my foolish thinking about this drought.
 

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?

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

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.

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:D

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.

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.

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.

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%

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.

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

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.

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.

Big diesel generator...problem solved.

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

They could greatly destroy areas by building water storage.


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

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.

Oh, I agree that water conservation is needed.

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.

It has been a rainy cold summer here in MA, so far.

In California it is either an area with a bunch of rain or arid. We tend to think of much of the state as a lush garden when in truth much of it is just man made.

People think of Oklahoma as a dry, near desert. That is not the case. We recognized our shortcoming and built more man made lakes than any other state in the Union. And we still have times when we have less than what we really want.

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You forgot last year when that damn up near Folsom was about to burst due to poor maintenance and heavy rains.

Chico, and it was more about poorly designed than maintaining, or that is my understanding.

The type of almonds that I get from Cali (non pariel) have no flavor. They don't taste like almonds.

When I was in college, I had amaretto and was told "this is almond flavored." I thought, "WTF are they talking about?" I was probably in my 40s before I had regular almonds (from Europe) that actually tasted like something (other than just being crunchy and mildly sweet).

But, the good news is that "non pariel" almonds are very uniform in shape and size and a little sweet.

I've become a believer in man made climate change.
Much of Ca's problems are from those that do not believe in man made climate change.
Climate change is shown by archeoligy to extend into the very bottom of history.
Nature is calous, uncaring.
Nature is corrupt, entropy.
Much of California policy is driven by a perverse religion that revers "the planet", or "nature".
They don't believe in man made climate change, and instead believe in reducing mankind.

We also have to recognize the reality of a receding ice age where much of where North American's live was under ice.
I see two layers, both must be followed:

Change our own structure with the climate change we yet lack power over.
Work against nature in order to bring benefit, and increase the life yield of the earth, as we have power over it.

An utterly ignorant statement

Making long term decisions based on short term data is a fools game. And 200 years of climate data is extremely short term.
I remember back in the 70's being told that New York will be under water by 2000. Last time I looked, NY streets are still drivable. Now we are being told the planet has 12 years left...... how foolish can one be.
Here in Ohio, we have all the water anyone could ever use. We choose to live here not in a desert. So for the folks that live in a desert and complain about having no water, I have no sympathy for you.

its still ohio. and people there are so unsympathetic. no thanks.

I think I will go outside and water my lawn and garden. Then probably wash my cars. Oh my pool is a little low so I will top it off.
Then just for fun, I will let the hose run will I have lunch.

With tree rings we have a bit more than 200 years of data.
And they show a heck of a lot of change, even "pre industrial" change.
I do agree, a lot of people have been fear conned with persuasion that conceals our inaccuracy of prediction, as well as the extensive changes of the past.
Faith in false predictions, and lack of knowledge of past changes, result in fear of change, and any perturbance increases the frenzy.

What is left out about the NY hysteria is that although the ocean is rising, so to is land that carried the weight of an ice age.
Coastal area is expanding in greater portion compared to where it is shrinking.

Miami does seem to be in trouble.
New York, not so much.
Much of Florida seems to have been under the ocean in the past, probably will again.

A good solution would indeed be migration of remote capable jobs.
I think it is already happening.

bull headed denial of science. that's one of the reasons for contrarian-type behaviour.
some prime examples within this thread.

One question I've never heard addressed (because probably nobody knows or wants to know the answer): We have this big push to go with artificial turf here in LA. Everyone's doing it to maintain that lawn look while conserving water. Or maybe a desert landscape. Great. But all of that lawn must have some environmental impact on exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen and all that greenhouse gasses thing. The combined surface area of grass has got to be mind boggling. Just as cutting down rainforest in the Amazon is bad, wouldn't eliminating all lawns (and going to turf--which has got to be some sort of petroleum-based product--or decomposed granite/rock/gravel xeriscape) in drought areas be environmentally bad, too? There's got to be some degree of "good" biomass in grass and all the bugs/worms/spiders that live in it.

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No one is denying science, actually quit the contrary. I just choose to listen to ALL the facts not the ones that suit an agenda.
Intelligent people do not blindly follow, intelligent people will always continue to question.

Ah ha! You are the miscreant creaturecat speaks of.

PM me at your convenience. I got an idea.

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Some years ago when the Mississippi was flooding I was thinking...why not just pump that to Lake Meade.
Then I looked at the relative altitudes of the places.
Then the energy cost, even in a lossless system of lifting that water.
That idea, well, it died there.

The interesting thing I've learn more recently when studying climate models is solar powered phase changes and movements for water.
Some potential there to move massive amounts of water, an drop it where we want it within the limits of prevailing systems.
We don't understand why water does a lot of what it does.
But we do understand some of what water does.
And even with just that some, there is a lot we could do if we chose to.

don't be stoopid tobra, building water storage means destroying wetlands, and river canyons

or did you stupidly think they'd build big metal tanks??? or flood football stadiums??

:D

So... I lived in SoCal 1982-1985 and then again 1989-2015. 28 years or so...

I now live in the Cincinnati suburbs... The Good Lord looks after us very well, keeps our lawn watered for us and the swimming pool filled. (other than the initial Spring cover removal/shock/fill)

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I am very thankful that so many high earners continue to work/stay in California, keeping my pension fund solvent.

We opted to "give up" in 2015. We moved away but visit California friends/family often. (HOWEVER, many of our California friends are retiring and moving to Tennessee and The Carolinas.)

DL

But you must remember, this group just doesn't want water, they want cheap / free water that everyone else pays for!! The Leftist way!