California Drought Conditions . . . .

[0627Devildog]

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/the-california-drought-in-pictures-421332547980?cid=sm_fb_msnbc_native

 

[ToddW850]

I went to the site but don't see the article.

 

[Williamsone46]

Looks like Californian's should start considering moving where there is enough water to support the population

 

[0627Devildog]

I went to the site but don't see the article.

It's actually a slide show of different landmarks that show contrasting water levels. It might be the browser you are viewing from.

 

[ToddW850]

It's actually a slide show of different landmarks that show contrasting water levels. It might be the browser you are viewing from.

Yeah, I tried it again. The title for the California Drought popped up initially, then went to another page. So I looked it up on another site. WOW. That's ridiculously low water levels!

 

[Murf'n'surf]

There's nothing but bugs, old people and hurricanes in Florida so stay over there. Maybe a pipeline from the melting glaciers up North will suffice?
Lol

 

[Ronnie]

Nothing but earthquakes and high sales taxes here in Cali. My legal advice is to stay away.

Seriously though the slide show only reflects a small part of the drought's impact. Some lakes won't open to boating, some are kept full by the state or federal government. I can boat in the rivers of the sacramento delta where water levels generally are not a problem even in dry years.

Some counties that rely on water for agriculture have seen a three times increase in people/families at the food lines which corresponds to the increase in unemployment levels. Ski resorts and their employees suffered through another year of late openings, early closing and low attendance. In suburbia water restrictions are in place some of which are leading to neighbors reporting each other and causing the offending neighbor to pay large fines. All of us feel it at the gorocery stores and to a lesser extent when we go out to eat.

A local radio station had people cAll in to talk about the science of piping water from the east coast to the west coast but getting the first 1000 gallons over the Rockies to create/trigger a siphoning effect seemed to be the big bottle neck. If water were worth as much as oil I'm sure we would do it. Think Alaskan pipeline.

 

[0627Devildog]

http://rightwingnews.com/top-news/assemblyman-tim-donnelly-democrats-are-causing-much-of-californias-water-shortage/

If this is prohibited, please remove. . . .I just thought it was an interesting reference.

 

[christopherglenn]

The endangered species act (specifically fish flows) are using 10-20 times the water we are now mandated to save.
In California people use 8-10% of the water, farms a little less then 1/2 whats left, endangered species act a little more then 1/2 of whats left. Where is the bang for the buck? Reducing statewide water consumption by 2%? Causing food shortages? Or allowing streams and rivers which would be dry - if the dams didn't exist - go dry over the summer. Why not just let the dams store storm flow, and in good times snow melt. In bad times (like now) let river outflow equal inflow on these dams, and not flush what little water we have down the toilet and into the ocean. Another winter like this one, and there will be less water behind the dams then current summer fishflow requirements, assuming NO water goes to farms or cities.

 

[0627Devildog]

The endangered species act (specifically fish flows) are using 10-20 times the water we are now mandated to save.
In California people use 8-10% of the water, farms a little less then 1/2 whats left, endangered species act a little more then 1/2 of whats left. Where is the bang for the buck? Reducing statewide water consumption by 2%? Causing food shortages? Or allowing streams and rivers which would be dry - if the dams didn't exist - go dry over the summer. Why not just let the dams store storm flow, and in good times snow melt. In bad times (like now) let river outflow equal inflow on these dams, and not flush what little water we have down the toilet and into the ocean. Another winter like this one, and there will be less water behind the dams then current summer fishflow requirements, assuming NO water goes to farms or cities.

Fish are MORE important than Humans. . . . . . Duh.

 

[sysinu]

The endangered species act (specifically fish flows) are using 10-20 times the water we are now mandated to save.
In California people use 8-10% of the water, farms a little less then 1/2 whats left, endangered species act a little more then 1/2 of whats left. Where is the bang for the buck? Reducing statewide water consumption by 2%? Causing food shortages? Or allowing streams and rivers which would be dry - if the dams didn't exist - go dry over the summer. Why not just let the dams store storm flow, and in good times snow melt. In bad times (like now) let river outflow equal inflow on these dams, and not flush what little water we have down the toilet and into the ocean. Another winter like this one, and there will be less water behind the dams then current summer fishflow requirements, assuming NO water goes to farms or cities.

I follow a lot of the water flows for various lakes on the colorado river and your suggestion about having inflow and outflow near equal is actually pretty much what all of the larger reservoirs do. That is except for in spring runoff (which doesn't exist this year) where inflow is 27K CFS at times. Outflows at that time are usually 9K CFS. For example: http://lakepowell.water-data.com/ it details stuff like this.

 

[1rjclark]

I live at ground zero for the water fight here in California. The California Delta. It's an ugly fight no matter how you look at it. Here's some sites to check out. restorethedelta.org

 

[christopherglenn]

They have been draining New Melones Lake for over 15 years. At the moment it is less then 40%, and projected to be near dead pool this summer. Lake Tulloch (directly downstream from New Melones) was scheduled to be drained this summer, but was spared, we will see if they end up draining it for fall fish flows.
The inflow and outflow data tell you how bad the fish flows are. It is down over 11 feet, and 57,000 AF in the last month. We can't keep this up for much longer, there is only 547,636 AF left. The spring fish flows have yet to start..
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?NML

 

[Glassman]

I was very surprised to see how high the water level was on the Colorado River in mid afternoon on a Saturday.

Back when we went through the last drought the river was so low you could walk across it






I really hope we don't see that again!