Who/what is to blame for the dire water shortage in CA: farmers or fish conservation?
Did the water shortage have any bearing on your decision regarding choosing a CA college?
Climate sure affected my retirement destination- I prefer wet to dry. I can’t believe CA hasn’t had mandatory water restrictions . Our part of Florida (Tampa) has twice weekly water use restrictions unless things are in drought condition and then it’s only weekly. Tons of rain in season here usually but population pressures are depleting aquifers (and threaten salt incursions into springs- such low lying land that once was a sea) . Likewise CA has increased population- in a desert climate. Plus agriculture that needs so much irrigation. I can’t believe the rich who insist on lush green spaces when there may be no water available at any price someday.
“Who/what is to blame for the dire water shortage in CA: farmers or fish conservation?”
Neither
Low snow pack. Or perhaps we should say NO snow pack.
Not directly on point, but we had a scandal here in CA a few years ago when one of the state’s largest agricultural concerns – owned by one of the state’s wealthiest citizens – was taking advantage of federal subsidies for farmers, buying water at very low subsidized prices and then turning around and selling it at very high profits to municipalities. Really makes one angry.
Didn’t the movie Chinatown deal with water use and corruption back in the 1930’s? It can’t be a new problem in California.
For now, I won’t be buying rice from California since it really isn’t the type of produce that should grow in a dry climate. I rarely buy California citrus either, since Florida citrus is juicier - having come from a rainier climate. Artichokes and garlic are fine.
Other than that, I can wish for rain. There’s a big part of the country that is on alert for fire due to the dry and windy conditions. The rest of us are slowly melting or washing away!
The blame for the drought is a weather pattern, that may last for a very long time, that drives water north or south of CA. It’s part of the same reason why there’s been a 10+ year drought through much of the West, one that has at times affected the northern plains down into Texas, where it remains.
The best piece I’ve read about the shortage says this: 83% of all use is agricultural. That’s fine because CA grows so much of our food. And people focus on almonds but those are a high margin (high profit) item which isn’t grown much elsewhere so it makes sense to allocate water to it. But alfalfa is an even bigger user and oddly the state exports vast amounts of it because it’s profitable to send it overseas by ship to places where it’s more expensive to grow - takes up too much land there. If you’re looking for an allocation issue, I’d start with that crop. I’d also say there must be more incentives to encourage lower watering methods for crops generally. There’s too much open air spraying still, too many open air canals, not enough drip irrigation.
Eat the almonds while you can still afford to!
I would like to see some agricultural restrictions and more push for reform in their farming methods.
California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds. The biggest importer is China. Surprisingly, the second biggest importer is Spain. I would figure they would just grow their own.
With a daughter living in LA, I’ve been following this story recently. What’s been fascinating is reading about all the arguments for and against desalination plants. Some communities have them, but the cobwebs need to be dusted off (at a small fortune) and some communities are trying to build them, believing this drought will be sustained for many years. Then you read the negative consequences of desalinating, and it really becomes a conundrum. I really don’t know what the answer is - I’m just trying to learn the arguments of both sides. The plants require lots of energy resources, too. It appears to be a fairly divisive issue out there, but I understand people who are desperate. BTW… artichokes are my favorite food - in fact, my kitchen decor leans heavily toward the artichoke theme!
This is not helping.
http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2014/08/bottled-water-california-drought
I haven’t been following all of the arguments regarding desalinization but I am very very concerned about anything that affects our very fragile oceans. I have never been particularly environmentally aware, but this year there is something happening on our California coasts that anyone with access to the coastline cannot ignore. Thousands and thousands of sea lions are dying. I’ve lived at the beach for 21 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. I walk on the beach almost every morning and very very often there are dead baby sea lions washed up on shore. Very tiny animals. It is heartbreaking and alarming. Very very much out of the ordinary. If you are familiar with the coastline, you cannot escape the conclusion that there is something greatly amiss. As I said, I am not an environmental activist by any means but this is truly alarming. These are very very intelligent animals and the babies are dying at an alarming rate.
There are different theories as to the cause but they think a very slight increase in ocean temperatures due to a lack of wind is causing certain species of fish to die which has caused very severe stress on the sea lion population. It is a very small shift that has had a dramatic effect.
So, what does this have to do with desalinization? They know that the amount of salt that is ejected back into the ocean after the desalination cycle is completed is enough to effect the ecosystem (albeit to unknown degrees). Before this year, I might have thought, “humans first – our needs for water trumps theoretical effects on the environment.” But having faced, almost daily, the devastating effects caused by a very small shift in the ocean environment – or to be blunt, seeing numerous beautiful dead baby seal lions littering the beaches, like nothing I’ve ever seen before – alarm bells are going off in my mind. I personally am much more willing to make personal conservation sacrifices to avoid further harm to our oceans after witnessing this first hand.
I understand this is an emotional reaction rather than an intellectual one, but sometimes I think we do well to listen to our emotional gut when alarm bells are ringing.
I don’t know enough about large-scale desalinization plants to condemn them outright but I do believe there is enough info out there to give pause
It’s not just the sea lions. Sea stars have been impacted by a horrible disease that has greatly killed off the population from Alaska down to the Baja Peninsula. Park rangers and their equivalents who are stationed at tidal pools along the coasts are very versed on the topic, and will tell you all about it if you visit. We personally witnessed this both along the Oregon coast last August, and Laguna Beach in March. I expect nothing will have changed when we visit Vancouver Island this August. Very, very few sea stars left, and in March it was too early to tell if the one we did see was diseased or not.
Yes, all this stuff does impact the food chain. For all we know, the sea lion die off may be related to the sea star crisis, but it may be too early to tell exactly how.
Teri- too true, we have gorgeous purple sea stars in the PNW and there was a dramatic decline last summer where I beach walk 
Thanks, GMTplus7, for starting this thread.
I’d like some pointers from CC’s greenthumbs about drought-tolerant/resistant plants. We’re looking to overhaul our entire garden.
Los Angeles was built on a desert and the saga behind getting water here is the stuff of movies. The movie “Chinatown” touches on it, but the book, “Cadillac Desert” is a real eye-opener about how diverting (stealing) water from No. CA allowed for the development of So.CA. it is a very interesting but very disturbing read.
I think the drought is here to stay. We have been asked to cut back but strict rationing has still not been imposed. In the meantime, building permits for new homes are still being issued without regard to our severe water shortage.
Cadillac Desert is a fascinating book. I heartily recommend it.
Why does the salt have to be ejected back into the sea?
The byproduct of the desalination process is not a salt crystal, but a brine. This brine cannot be discharged to recharge the groundwater basin as the TDS -total dissolved solids- level is too high and it will contaminate the groundwater basin. It can be treated to remove the TDS but it would be extremely expensive to process. The most feasible alternative at this point is to discharge it to the ocean.
Dune was prescient.
I removed my lawn a few years ago and replaced it with mostly native plants.
Once they are established, they don’t require much water. However our planting zone has been changing.
I might need some natives of New Mexico!
http://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/resources/resource_search.php?term=590
Does anyone know the cost of water in California for a typical household? If the price is too low, people have no concern about washing cars weekly and aren’t so concerned about conservation.