California Drought Before/After: Is this for real?

Saw this and I had to post.
How serious is California drought
And what's this I hear Americans use 320 gallons a day per household. Is that true? Can this be verified somewhere because if so,maaaan. If it's yellow, it's mellow. Brown, flush it down.

I wonder which picture is the most accurate for the last 200 years ?

omg seems, unreal and scary i dont know but some more info on this ats peeps?

I have a very good friend in California who i stayed with for several weeks last year, they do not use anything like 300 gallons of water.

They are healthy people with a green grass lawn, theres simply no way they use anything like that, they do try to keep the water usage down, like no over watering of the garden, but 300 gallons every day? not even remotely true.

a reply to: FlySolo

It's a hot one out there.


Great Lakes

Wonder how much of the Great Lakes water are locked up in nestle water bottles...

Think about how much cannabis is being cultivated. It's hard to think that isn't playing a role in this.

originally posted by: knightsofcydonia
Think about how much cannabis is being cultivated. It's hard to think that isn't playing a role in this.

While it is grown i think its mostly hydroponically which actually doesnt take much water when you are near the coast, the air is very humid, its when you go inland that plants suffer from the dry arid air and need the extra water.

I think that the other plants like fruit take extra, cannabis, also not so widly used do not make much of an impact.

originally posted by: knightsofcydonia
Think about how much cannabis is being cultivated. It's hard to think that isn't playing a role in this.

They're having a rough time of it lately - let them have a friggin smoke, for goodness sake!

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite

originally posted by: knightsofcydonia
Think about how much cannabis is being cultivated. It's hard to think that isn't playing a role in this.

They're having a rough time of it lately - let them have a friggin smoke, for goodness sake!

This is true, California produces tonnes and tonnes of fruit, cannabis isnt actually very widly used and a tonne of that would supply California for a month

“A single plant of marijuana needs about six gallons of water per day to grow. That means industrial grows need between 12,000 and 30,000 gallons of water per day,” according to Quartz. The problem for California is, unlike its ability to regulate and enforce water usage for the wine industry, its hands are tied when it comes to cannabis.



“Marijuana cultivation has the potential to completely dewater and dry up streams in the areas where [cannabis farmers are] growing pretty extensively,” Scott Bauer, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), told the business website Quartz.

Looks like now is a good time to get some bridge repair work done.

All jokes aside, those are some pretty extreme pictures.
A far greater difference in water levels than I expected to see as I clicked on the link.

Don't cannabis growers have a right to use water? its not like all cannabis is grown with illegal water, when I grow indoor I use about a gallon per plant per day at peak. and I gladly pay for my water, its cheap. BTW I'm from Oroville these pictures are of the lake 15 minutes away, my hometown. It has gotten really bad, and I think it is weather modification, its not like they don't have the technology or capability to make it rain OR not.

a reply to: knightsofcydonia

Responsibly done its a very green business (pun intended). I had a big beef with this a few years back and looked into pretty closely when I read a bunch of the inflated numbers.

Yes there have been occasions where people have diverted streams and partial rivers but its rare and they usually get caught. You can't hate on a whole industry because a few people get greedy.

If someone's intention is to get rich and they mess up the environment or cause waste them someone needs to string em up by their ankles from the tallest redwoods! Can't hate on the people just getting by or just taking care of people. There's a lot of kids benefiting from this treatment and its really about to turn the corner in popularity. Several kids now have shown massive recoveries and we all know how easy it is to sway opinion using kids.

The answer to environmental issues in the cannabis industry is legalization and regulation. Logical regulation that punishes the greedy.


I've been looking to see if the nestle plant near Chicago has had to pay any extra taxes this hear or what. I can't even find the name of the company at the moment. Ice mountain i thought.

Some are claiming that the "before" pix were made after a period of unusual rainfall in the area when the reservoirs were at capacity. I haven't checked the rainfall amounts in 2011----perhaps someone who knows where that info can be found?

ETA: Here's a link that shows the annual averages: cdec.water.ca.gov...

true, the pics are a culmination from over the last 3 years. I think the capacity pic is three years old, the thing is it reaches capacity every single year normally, but for the last 3 its been getting lower and LOWER.

First the base the term drought on any years that are not above normal.

They do not base it on a avg rainfall over 100s of years.

Its somewhat based on El Nino heavy rainfall years that may or may not happen.

The rainfall has never been the same for any period of time in the southwest.

If you went back just 3000 years calif would be seen as a very wet place.

There were glaciers within 60 miles of Los Angeles, Calif as little as 4000 years ago..

The climate of calif becoming a lot drier only some 1,000 years ago.

Climate change in calif has been going on for around 12,000 years.
And its been getting drier the whole time.

a reply to: Biigs

Yeah I find 320 hard to believe myself. Been reading that as an argument against the ice bucket challenge. I probably go through 1-2 gallons a day, not even, except a shower.

a reply to: mindseye1609

Nestle, those fricken guys.I know, been draining aquifers for years for free and selling right back to us.

here is the drought effected pic. for the thread

Lake Oroville 2014

a reply to: knightsofcydonia

Hydroponics recycles water.