Greedy Californians are almost out of water.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Californians have been warned to cut back on their wasteful water usage. They're not, and we're all going to have to pay for it.
For a couple of years now, the state has been on high alert. Gov. Jerry Brown asked residents to cut back water usage by 20%, which some argued wasn't enough, given the dire circumstances. Residents and businesses responded with 8.8%.
The irony is thicker than gluten. Environmental alarmism is the official state pastime. But water only gets lip service.
So state officials must resort to disciplining the citizenry. Unprecedented water rationing could come any day. Some homes and businesses would be limited to outdoor watering just two days a week. Fines for unrepentant water wasters could reach $500 a day.
Still, the state's threats don't seem credible enough to actually stop people from watering their fern palms. Everyone out here talks about the drought. But no one seems to be doing anything about it.
As the state's four-year intensive drought drags on, the ramifications of who wins and loses the fight will have global implications.
It's not just about the price of watering your lawn in Los Angeles; it's about the price of food on the table.
There are three main factions engaged in the conflict: environmentalists who want to preserve the watersheds, residents who want to keep shrubs green and washing machines churning; and the state's massive $21.4 billion agriculture industry.
The only thing the sides agree on is this: There is not enough water to go around. And, according to Jay Famiglietti, a NASA scientist: "The simple fact is that California is running out of water," he wrote in the Los Angeles Times March 12. "Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing."
To be fair, that has put resident Californians in a tough spot. Without rain, they tend to use more water from the existing water supply. At 38.8 million, California is the nation's most populous state, more than 11 million more than No. 2 Texas. So we Californians may not use a lot of water; there's just a lot of us. And we're competing for it.
That's because
California is also the biggest farm state in the nation, producing more than Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota combined. Farmers are in the same tough spot. They've been ordered to cut the usage of surface water by 80% to 100%. So they've been pumping out the once-vast store of underground water, which is causing environmental havoc.
No surprise, then, that water in California is the most expensive in the nation.
Like many U.S. communities, most California water districts use a tiered system of fees. For instance, in Irvine, if you use a standard amount of water, you pay a reasonable amount: $1.34 per cubic hundred feet of water. Use more, and you get charged $3.91 for the same amount. Rates top out at $12.60.
But even expensive water doesn't seem to have quenched California's thirst.
Should you think that Californians are alone in their wasteful ways, consider a 2011 white paper by the American Water Works Co. AWK, -0.08% It concluded: "The nation has developed excessive consumption habits that have put a serious strain on the available water supply as well as the system that delivers it."
And that is from a water company that wants to sell you water at higher prices.
But that's just the tip of the dry iceberg. The real pain comes in higher food prices. Increases start during a drought and then rise even after the drought is over. For instance, retail fruit and vegetable prices rose 3.7% and 4%, respectively, and kept rising a year after a very mild 2005 drought, according to the Department of Agriculture.
This year, the USDA is projecting price increases of up to 6% for some farm products.
Higher prices are just the start. Some have suggested the state may be in for a 200-year drought, given the changing climate. It doesn't have to go that long — trust me, it's bad enough that the state and the nation need to address the problem of a shrinking water supply and a growing population.
Scarcity makes people desperate. Syria experienced a devastating drought between 2006 and 2011. One estimate, by the United Nations, put crop failure at close to 75%. Perhaps it's no coincidence the nation has been at civil war and a hotbed for ISIS since then.
Let's hope that things in California don't deteriorate to that level. In the meantime, pray for rain.
Greedy Californians are almost out of water - MarketWatch
