The Official Drought Thread

[Jeff Lebowski]

This is a great example. Check out these five photos of half dome, each of which was taken on March 19th of a different year for the past five years.

http://www.sacbee.com/site-services/...e15386540.html

[Jeff Lebowski]

Lebowski, what's your take on this article?

Yes, that is true to a degree. The delta smelt conservation stuff has had a big impact on water usage. Ironically, you could argue that other types of ecological damage is being done as a result of the delta smelt efforts. However, the article is misleading in terms of relative impact. This is the worst drought in modern history and there is no way you can blame all of the water shortage on conservation efforts. Also, the last paragraph is misleading. There are only so many places that you can build dams. California is doing lots of other things including water swapping, mandatory urban water conservation, and aquifer storage and recovery.

[cowboy]

Lebowski, what's your take on this article?

Then there’s California, which has suffered four droughts in the last five decades with each seemingly more severe in its impact. Yet this is due more to resource misallocation than harsher conditions.

During normal years, the state should replenish reservoirs. However, environmental regulations require that about 4.4 million acre-feet of water—enough to sustain 4.4 million families and irrigate one million acres of farmland—be diverted to ecological purposes. Even in dry years, hundreds of thousands of acre feet of runoff are flushed into San Francisco Bay to protect fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

During the last two winters amid the drought, regulators let more than 2.6 million acre-feet out into the bay. The reason: California lacked storage capacity north of the delta, and environmental rules restrict water pumping to reservoirs south. After heavy rains doused northern California this February, the State Water Resources Control Board dissipated tens of thousands of more acre-feet. Every smelt matters.

Increased surface storage would give regulators more latitude to conserve water during heavy storm-flows and would have allowed the state to stockpile larger reserves during the 15 years that preceded the last drought. Yet no major water infrastructure project has been completed in California since the 1960s.

[Moliere]

Your FB feed is crazy.

Yes, it is. Here's a snippet:

As a friend from San Diego states, there is no drought in California. The shortage is due to government regulations and restrictions.

And here's the solution, apparently:

YES please. What is WRONG with these people?? - I'll answer my own question - LACK OF GOD in their lives. Greedy egotistical people!!

[RC Vikings]

webcam_2.jpg

It looks like we're good here. I'll post pictures this summer so you can remember what a green lawn and a clean car look like.

[Uncle Ted]

The thing with these water restrictions is that water use in most cities has gone down in recent years. The vast majority of our water, up to 80% of water usage, is going straight to agriculture, which are immune to restrictions so far. So while you guys are enjoying your California guacamole and almond milk my lawn is going to crap and my car goes unwashed, being even dirtier than it usually is.

God bless you, man. Thank you and your fellow californians for your sacrifice!

[bluegoose]

The thing with these water restrictions is that water use in most cities has gone down in recent years. The vast majority of our water, up to 80% of water usage, is going straight to agriculture, which are immune to restrictions so far. So while you guys are enjoying your California guacamole and almond milk my lawn is going to crap and my car goes unwashed, being even dirtier than it usually is.

[Uncle Ted]

Your FB feed is crazy. I drove from Reno to SF three weeks ago on I-80 over donner summit. I ha e lived in NorCal for over 30 years and have gone over that pass during winter months at least twice a year in that span. I have never seen the ground so barren at the top this time of year. Never. It was shocking.

Did y'all stop off in Tahoe for some dirt skiing? That is something that might work for us if we only had mountains.

[creekster]

According to my FB feed, there is no drought in California. The issue is solely with state controlled water resources

Your FB feed is crazy. I drove from Reno to SF three weeks ago on I-80 over donner summit. I ha e lived in NorCal for over 30 years and have gone over that pass during winter months at least twice a year in that span. I have never seen the ground so barren at the top this time of year. Never. It was shocking.

[Moliere]

According to my FB feed, there is no drought in California. The issue is solely with state controlled water resources

[Uncle Ted]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/2015...1dd9b77a7.html

There seems to be a solution to this problem...

California has plenty of water…just not enough to satisfy every possible use of water that people can imagine when the price is close to zero. As David Zetland points out in an excellent interview with Russ Roberts, people in San Diego county use around 150 gallons of water a day. Meanwhile in Sydney Australia, with a roughly comparable climate and standard of living, people use about half that amount. Trust me, no one in Sydney is going thirsty.


So how much are people in San Diego paying for their daily use of 150 gallons of water? About 78 cents. As Matt Kahn puts it:


Where in the Constitution does it say that the people of California have the right to pay .5 cents per gallon of water?

http://marginalrevolution.com/margin...age-again.html

[Uncle Ted]

California Goes Nuts

1*f5EM7NAnTdXwKuVeHKN3kw.jpg

https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.ne...KuVeHKN3kw.png

Across the valley, the pumping frenzy is causing severe strains. Jessi Snyder, a community development specialist with Central Valley-based Self-Help Enterprises, says that several other towns in Tulare County struggle with similar arsenic issues. More than 300 residents of East Porterville saw their wells simply dry up last August, forcing the county to send in emergency bottled-water rations.


Meanwhile, under a recent decree from Gov. Jerry Brown, Burchard says he has to impose “severe” water use restrictions on Alpaugh’s residents, as part of a statewide effort to combat the drought. People who already can’t drink the water will now face tough rules on when they can water their lawns and gardens. As he explains what he calls this “bitter irony,” I look around at the town’s low-slung modest houses with their small yards supporting patches of grass and the occasional fruit tree. Peach trees that supply fresh fruit to cash-strapped families face water restrictions while the vast nut orchards around them thrive. Of course, any water savings Burchard manages to wring out of residents will amount to a rounding error compared to the water going to agriculture. In his irrigation district, just 2 percent of water goes to homes. The other 98 percent goes to farms.

[...]

On the other hand, California’s nut industry may need strong regulation to save itself from its own thirst. In a September note to investors, Brett Hundley, an agribusiness analyst for BB&T Capital Markets, wrote that “the long-term viability of the industry depends on [effective regulation], given sustained declines in surface water availability.” That is, without regulation, tree farms will use up the very water they depend on.

[Omaha 680]

California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered officials Wednesday to impose statewide mandatory water restrictions for the first time in history as surveyors found the lowest snow level in the Sierra Nevada snowpack in 65 years of record-keeping.

Standing in dry, brown grass at a site that normally would be snow-covered this time of year, Brown announced he had signed an executive order requiring the State Water Resources Control Board to implement measures in cities and towns to cut the state's overall water usage by 25 percent compared with 2013 levels.

The order calls on local water agencies to implement tiered water pricing that charges higher rates as more water is used and requires agricultural users to report more water use information to state regulators.

Brown's office said that will boost the state's ability to enforce laws against illegal water diversions and waste. Officials previously approved fines of up to $500 a day for water wasters, but few agencies have opted to issue them.

The order also prohibits new homes and developments from using drinkable water for irrigation if the structures lack water-efficient drip systems. In addition, the watering of decorative grasses on public street medians is banned.

The snow survey on Wednesday showed the statewide snowpack is equivalent to just 5 percent of the historical average for April 1 and the lowest for that date since the state began record-keeping in 1950.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/2015...1dd9b77a7.html

[Dwight Schr-ute]

Too small. Can't read.

Here's a direct link to the post.

https://www.facebook.com/NWSCNRFC/ph...type=1&theater

[Jeff Lebowski]

Comment on the "What's Great about California" thread while it's still there.

[ATTACH]5659[/ATTACH]

Too small. Can't read.