California drought: State Water Project will deliver no water this summer

reply to post by ketsuko

"Vegas is going to be in a world of hurt…"

I really, really feel for the 'little guy' who is just trying to eek out a living, but the filthy rich casinos should really do something for their city... simply because, if 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' is so important, then how come what happens in other places (water) must be piped in to Vegas?

This boils down to greed, lack of forethought (no contingency plan to deal with something of this nature?) and just plain Delusions of Grandeur ( "I am human, watch me re-arrange nature" *** )

***Sung to the tune of "I am woman, hear me roar" unless you're too young to remember Helen Reddy!

reply to post by Arbitrageur


To put it in context, this is the driest it has been since that particular agency started monitoring it. They became an agency 54 years ago....

Record setting, possibly the worst drought in hundreds of years. It is not forecast to get any better, sure there will be wet years but the overall tend is to dry up and blow away in the wind.

neo96
With the latest craze about atmospheric water generators there is absolutely no reason for water 'shortages'.

Hell even Fema has them now.

We have been warned of impending water shortage for years. Has denial finally slammed into reality?

hmmm... follow the money... who owns the patents on the tech? Similar to solar, which is putting in place disincentives to discourage homeowners from buying equipment and accessing free power, so TPTB can continue riding the margins with huge solar farms that destroy the environment and ecosystems. So will the way of water?

I remember the So Cal blackouts of 1999/2000 and knowing instinctively that it was a rigged ploy for profit. Is this the same game?

Or, if the drought is nothing new, why turn off the water now? Is this setting the stage in an attempt to trigger a voluntary mass migration/evacuation due to Fukushima?

reply to post by Mamatus

Right, which is why I questioned TheLotLizard who said "It has happened before...", because as far as I can tell, the refusal to supply water hasn't happened before, and the severity of the drought hasn't happened before. I don't think saying this "has happened before..." is an accurate characterization and your comments only seem to reinforce this view.

I did a search on the internet regarding dam removal. Start here for the list of projects
Coast Conservancy

The San Clement dam isn't even being used. It is considered an earthquake risk, plus it is full of silt. The same article covers the Matilija Dam, which is basically not functional.
San Clemente dam

The Rindge dam is not being used and full of silt.
Rindge dam

Now the Klamath certainly could be used as a water source, though it isn't near any urban areas.

So I would say California hasn't gone bonkers blowing up dams. The only crazy idea I see floated all the time is to remove the Hetch Hetchy dam, which will probably never get anywhere but that dam does work.

In addition, the have been strengthening and enlarging the Calaveras dam.
Calaveras dam

So before going all Fox News on environmentalists, it would make sense to see if the dams are safe and functional. The only real looney tunes is the attempt to remove Hetch Hetchy.
Restore Hetch Hetchy
I am 100% opposed to this plan. The dam is built, the valley is gone, case closed. It provides water and electricity. Renewable electricity at that.

reply to post by ANNED

Yet, I live 20 Mins from the OCEAN. Why are we not looking more into , Desalinization of water. It is getting cheaper every year. My gosh. It would be better to invest in Desalinization now than wait till we dry up, oh wait its probably too late unless we get a huge amount of rain soon. Here is a link.

www.scientificamerican.com...

reply to post by kurthall


It is still at a price point that will have ratepayers up in arms.

reply to post by ANNED


Yes, blame treehuggers for an extreme drought which has depleted existing reservoirs and snow pack. You cannot give what is not there so this treehugger's advice to Californians is to be extraordinarily prudent with what is left. I really hope that there are no idiots in California that think that watering their lawns or washing their cars is a thing to do right now. Considering the extremity of the drought, no amount of additional water projects would've been sufficient to cover for the summer at this point. Such things require precipitation and, due to the malformed arctic oscillation, that just has not been happening.

And to Unity99--this is not HAARP. This kind of weather pattern may have been similar to what existed previously during the last Ice Age of which we have been in an interglacial period of (Holocene). If you look at the vegetation maps (ie 15 kya) from that period, you'll see some curious things like a colder Eastern seaboard, dry steppe (grasslands) in the "rainy" pacific nw, and arid conditions in what is now California. It may kind of work like this: The ocean warms --> the typically cold Oyashio Current weakens --> Pacific high pressure systems created due to warm water dominance perturb both the polar vortex and typical weather patterns on the West Coast--> bye bye rain.

The collapse of the Oyashio Current was one of the things that precipitated the last glacial maximum. I find that really interesting as that same current is weakening as far as I can tell. It points to the paradox of warm oceans/cold continents of having some possible validity but also seems like it adds that twist of altered rainfall patterns seen in the deep past. Another interesting time period would be the Little Ice Age, which followed the Medieval warm period and also coexisted with a solar minimum like we seem to be in the present. Warm oceans, solar minimum --> malformed weather patterns. In either case, if all these conditions that may be responsible for what we are currently seeing in the Northern Hemisphere persist, it's not going to be pretty and that's an understatement.

I'm not an expert meteorologist though. I'm just somebody with a high degree of pattern recognition and who does have a science degree including a butt load of sciences including meteorology and climatology.

Driving back to San Diego through the Central Valley, I saw a ton of signs about the problem. Nearly all of them added in some bold terms to suggest it was those LIBERAL DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS who created the problem, because signs in the central valley appeal to idiots.

Mamatus
Blaming Treehuggers for a historic drought, classic.

Let me tell you about some of those treehuggers and what they have achieved.

Blocking the Peripheral Canal. Without the efforts of those you are slamming, Northern California would be facing a huge financial boondoggle that in the rare event it should succeed, would give the Westmorelands Water District and Southern California all of the water from up North.

Many of the corporate farmers in that area have benefited from guaranteed water allotments (and low prices) that have traditionally exceeded their needs. If you think they make as much money from almonds as they do from selling the water back to California at a profit, you would be mistaken. These leeches have become billionaires from this scheme.

Wild and Scenic Rivers: Yup all those nice river canyons that people love to recreate at? They would all be reservoirs.
Do you like to go fishing? Well you can forget about that because without those awful Treehuggers there would be no salmon left in California. How about that nice park you like to take your family to by the river? Forget it they are all gone.

When I hear people blame Treehuggers for things like drought, it makes me crazy. Your average person on the street has no clue just how complicated water is in this State. Every single house, development or mall needs water. To date, I have to give it to the Water Managers of this State for doing a great freaking job managing a complex and constantly changing environment.

If anything blame the Treehuggers for California have any water...... Given the opportunity it would have all been bottled up and sold off by now. Something else the Treehuggers blocked...............

BTW I have a family member that was Deputy Director of CA Dept. of Water Resources for many years. He still works in water and is considered a guru on supply and demand issues. That is in part why I had to respond to your post. You are blaming Treehuggers when you should be blaming those that are not.

edit on 2-2-2014 by Mamatus because: Gwammer and speeeeling

Worth repeating. Thanks.



PS. Flagged the thread tho, cuz it's important.

This is an important thread, thanks. Whatever the cause, the change is happening. Instead of pointing fingers, we should find answers before the food supply is severely compromised. And this time, listen to what the scientists say.

Guess I will expand the garden this year.

I don't believe this BS at all.
I'm presently 500 ft away from the California Aqueduct.
Flowing three ft. high at fifteen to twenty mph conservatively.

conundrummer
Driving back to San Diego through the Central Valley, I saw a ton of signs about the problem. Nearly all of them added in some bold terms to suggest it was those LIBERAL DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS who created the problem, because signs in the central valley appeal to idiots.

Those signs have been there a few years. Surprisingly not too many photos of those signs on the internet, but I found one.
Dust bowl

The thing is some years the field in question gets plenty of water, but they don't take the signs down, let alone put up a sign thanking congress.

There is a certain irony here since California's central valley was where Oklahoma residents fled to during the real dust bowl days. That is why you have country music coming out of Bakersfield. [There were oil field workers who left OK for CA as well, besides the dust bowl farmers.]

kurthall
reply to post by ANNED

 

Yet, I live 20 Mins from the OCEAN. Why are we not looking more into , Desalinization of water. It is getting cheaper every year. My gosh. It would be better to invest in Desalinization now than wait till we dry up, oh wait its probably too late unless we get a huge amount of rain soon. Here is a link.

www.scientificamerican.com...

I was wondering the same thing. It seems to me that the state would benefit greatly from desalinization plants. They could even sell the salt. Rather than not doing anything about the lack of water, the state ought to be proactive and make their own. The downside with bleeding aquifers dry near saltwater is that the saltwater seeps into the aquifer due to a pressure differential and fouls the aquifer.

Sadly, it's going to have to be California that solves this problem for themselves. I doubt anyone else will do it for them.

reply to post by randyvs

You are the expert then! Silly drought is all made up just to make someone money, you have proved it with your observation!


NOT!!!!!

Arbitrageur

TheLotLizard
It has happened before and will happen again.

How is that?

The OP begins with "For the first time in its 54-year history....." which makes it sound like this has NOT happened before. What am I missing?

Because California is a desert/arid region. Droughts happen in deserts that's pretty well known.

54 year history. Wow I that's a very long time on the whole history of the earth.... So what if it is a 100 year cycle or 200 years?

Saying after 54 years that it's never happened is pretty ignorant. And like another member had said it has happened before. California doesn't even get most of its snowfall until late February and March.

Arbitrageur
reply to post by Mamatus

 

Right, which is why I questioned TheLotLizard who said "It has happened before...", because as far as I can tell, the refusal to supply water hasn't happened before, and the severity of the drought hasn't happened before. I don't think saying this "has happened before..." is an accurate characterization and your comments only seem to reinforce this view.

Saying this hasn't happened before is pure ignorance. Simple as that. Another poster has said it hasn't happened since the 1500s. But it has happened. To me sounds like a 500 year cycle.

Again I will say " It has happened before and it will happen again.

reply to post by TheLotLizard

I would suggest reading the entire thread. It has already been clarified that the 54 years refers to the amount of time the State Water Agency has been an Agency. This drought may well be the worst in 500 years..... A scientist recently looked at tree growth rings and the last time this little water was seen, was the mid 1500's....

Epic is a solid description.

randyvs
I don't believe this BS at all.
I'm presently 500 ft away from the California Aqueduct.
Flowing three ft. high at fifteen to twenty mph conservatively.

The aqueducts are regulated to stay at a specific height. Fed by reservoirs to keep it that way. When the lakes are empty only then will the aqueducts start their decline.

Mamatus
reply to post by TheLotLizard

 

I would suggest reading the entire thread. It has already been clarified that the 54 years refers to the amount of time the State Water Agency has been an Agency. This drought may well be the worst in 500 years..... A scientist recently looked at tree growth rings and the last time this little water was seen, was the mid 1500's....

Epic is a solid description.

Isn't that exactly what I just said? Haha

I guess you can't read sarcasm...