoirs.

One desalination plant can on provide a tiny fraction of what California needs right now, and that one desalination plant won't be ready until 2016.

The cost of building and maintaining these plants is enormous, as is the electricity it takes to remove the salt.

It's not feasible in the United States, because of proximate competition. No one in their right mind would want to live in a place where the cost of living is several times that of living only a couple of hundred miles away, where natural water is available.

Desalination could only provide a drop in the bucket. It's not a viable option because of cost.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Raptor Witness

[Harte]

That was my point. And none of it going to the agricultural sector that is using BY FAR the most water.

Harte

[Wickian]

I grew up in California, and from my experience no one takes the water levels seriously. Since middle school I was hearing about the drought that has been going on for so many years and this or that reservoir drying up or being built, at this point most of the population is desensitized to the news.

Combine that with car washes every half a mile in any direction, a huge agriculture usage, gated communities with golf courses everywhere and such a large population living in what is essentially a desert, then of course a cyclical long-term drought-stricken region will eventually run out of natural reserves.

Honestly I'm shocked that desalination plants aren't abundant in that state given how many years the drought has been ongoing, it's like the entire local government is living in this self-delusion that not preparing for the worse case scenario will make it go away.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Wickian

[Raptor Witness]

I think NASA is afraid they'll be blamed for not sounding serious enough.

[Doug1029]

In some states it's supposedly illegal to collect rain water if I remember correctly, but if it's legal in Cali, why not start a business combining a leaf excluding gutter system with a huge cistern. Yes, I know the problem is that it just doesn't rain all that much, but it does rain some and a roof has a huge surface area. One good rain could fill, or nearly fill, a 1500 gallon storage tank and the water could be used for any purpose the homeowner desired, washing cars, watering landscaping, whatever, and if used outdoors much of it would return to the soil anyway. It would take some of the pressure off of the municipal potable water supply, and once installed it would began to pay for itself since rainwater is free.

In most western states, you can use the water as long as you don't put it in a container. You can grow dryland crops that can survive on natural rainfall and the water thus used is yours to keep. But once you put it into a container - a barrel, a pond, a hole in the ground - it is somebody's property and water rights laws define whose property it is.

It is too late to do much about California's impending shortfall, but some draconian water-use laws might help - things like outlawing watering of lawns and golf courses. Also, billing by the square of the amount of water used, would cut down on waste - each wasted gallon means you pay extra for ALL water used. People would start to see the wisdom of conserving. Maybe buy out and close some sod farms.

California is about to pay the price of failing to plan ahead.

Doug

Edited March 16, 2015 by Doug1029

[Ashotep]

I predict we will see a big migration of people. The only problem is good luck with selling your house or farm. That is if it doesn't fall in the abyss when the aquifer collapses in on itself.

[Raptor Witness]

Estimates of the snow depth near Donner Pass at the time of the third rescue mission, around March 14, 1847, were approximately twenty feet. Trees cut by the cannibals reveal this.

On March 15, 2015 of this year, the Sierra Avalanche Center reports only 3-6 inches of snow pack in the Donner Pass Area.

For those who aren't familiar with American History, the Donner Party were a group of pioneers, headed to California, who were attempting to navigate the Sierra Mountains, but were stopped because of the snow depth. They started to starve, and began eating one another, becoming infamous in the process.

We're seeing the end of Manifest Destiny, which I linked to NASA in 2007, when the U.S. government decided they owned outer space.

Perhaps now they are having second thoughts?

Are you ready to cry "Uncle," yet .... Sam?

.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Raptor Witness

[Dark_Grey]

Can I be the first doom-sayer in the thread? This could be the beginnings of the "post-abundance" fresh water age. Fighting over oil is and has been nasty business, but fighting over a finite resource every human being requires to stay alive will be vicious and merciless.