my foolish thinking about this drought.

[vash]

i'm embarrassed. when this drought started, there were rumblings about my local lakes closing their boat ramps.

my idiotic thought as a kayak fisherman, "sweet! i'll have the place to myself, and no more dangerous boat wakes!"

while true. i have been floating around some lakes unscathed by ballast loaded wake boats. (i had a wake boat guy pull up to me when i waved at him and he explained to me how they suck in water to make the boat heavy to make a GIANT wake - super interesting). boat launches are too dangerous for boats now. and lakes that are still accessable have been turned into lake-wide NO WAKE zones because of sunken debris dangers.

but this sucks!!! screw fishing. i read a report that the dam at LAKE MEAD is producing only 60% of the normal electricity because of the reduced head pressure. i worked on a tunnel,and when we finished, the crews went to lake mead to tunnel up into the bottom of LAKE MEAD to essentially install a drain to provide water to the insatiable VEGAS. nuts!!!

i've been thru a CA drought before where we peed on top of other peoples piss. this year seems worse and our reaction is much less. i still see people watering their lawns. the population is way bigger than our last drought in the late 90's (or early 20's?) i wonder if a dam weakens when it is allowed to "relax" a bit from lack of water pressure?

[vash]

trust me. we will get random mandatory black outs the day we take delivery of the Tesla.

trust me.

[flatbutt]

I'd be amazed if a dam is weaker with a lack of head pressure, but I'm no engineer.

[Sunroof]

This is scary stuff. Climate scientist are not forecasting a rosey future for the planet, but we have been hearing this for years. We are all watching the southwest and this extradinary heatwave and severe drought as your reservoirs and lakes lower, the shellfish are cooking on the shores and deaths from the heat climb. Where did we see this movie?! So much for moving to colder climates.

[Seahawk]

It is serious and cyclical.

The term in the '70's drought was, "if it is brown, flush it down, if it is yellow let it mellow..."

I was able t break into the white water rafting world as a guide because of a two year drought in the '70's. A lot of boat guide had to get real jobs

[Scott Douglas]

That picture of Hoover Dam is old. The water level is a LOT lower now than what it shows.
I have neighbors with nice green lawns. Ours is brown since I don't water it. You can't drink green grass.
I don't think the seriousness of this drought has been talked about or things done about it enough.
We may not have enough water to fight the fires that are sure to come in September.

[biosurfer1]

For my entire life, it feels like we have been told we're under one of two situations:

1. We're in a drought, or
2. We're in grave danger of being in a drought.

Not saying they aren't true, but after 40 years and nothing being done about it, it's likely hard for some people to continue caring.

[Zeke]

Water is the least effective way of fighting a wildfire. Might work well in concentrations like a house burning. AFA water is concerned, 18% of CA water is consumed by households. So if you're gonna go all nazi about water usage, start with eliminating almond orchards and work your way down the list from there.

If you wanna pare the residential usage, then go after the lawns first. Personally, I think people with lots of lawn are the perfect example of what's wrong with people to begin with.

Folks here call me grumpy, but if you had to live in Long Beach (albeit not too bad a neighborhood) and had only the neighbors I have to interact with, you'd be unhappy with people too. Selfish, stupid (and ignorant), and rude. The younger the worse.

People say move if you don't like the neighborhood, the county, the region, the state. Where does one go? I should ask the tens of thousands of white flight folks that are bailing daily. My neighbors across the street took off 7/6 for TN. They were quoted $5000 for a U-haul trailer, not even a truck (one way). BTW, they bought a trailer as they can sell it immediately, even if they have it towed back to CA, and get back what they paid. New and used are virtually non existent to buy.

Me, I wouldn't be happy in TN or most other places in the US. I lived in AL for a year so I know a bit about that. Lived in NV for a year too and I can tell you states that get that hot are out of the question. Las Vegas is simply a mistake in history. We've made a few of those.

Of course I digress, but this is part of the drought discussion. BTW. SoCal has a lot of reserve water stored underground and in reservoirs. That doesn't mean we should waste any at all. But the dense population of L.A. County is not a back breaking factor in the overall drought picture.

Cliff, SoCal solar farms are producing more electricity than we can use on many days. Some days, when it's really hot, we go into a deficit and either buy some from the grid or turn it off, sequentially. We have generating capability so we don't need the dam generated power, it's just cheap and we own the dam (power wise). What we don't have are batteries to even things out. That technology is elu$ive.

Snow in the mountains makes for water in the rivers and lakes. There has been little snow for 3 years. Rain up north in the flatlands doesn't help much. It hasn't rained but 4.5" in Long Beach in the last 12 months. Our 'big' month was Dec 2020 @ 1.5 inches. I know a LOT of places that get that in a day.

Long Beach itself gets half its water from wells. We recycle enough water to use on the parks and golf courses almost exclusively. There will always be a source for that recycle water.

Desalinization takes enormous amounts of energy. Back to square one.

[Tobra]

They could greatly mitigate the issues by building water storage.

My lawn has been dead a few years, but the citrus trees look fantastic, and I got a tomato that was a pound and a half last week

Pretty sure residential use is closer to 10%

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Zeke

SoCal solar farms are producing more electricity than we can use on many days.

Desalinization takes enormous amounts of energy.

That might be a "fit" right there . . .

The West is in a long term drought, and the effect on forests, rivers and lakes - i.e. nature - is the biggest problem in my opinion. The decline of snowpack and soil moisture is not easily addressed by more water storage or conservation.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by jyl

That might be a "fit" right there . . .

The West is in a long term drought, and the effect on forests, rivers and lakes - i.e. nature - is the biggest problem in my opinion. The decline of snowpack and soil moisture is not easily addressed by more water storage or conservation.

Very true but people need water for basics. There is no reason to NOT conserve. Remember, it takes a lot of energy just to move water.

[ckelly78z]

You could have some of the seemingly constant rain from the MidWest, or SouthEast, things have hardly dried out from a wet Winter.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Zeke

If you wanna pare the residential usage, then go after the lawns first. Personally, I think people with lots of lawn are the perfect example of what's wrong with people to begin with.

Desalinization takes enormous amounts of energy. Back to square one.

people water lawns too much. If you water a lawn all of the time, the lawn comes to expect constant water and without constant water, that lawn suffers. If you water the lawn less often, when it needs water, the lawn does fine with less water. Obviously, in drought conditions, the lawn is going to suffer.

Another thing, at least around here, if native grasses and plants are used, the root systems of those native plants run deeper than things like bermuda or St Augustine so the native grasses and plants are happier when things turn dry. They've had hundreds of years learning to cope with dry spells and wet spells and hot spell and cold spells (or whatever types of spells an area gets).

Yes, desalination is a last resort for places that have no other option. It's not free or easy.

[Seahawk]

Lawns are largely vanity.

I never water my lawn and I have acres and acres of the stuff. I even have multiple wells that I can use for watering.

There have been summers I just don't mow for weeks. Looks like crap. Oh well. Always comes back.

Edit: Masraum nailed it.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by vash

trust me. we will get random mandatory black outs the day we take delivery of the Tesla.

trust me.

Big diesel generator...problem solved.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Zeke

People say move if you don't like the neighborhood, the county, the region, the state. Where does one go? .

Ohio! You can have our whole 3rd floor rent free.

[thor66]

They could greatly destroy areas by building water storage.


I like almonds and I have a small lawn - big enuff.

[Crowbob]

Einstein across the street waters his expanse of lawn ceaselessly. Truth. He’s always sprinkling. I turn my irrigation on/off manually as what conditions call for.

Then he’ll fertilize. Yep commercial bags of fertilizer hundreds of pounds of it.

Then he waters, of course. And pays an enormous electric bill.

There’s no appreciable difference between his lawn and mine. Except my lawn is allot healthier.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Very true but people need water for basics. There is no reason to NOT conserve. Remember, it takes a lot of energy just to move water.

Oh, I agree that water conservation is needed.

[mjohnson]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

Then he’ll fertilize. Yep commercial bags of fertilizer hundreds of pounds of it.

I had family on Lk Charlevoix up there - those huge lush lawns aren't exactly great for the water quality. I don't know if the fertilizer helps or hurts the zebra mussels...

Best thing we ever did in the high NM desert was moving to a place without a lawn. It felt sooo good to just put the mower on the curb with a "Free" sign! Now we target water our weeds (ahem, natural habitat) and fruit trees.