No Water in California

[Riverwind (imported)]

Before we start, this is not I repeat, NOT a political statement nor is it about Global Warming or the lack there of. Any mention of either will get you a week vacation.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/california-i ... -rationing

Facing catastrophic water shortages across California (http://www.msnbc.com/topics/california), Gov. Jerry Brown is taking drastic action to impose water rationing for the entire state.

Brown, a Democrat, unveiled an executive order Wednesday mandating a 25% reduction of water usage statewide. The governor also announced plans to replace 50 million square feet of lawns with “drought tolerant landscaping,” to set up a program to exchange outdated technology and increase regulations on the state’s large agricultural industry.

California first and foremost is an Agriculture state and produces more crops then any other state in the union and their drought will effect you, prices for food to be sure.

Moi who is always talking about his garden and all his trees and veggies that he grows are in danger of becoming dead like the rest of the state, I know in the past he has stated he will use all the water he wants, so MOI what happens when they put the water meter on your house and tell you that there is a limit of the amount of water you can have each month?

This also effect other members of our group, like Jesus and Losethem and Macwolf who is already getting 95 deg weather in March, what happens in July and August?

My kids all live in that area and I know my oldest son grows a garden for food.

So how is this Drought affecting YOU?

Who do you know that lives there and what are they doing to cope with this?

Remember this is not a political statement nor about global warming.

Please comment.

River

[fhunter]

Moi who is always talking about his garden and all his trees and veggies that he grows are in danger of becoming dead like the rest of the state, I know in the past he has stated he will use all the water he wants, so MOI what happens when they put the water meter on your house and tell you that there is a limit of the amount of water you can have each month?

I heard of at least house meters being "disabled" by a really strong magnet (may be there is protection from that already). Also, as far as I remember, they work really bad for low flow. Points for Moi (No, I am not advocating tampering meters).

I wonder... you do not need fresh water for, say, flushing the toilet...is there a possibility of either using seawater, or water reuse for that.

@Moi:

Moi, you can always make a closed ecosystem dome Buckminster Fuller would be proud of you :-p.

PS. I wonder, what does "drought-tolerant landscaping" mean. I hope it is not cactus lawns.

[kristoff]

I heard of at least house meters being "disabled" by a really strong magnet (may be there is protection from that already). Also, as far as I remember, they work really bad for low flow. Points for Moi (No, I am not advocating tampering meters).

I wonder... you do not need fresh water for, say, flushing the toilet...is there a possibility of either using seawater, or water reuse for that.

@Moi:

Moi, you can always make a closed ecosystem dome Buckminster Fuller would be proud of you :-p.

PS. I wonder, what does "drought-tolerant landscaping" mean. I hope it is not cactus lawns.

Seawater and "brown water" recycling require separately plumbed systems. Expensive to retro-fit.

Drought-tolerant landscaping usually involves desert grasses, cactus, and lots of rocks....

[Dave (imported)]

..

. PS. I wonder, what does "drought-tolerant landscaping" mean. I hope it is not cactus lawns ...

That's almost exactly what it means for most of the southwest USA.

Back in the 90's when I gave a technical paper at a conference in San Diego, the had water restrictions. Looking out of the airplane window as the plane neared landing, I could see mostly brown yards and roads with interspersed areas of brilliant green. When I made a comment that someone was watering their lawns, the fellow next to me laughed and said -- "no those are golf greens" and that was that. He treated me as the stupid dummy for not knowing that even when restaurants did not serve you a glass of water without asking (yes there were water restrictions back then, too) that Golf Greens got watered.

So "drought tolerant landscape" is brightly colored rock gardens and cactus or succulents for green. . . or they use some type of mulch as a ground cover with selected plants that are low water.

[Dave (imported)]

By the way, the Movie CHINATOWN sort of tells the story of how the Los Angeles Valley and its farmlands got water.

[Paolo]

They should have planned for this long ago. There's plenty of geological evidence to suggest that this wasn't the first time that this has happened. But...human stupidity...

[moi621 (imported)]

Before we start, this is not I repeat, NOT a political statement nor is it about Global Warming or the lack there of. Any mention of either will get you a week vacation.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/california-i ... -rationing

Facing catastrophic water shortages across California (http://www.msnbc.com/topics/california), Gov. Jerry Brown is taking drastic action to impose water rationing for the entire state.

Brown, a Democrat, unveiled an executive order Wednesday mandating a 25% reduction of water usage statewide. The governor also announced plans to replace 50 million square feet of lawns with

“drought tolerant landscaping,”

to set up a program to exchange outdated technology and increase regulations on the state’s large agricultural industry.

California first and foremost is an Agriculture state and produces more crops then any other state in the union and their drought will effect you, prices for food to be sure.

Moi who is always talking about his garden and all his trees and veggies that he grows are in danger of becoming dead like the rest of the state, I know in the past he has stated he will use all the water he wants, so MOI what happens when they put the water meter on your house and tell you that there is a limit of the amount of water you can have each month?

This also effect other members of our group, like Jesus and Losethem and Macwolf who is already getting 95 deg weather in March, what happens in July and August?

My kids all live in that area and I know my oldest son grows a garden for food.

So how is this Drought affecting YOU?

Who do you know that lives there and what are they doing to cope with this?

Remember this is not a political statement nor about global warming.

Please comment.

River

I use more than I need now, buiding my own personal aquifer.

And I figure when they mandate me to reduce use, it will work for me, y'see

Just Say "No" to conservation until they stop adding new customers is my motto.

Moi

[Losethem (imported)]

I have 2 plans in place. Already I use little water compared to what I used to. At this point one plan would create economic hardship, but it wouldn't be as bad as what everyone else faces if we run out of surface water. Plan 2 - leave California. This is looking increasingly likely for me, but the drought is only one consideration for this plan.

River will remember a large 2.4 million acre foot reservoir east of where he used to live. It's at 450,000 acre feet of water now, and the people responsible for it are expecting it to go "dead pool" over the summer (not quite empty, but so low they can't release water). The old state highway bridge almost came out of the water last summer. It's not the lowest I've seen this reservoir since it's first complete fill after its construction in the late 70's, but it will definitely get there this summer. There is a smaller, 100,000 acre foot reservoir that has been full for it's entire existence just down stream from this larger reservoir, and they are planning on draining it this year for agricultural purposes.

If you love almonds, if this goes on into another year after this, expect prices for that nut to skyrocket. In the entire world they are mostly grown (about 90%) in the area where River and I used to live. Your grocery bills will go up for other stuff as well - many fruits and veggies come from our central valley. I doubt Florida will be able to take up the slack.

It's REALLY bad. People that have never been to California or the southwest don't realize just how devastating this is going to be. Much like the real estate bubble a few years back, what's happening in California IS going to impact the rest of the US eventually.

--LT

[Riverwind (imported)]

It will affect everybody in the USA except for MOI who lives in a different plane of existence then the rest of us.

You know its bad when the Governor said golf courses will be effected. I can hear them now, 'it takes 30 years to get the lawns just right and with this new law we will have dead grass,' then the soap box that moi likes to use will come out screaming how unfair it is.

The reality of this is, the snowpack is 5% of normal and this is the 4th year of this drought. California is in for a very long summer and fall this year, we can only hope that the weather patterns return to normal next year, because 1 good year of snow will cure it all. However everything might die before then.

Being from California I have seen droughts on and off my whole life, its like earthquakes they will come however I don't think I have ever seen it this bad. This is scary, scary for everybody with the exception of MOI who just does not seem to care how much water he uses, because? he is special? It might be interesting to see how this plays out for moi. I remember a drought back in the late 80s and everybody was told the same thing as now, don't water your grass, don't wash your car. My neighbor watered his grass at 3 in the morning, so long that water would roll down the gutter in waist. They put a meter on his line and told him no more, he like MOI figured ? what can they do? really then he got his bill. I know Moi is well off, but what will Moi do if his monthly water bill is several thousand dollars? ??? I know ??? sell some of those gold eagles!

River

[Paolo]

Jesus & his family can come here for water; I just got done pumping out the old well we don't use because it's running over again.