Politicains/Environmentalists Caused the Problem

[Praxeas]

In an average year, California gets enough snow and rain to put 200 million acres under a foot of water, but environmental opposition to dams over the last several decades has allowed the majority of the freshwater to flow into the ocean, even as the state’s population exploded to nearly 40 million people. The current drought has left farms parched and residents under strict water consumption orders, but some say it didn't have to be that way.

But the vast majority of the state’s 1,400 dams and reservoirs, in the two massive systems and smaller ones that supply southern California, were built well before the 1980s. Environmentalists have since stopped the construction of water storage and delivery systems through legal and political actions. They have also fought to ensure that captured water is released into streams and the ocean -- rather than the water delivery system -- in order to boost fish populations and dilute the salinity of the delta

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/16...-by-misguided/

this makes me mad and the thing is I have been griping about it for years. But Californians keep voting these bozos into office who pander to the small Environmentalists and the Public Unions (Democrats) and instead of building dams, decided to build a High Speed Rail that most Californians wont even take

Jerry Brown is an idiot

[Fionn mac Cumh]

No to mention they still let frackers frack and companies like nestle bottle water.

[Fionn mac Cumh]

Love your signature. Even if you are a Dodgers fan. Lets go Oakland!!!!!!!!

[Praxeas]

hehe

[Scott Pitta]

One could reduce water flow in stream and rivers to the point that they no longer support fish or other wildlife.

What impact has the drought and lack of snowfall had on available water ?? How many people can live there if there is no more water ? There is a limit to the carrying capacity of the land and watershed.


More water rationing seems to be the best short term solution to me.

[Walks_in_islam]

Originally Posted by Praxeas

In an average year, California gets enough snow and rain to put 200 million acres under a foot of water, but environmental opposition to dams over the last several decades has allowed the majority of the freshwater to flow into the ocean, even as the state’s population exploded to nearly 40 million people. The current drought has left farms parched and residents under strict water consumption orders, but some say it didn't have to be that way.

But the vast majority of the state’s 1,400 dams and reservoirs, in the two massive systems and smaller ones that supply southern California, were built well before the 1980s. Environmentalists have since stopped the construction of water storage and delivery systems through legal and political actions. They have also fought to ensure that captured water is released into streams and the ocean -- rather than the water delivery system -- in order to boost fish populations and dilute the salinity of the delta

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/16...-by-misguided/

this makes me mad and the thing is I have been griping about it for years. But Californians keep voting these bozos into office who pander to the small Environmentalists and the Public Unions (Democrats) and instead of building dams, decided to build a High Speed Rail that most Californians wont even take

Jerry Brown is an idiot

Californians did not pay for those dams. It was actually discounted and tax-payer subsidized water and not the need to continue subsidizing it that created this problem.

An excellent book that takes it all the way to the beginning and was written WAY before there was ever a problem. I read the original one awhile back. This guy saw this coming almost 30 years ago.

The book will make you sick. California is just part of it. Covers water development across the West.

Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, is a 1986 book published by Viking (ISBN 0-14-017824-4) about land development and water policy in the western United States. Subtitled The American West and its Disappearing Water, it gives the history of the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and their struggle to remake the American West. The book's main conclusion is that development-driven policies, formed when settling the West was the country's main concern, are having serious long-term negative effects on the environment and water quantity. The book was revised and updated in 1993.

As far as I'm concerned California and California taxpayers owe the rest of American taxpayers billions of dollars. Otherwise, further subsidies on their wasteful use of water are unwarranted. In this book are the costs of the projects, the value of the water in acre-feet based on those costs, and what Californians actually paid for that water. The days of water welfare to California at the expense of everyone else need to end. If the people in the state were charged the cost of providing the state with water then the population would never have exploded in the first place.

California probably needs to invest in a series of desalination facilities for their "non-drinking" water, as we do here - and limit their robbery of other states to drinking water only.

When I finish here desalination will be my next business. Know this, it won't be subsidized for you. LOL - 7 cents/gallon is the cost of making it.

[Walks_in_islam]

Before the civil war ever started in Syria there was this: (article predates the war by 1 year)

http://www.irinnews.org/report/90442...s-into-poverty

DAMASCUS, 9 September 2010 (IRIN) - A top UN official warns that Syria's drought is affecting food security and has pushed 2-3 million people into “extreme poverty”.

During a mission to Syria which ended on 7 September, Olivier de Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said 1.3 million people had been affected by the four-year drought, 800,000 of whom had had their livelihoods devastated.

“The situation is really bad,” said Selly Muzammil, spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria.

In June the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Syria said the drought had ended but that inconsistent rainfall was causing crop failures. Other UN agencies say the drought is ongoing.

Schutter said four consecutive droughts had affected Syria since 2006, with the drought in 2007-2008 being particularly devastating. "The losses from these repeated droughts have been significant for the population in the northeastern part of the country, particularly in Al-Hasakeh, Deir Ezzor and Al-Raqqa.”

Small-scale farmers have been worst affected. Many farmers have not been able to cultivate enough food or earn enough money to feed their families. Herders have also lost 80-85 percent of their livestock since 2005, according to UN figures.

Anyone who attributes the war to religion or politics is mentally numb. Do you to clearly and succinctly understand and know that this is a harbinger of things to come.

This sounds familiar - LOL

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/op...tion.html?_r=0

“The drought did not cause Syria’s civil war,” said the Syrian economist Samir Aita, but, he added, the failure of the government to respond to the drought played a huge role in fueling the uprising. What happened, Aita explained, was that after Assad took over in 2000 he opened up the regulated agricultural sector in Syria for big farmers, many of them government cronies, to buy up land and drill as much water as they wanted, eventually severely diminishing the water table. This began driving small farmers off the land into towns, where they had to scrounge for work.

Because of the population explosion that started here in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to better health care, those leaving the countryside came with huge families and settled in towns around cities like Aleppo. Some of those small towns swelled from 2,000 people to 400,000 in a decade or so. The government failed to provide proper schools, jobs or services for this youth bulge, which hit its teens and 20s right when the revolution erupted.

Then, between 2006 and 2011, some 60 percent of Syria’s land mass was ravaged by the drought and, with the water table already too low and river irrigation shrunken, it wiped out the livelihoods of 800,000 Syrian farmers and herders, the United Nations reported.

In 2011, Syria erupted.

Dear California: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

[Scott Pitta]

How many people can live in California as based on the water supply ?? There must be a logical limit. Arizona has the same problem. Are we pushing on those limits with uncontrolled population distributions ??

[shazeep]

Originally Posted by Walks_in_islam

Dear California: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

sadly, we trust our gov to remember the past for us--when they were most likely the ones creating it. Your Syria water story reinforces for me that people seek solutions--"they should do ______"--not realizing that it is the "they" who have created the problem; or if the people do realize that, they remain naive in believing that "they" will now do some meaningful remedial work. Like perhaps because new info came to light or something. This is a joke. This is suicide, imo.

See that the whole exercise was most likely to jerk us from one extreme to another, starting with a bad premise, that can only wreak havoc long term.

[Walks_in_islam]

At the rate they use it?

http://pacinst.org/new-data-show-res...ss-california/

.....And while Californians have made gains in using water more efficiently in the last few decades, these recent data shows that there is still plenty of room for improvement. Statewide, residential water use in September averaged 125 gpcd. A recent analysis by the Pacific Institute showed that an average Californian living in a home equipped with widely-available water-efficient appliances and fixtures would use about 32 gallons per day indoors. In addition, many Californians could reduce their outdoor water use by 70% or more by landscaping with low water-use plants.

Australian households use an average of 54 gpcd for both indoor and outdoor uses, and residents of the Australian state of Victoria use only 40 gpcd.

Summary: Californians waste water. If they were charged what it really costs to get it to them then it is a sure fact that they would not. It is not "politicians and environmentalists" that turn on the tap and waste it either.