How Would You Solve The California Drought?

[jyl]

Suppose you are the Governor of the Golden State. It is 2017, and the drought shows no signs of ending. Almost every city is on water rationing, aquifers are depleted, wells going dry, the reservoirs are at 5% capacity. The public and business are demanding action and you have a rare political chance to take action - to change a century of water law, practices and flows - and save the state.

What is your plan?

Serious plans preferred. Moving everyone to Texas isn't a solution; they are out of water there too.

[Nostril Cheese]

[dlockhart]

Sam had the right answer. U haul.
You live in a desert.

[Lapkritis]

Cloud seeding. Done deal.

[john70t]

Invest in desalination factories,
drip irrigation farming of resilient low-waste crops,
solutions for golf courses and estates,
promote natural succulant gardening everywhere(Succulant Design Ideas, Pictures, Remodel and Decor),
enclose aquaducts,
no-flush urinals, etc. as a start.

[Hugh R]

Desalination only really makes sense if its from Nukes.

[LakeCleElum]

Move back to where I was born. Wettest place on the Con't US coast....Forks, WA....Fain Forest....140 in/yr

[dan88911]

Trucking and Train tanking water to the state from states with lots of water.

[Hugh R]

I think only a few years ago they started metering water in places like Modesto. Raise water prices in some areas. BTW most of the Orange and Almond groves have been doing the drip irrigation think for a long, long time.

[Evans, Marv]

Maybe do like L.A. has done for a long time, namely suck the water out of someplace else (Owens Valley in L.A.'s case) and transport it via aqueducts, pipes, and pumping stations from a place with excess water to locations in Kalifornia. Of course the great north west is the first candidate that comes to mind. I bet there would be huge resistance from the source locations, because they know supplying water to socal would be creating a monster. Kalifornia would just continue to increase the demand. It would be a real megaproject if it happened.

[GWN7]

Just read Lake Mead is 100' below normal levels. A 14 year drought. If it's levels don't rebound this winter there will be severe water rationing in SoCal.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I think paying Arizonans to pee on ya'll would do the trick.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by dan88911

Trucking and Train tanking water to the state from states with lots of water.

Not from Michigan please.
We like our water, thank you, and the great lakes are still recovering from record lows here.

There is already an interstate agreement in effect to prevent siphoning (3-5 states plus canada I think)
Only water bottling companies like foreign Nestle can bypass that law.

[Bill Douglas]

Hey, I've got an idea. Just pipe it down from Northern California. They don't need it.

[campbellcj]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

Maybe do like L.A. has done for a long time, namely suck the water out of someplace else (Owens Valley in L.A.'s case) and transport it via aqueducts, pipes, and pumping stations from a place with excess water to locations in Kalifornia.

It seems like it's just a matter of time before there are actual water pipelines just like we have for oil and gas.

We're under mandatory irrigation restrictions here but so far I just switched the sprinklering days per their schedule. I didn't reduce durations as stuff would die. But with our bill already at $150-200/month and bound to go up, I'm definitely thinking about going fake turf, native plants and rocks.

[jyl]

Some information :

Water usage
The Yodeler, Newspaper of the San Francisco Bay Chapter Sierra Club

Desalination
Nation's largest ocean desalination plant goes up near San Diego; Future of the California coast? - San Jose Mercury News

[Tobra]

I don't think you can fix 100 years of stupid with any sort of alacrity.

Speaking of stupid, no way in hell is building tunnels under the delta to transport water a good idea. They should build a cover on the California Aqueduct, how stupid is it to waste a vital resource with an open canal to transport it? I wonder how many tons of water they lose to evaporation every day. "They," WTF am I saying, it is we.

Should have been building reservoirs alongside rivers, sort of like big tanks, for a long time. Divert water into them in the spring, when the rivers are running high. Not going to be building dams for storage, due to environmental impact. Only short term answer is draconian rationing, which should be constantly in place in Southern California, which is an overpopulated desert and has been for many years. We have needed a better water policy since before I was born, it is just a more acute problem due to the overpopulation here.

Sacramento is at the confluence of two rather larger rivers, we have water in relative abundance. I, and everyone I know, have consistently conserved water as much as possible for as long as I can remember. Have had meters for a few years, prior to that it was a flat rate based on the area of your lot. There are not a lot of gains to be had from conservation, IMHO. Desalinization takes a LOT of energy. As Mr R has suggested, Nuke power is the only thing to make sense for large scale, but building those is not going to help in the short term. In any event, you probably don't get any approved for construction, so it is a bit of a moot point. I think you could put together a solar still for small quantities, but nothing of much consequence. We sure as heck should not be wasting water to grow corn to turn into fuel. My cousin is a botanist who worked in one of the sandy countries to develop grass that could grow using brackish water for irrigation. If you must use something for biofuel, it ought to be something along those lines. We need to be smarter in how we use what we have.


This is a critically important subject, not just for California. Wars will be fought over drinking water in the not too distant future.

John,

I appreciate your starting this thread here, rather than in the dungeon, so there is a greater chance for reasonable discussion. Sadly, water and politics are inextricably linked, especially here in California. That said, I hope everyone can behave themselves and comport themselves like adults.

Toby

[porwolf]

Much more recycling the way Orange County does it: Clean up waste water as much as commercially feasible, pump it to catch basins, let it percolate naturally into the soil to fill up ground water supply, and then pump it out as fresh drinking water.

Slideshow: California Drought: Orange County expands 'toilet to tap' water recycling | 89.3 KPCC

[Lapkritis]

Reflective pricing with a curved scale makes good sense. Use 10x's the water of an average household then with a curve say you then pay 100x's the rate. This would ensure abusive use is far more expensive than the base minimum survival use. This would go well on top of a larger scale conservation effort and alternative sourcing.

[BK911]

People are out of water but still watering grass? Seriously?