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calif drought

#21
I think that the really big problem is the lack of snowpack in the Sierras. That would have a big impact on the water supply situation over the summer. Some of the pictures that I've seen are startling.

We also have a very low snowpack up here in WA that may lead to problems over the summer.
 
#22
It's scary both in terms of water use (now and during the dry season, e.g. spring/summer/fall) and even more, to me, in terms of fire danger.
Having lived through a bad fire (Santa Barbara's Painted Cave Fire in 1990) - fires are no joke.
 
#24
Yeah, I'm torn by the train thing as that would be a big contract for my work, but with the continuing problems with the brand new bay bridge, not too thrilled about blasting along through the central valley while a John Deere is broken down on the tracks.

More rain in the near future which is good though. Need some ditch filling rain to really help and some snow on the hill.
 
#25
dieselbass said:
Yeah, I'm torn by the train thing as that would be a big contract for my work, but with the continuing problems with the brand new bay bridge, not too thrilled about blasting along through the central valley while a John Deere is broken down on the tracks.
Click to expand...
Build more dams. Lotsa digging, lotsa contracts. More useful, more sensible (they would almost have to be).
 
#28
Water restrictions are a way of life in Australia. Building more dams rarely achieves anything, especially when you have dwindling or increasingly unreliable rainfall patterns combined with a growing population that isn't altering its water use habits. My state has recently had a desalination plant built, though whether that's a good thing isn't a black-and-white issue; it certainly doesn't encourage innovation in sustainable water usage technologies, that's for sure - hell, we've got open-air irrigation channels just a few hundred kilometres from the plant!
 
#29
punkjazzben said:
Water restrictions are a way of life in Australia. Building more dams rarely achieves anything, especially when you have dwindling or increasingly unreliable rainfall patterns combined with a growing population that isn't altering its water use habits. My state has recently had a desalination plant built, though whether that's a good thing isn't a black-and-white issue.
Click to expand...

That's the key!
 
#30
You can build dams, but if there's just empty space behind them it won't do any good.

There's been talk of building a desal plant in HB. I don't know how far along that plan has gotten.

One potential place for saving water is the automatic sprinklers that are all over around here. Some of the properties soak their lawns so much that a lot of runoff flows into the streets and into the storm drains. Many of these places could easily dial back their usage maybe 10 to 50% and still maintain decent grass cover.
 
#31
Bob Lee (QSC) said:
One potential place for saving water is the automatic sprinklers that are all over around here. Some of the properties soak their lawns so much that a lot of runoff flows into the streets and into the storm drains. Many of these places could easily dial back their usage maybe 10 to 50% and still maintain decent grass cover.
Click to expand...


Wow! I haven't seen anyone water their lawns for at least 10-15 years. Everyone installed new-fandangled watering systems in the 90s; now they're buried under soil. I'm a renter, and am routinely uncovering bits of old systems with my lawnmower. For a while we were able to water lawns for x amount of time every second day. I'm not sure what the restrictions are now, but no one bothers. Saves money, saves water.
 
#35
Keep in mind that domestic water usage is only a small fraction of what agriculture uses.

With the Central Valley producing somewhere around 25% of US food and irrigation water is supplied by a Sierra snowpack that's about 13% of normal, this is a very bad situation.

It will take a whole lot more than just a few rainfall events to actually make a difference.
 
#37
Its been lightly raining (a bit more than a drizzle) in Riverside for about 3 hours now. I'm praying it stays all night but we shall see. I'm just being optimistic it'll just come late this year.
 

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