Calif. Drought

jerrybob · Feb 7, 2014

This is not good............

These California Drought Pictures Are Scary, And It

RDrancher · Feb 7, 2014

I lived in California for 40 of my 57 years. Periods of severe drought are nothing new there. They've just never done much to fight it (except suck the Colorado River dry) or come up with an actual solution and succeed in putting a plan into action. While their state government and vast array of special interest groups haven't brought on the actual drought themselves, they have done everything in their power to stop any solution in its tracks. Save the salamander, three eyed toad, oak tree, or whatever. When you put the same value on human life, animal life and plant life, things are gonna get screwed up. No progress should stand in the way of progressiveness should be the state moto.

MoKelly · Feb 7, 2014

Yikes. California is quite interesting to me. In October, we went to LaQuinta for a tennis tournament. The place is in the middle of a desert but the facilities and town was as lush and green as anywhere. Certainly didn't look like there was a drought in LaQuinta. At least for the present, money can buy water.

MoKelly

bajabum · Feb 7, 2014

If they ever ban swimming pools in L.A., then you'll know there's a drought!

Not gonna happen...

deerseeker001 · Feb 7, 2014

Glad you guys are getting some rain in the forecast.

flusher · Feb 8, 2014

deerseeker001 said:
Glad you guys are getting some rain in the forecast.

It's been raining (slow steady soaker) for the past 48 hours here in the North Sacramento Valley. So far about a whopping 0.25" accumulation which puts the total rainfall since last Oct at about 2.5". Normal through Jan is about 5" and average annual rainfall is around 18".

Hard to do dry land farming with this piddley amount. My neighbor has been irrigating his 8-acre hayfield (forage mix) for the past month (3 waterings, $41 per acre foot from the irrigation district). Unless we get more rain the orchard farmers around will have to start pumping groundwater to save the trees (olives, almonds, English walnuts, mandarin oranges, prune plums, pistachios). Too bad all that winter moisture ended up East of the Rockies.

We have a propane shortage here (cost is now $3/gal, I paid $2.25/gal to fill my tank last Sep) and a few days ago the news was that PG&E is having trouble finding enough natural gas for their power plants. So we have water conservation and electric power conservation efforts underway here in CA. Hope we don't get to the stage where rationing is enforced. Other that than all is well here in northern CA.

jerrybob · Feb 8, 2014

flusher said:
It's been raining (slow steady soaker) for the past 48 hours here in the North Sacramento Valley. So far about a whopping 0.25" accumulation which puts the total rainfall since last Oct at about 2.5". Normal through Jan is about 5" and average annual rainfall is around 18".

Hard to do dry land farming with this piddley amount. My neighbor has been irrigating his 8-acre hayfield (forage mix) for the past month (3 waterings, $41 per acre foot from the irrigation district). Unless we get more rain the orchard farmers around will have to start pumping groundwater to save the trees (olives, almonds, English walnuts, mandarin oranges, prune plums, pistachios). Too bad all that winter moisture ended up East of the Rockies.

We have a propane shortage here (cost is now $3/gal, I paid $2.25/gal to fill my tank last Sep) and a few days ago the news was that PG&E is having trouble finding enough natural gas for their power plants. So we have water conservation and electric power conservation efforts underway here in CA. Hope we don't get to the stage where rationing is enforced. Other that than all is well here in northern CA.

Man...that does not some good at all. Hope you get some more rain. I hear the Sierra snow pack is at 20% of normal.....not good. We had a dry January up here......I think we had about 6 inches total. A year ago.....we got that amount in two days. Our normal is 90 inches per year......last year we had over 100 inches. Will be interesting to see how the rest of the years pans out. Pray for rain!!

Gator6x4 · Feb 8, 2014

RDrancher said:
I lived in California for 40 of my 57 years. Periods of severe drought are nothing new there. They've just never done much to fight it (except suck the Colorado River dry) or come up with an actual solution and succeed in putting a plan into action. While their state government and vast array of special interest groups haven't brought on the actual drought themselves, they have done everything in their power to stop any solution in its tracks. Save the salamander, three eyed toad, oak tree, or whatever. When you put the same value on human life, animal life and plant life, things are gonna get screwed up. No progress should stand in the way of progressiveness should be the state moto.

The only way to stop the "DRYING UP" of the Colorado River and other water sources that provides water for California, Arizona and Nevada is to limit growth and water consumption. Either one of the two, "Limit Growth" or "Limit Water Usage" will be the end of a politicians career.

Las Vegas has read the handwriting on the wall and currently re-cycles 90% of all water used. Look for the water fights to get "Nasty" in the coming years.

RobertN · Feb 8, 2014

The greater southern California area should have started building desalination plants decades ago. Now, they want to take more Sac Delta water in a huge project; the money would be better spent on desalination.

They should also only get water for drinking. Irrigated lawns are a terrible waste of water, especially lawns in the desert(which LA, Orange County etc are; they are just paved over desert).

Gator6x4 said:
The only way to stop the "DRYING UP" of the Colorado River and other water sources that provides water for California, Arizona and Nevada is to limit growth and water consumption. Either one of the two, "Limit Growth" or "Limit Water Usage" will be the end of a politicians career.

Las Vegas has read the handwriting on the wall and currently re-cycles 90% of all water used. Look for the water fights to get "Nasty" in the coming years.

ultrarunner · Feb 8, 2014

It was kind of ironic during the era of rationing when I was kid everyone in the SF east bay had brown vegetation and SoCal has magnificent lawns...

Anyway... we are getting a nice amount now... even enough to cause flood advisories!

bajabum · Feb 8, 2014

flusher said:
a few days ago the news was that PG&E is having trouble finding enough natural gas for their power plants.

The last time PG&E asked everyone to conserve gas, they did.
Then PG&E comes along later and says "we didn't sell enough gas, so we HAVE to jack up the rates!

And they did...

houstonscott · Feb 8, 2014

Remove the 10 million illegals front the State, and that's a lot of water, for both food and consumption for the citizens of California. HS

ultrarunner · Feb 8, 2014

bajabum said:
The last time PG&E asked everyone to conserve gas, they did.
Then PG&E comes along later and says "we didn't sell enough gas, so we HAVE to jack up the rates!

And they did...

Sad but true...

Know a woman that has a couple of horses and practices extreme conservation... just the way she is.

Boy did she get a wake up call... because water conservation is based on previous usage... she was you know what.

jerrybob · Feb 8, 2014

houstonscott said:
Remove the 10 million illegals front the State, and that's a lot of water, for both food and consumption for the citizens of California. HS

Very well thought out response........:confused3:

Industrial Toys · Feb 8, 2014

I just saw this on Canadian News. Terrible! It's amazing how in this age of information, you can be so totally ignorant about what is happening on the other side of the continent!

I hope they have outlawed the filling of swimming pools and those BIG bathtubs!

Maybe they shoud quadruple the taxes on homes with swimming pools until they fill them in!

What did they say? Only sixty days of water left. In the usually wettest month they got ZERO rain!

Curious what all the POSITIVE thinkers have to say about this? hmmm?

Egbert · Feb 8, 2014

Very well thought out response........

I thought so too. Simple logic is a powerful thing.

jerrybob · Feb 8, 2014

Egbert said:
Very well thought out response........

I thought so too. Simple logic is a powerful thing.

Especially considering the source......."simple" anything is a stretch for some.

Cat_Driver · Feb 9, 2014

That's my area, we get our water from ground water whereas other Northern Ca/LA. get their water from storage basing, lakes etc. Funny how here in the Desert we have plenty of water.

ultrarunner · Feb 9, 2014

Much of the drinking water is from snow melt and it is very high quality... not enough snow over time and resoviors drop.

Typical water bill before one drop flows through the pipe $2 a day or $120 for 2 months plus water flow and waste treatment based on flow.

Some costal areas depend on rainfall and they were really hurting untill now... reports of 5" so far with more rain to come in North Bay areas.

ultrarunner · Feb 9, 2014

Much of the drinking water is from snow melt and it is very high quality... not enough snow over time and reservoirs drop.

My typical water bill before one drop of water flows through the pipe is about $2 a day or $120 for 2 months plus water flow and waste treatment based on flow.

Some costal areas depend on rainfall and they were really hurting untill now... reports of 5" so far with more rain to come in North Bay areas.