Jay Famiglietti, LA Times - As difficult as it may be to face, the simple fact is that California is running out of water — and the problem started before our current drought. NASA data reveal that total water storage in California has been in steady decline since at least 2002, when satellite-based monitoring began, although groundwater depletion has been going on since the early 20th century.
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. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.
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A personal angle on this crisis goes back to about 2005. A friend in agriculture education and regulation described how the near-term water supply had become precarious in several particulars. Many voices were in agreement on this.
The solution offered from Schwarzenegger's office was "We'll build more dams." True story. This anecdote goes along with today's late-game rationing regime, reminiscent of the Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl in the middle of the third quarter.
Should the worst come to pass, we can also thank nearsighted California leadership for vaulting Texas into the position of Most Powerful State. Wouldn't people flush less and let their lawns die to avoid that?
Go way farther back that 2005, try 1978 for starters. That's the year that Proposition 13, the so-called tax payers revolt, was passed. Not only was Prop 13 effective in undermining the myriad agencies responsible for managing California's precious resources, development, and growth, it's real effect was to launch a profligate real estate boom that exploded the California population significantly beyond the area's limits of support.
The process was heartbreaking for those whose roots in the state go back for generations.
Their objections and warnings at the time were condemned, disregarded, and generally ignored.
That what has since transpired now validates those dire predictions is of little consolation---however, it can never be said this is really a surprise and that no one saw it coming. Res ipsa loquitur
Maybe it will take a mass exodus when the water runs out to restore the ecosystems of California
The thing that almost all of the articles forget is that YES, water is cheap in SAN DIEGO, not in CENTRAL VALLEY. Travel five hours from LA and you are in a place where water costs a HUNDRED times as much and people make ONE TENTH of what others do. They say 'water shouldn't be .6$ in SD. Yeah, well, for that same water we pay a lot more. The CITY users use 150 gallons, those of us who live out in the country, we have tried to conserve and we know, our neighbors have no water.
"fallow the farms" is always the answer we get handed but that won't fix the broken water rights system, this is a PROBLEM of the free market, there is no control over the water. The central valley has to pay everyone else for their water (usually twice) and we feed the world. OUr unemployment with farm labor included is about 13 percent, and that is just the people who are not 'perpetually without a job" those who have been jobless so long that UI is gone. And the people like me, the ones who work but barely keep up with their bills, as ag prices rise, and our food stamps don't rise with them. (And before you tell me to get a job or whatver, I'm a teacher. Eigty percent of my district is 'far below' the poverty line.
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