California Peeps

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QuickSilver

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Don M asked a very interesting question in the "lightening" post. And I am very interested in hearing an answer and I thought I should make a new thread.

How is this drought in California and the SW affecting you. Do you notice anything? Are you being rationed as far as water goes. Does it appear to be lessening? Just very curious.. Not just for the people there, but for what it's going to do to our food supply of fruit and veggies.. California is the largest economy in the US and ranks as 8th largest in the world. So what happens there is a huge concern. Any insight from our Cali peeps?
 

We are very concerned and doing everything we can to save water. We can only water outdoor lawns, plants, etc. 3 days a week, depending on whether your street address is an odd or even number. We keep a bucket in the bathroom to catch the water we run during the few seconds while it heats up for a shower. Showers are as short as possible. Same goes for the kitchen. We try to catch any water that would have gone down the drain and take it outdoors for the plants. I got rid of grass in both my front and back yards several years ago. I now have mostly succulents and cactus. My back yard is half flagstone and the rest is weeds. I'm going to extend the flagstone to cover the entire back and enlarge my patio. My property extends to the bottom of the canyon adjacent to my back yard and this is regularly inspected by the City to make sure the amount of vegetation is kept down to comply with fire regulations. I've been cited twice. Very expensive to bring it up to code but, of course, necessary. If the drought goes on for many years, I'm sure they'll find a remedy or, more likely, a combination of remedies. But it will be very expensive.
 
We try to conserve water whenever we can but don't have rationing YET. My next door neighbor is having his front lawn replaced with that new
artificial turf. I'll see how that goes and maybe I'll do the same. The water level in some of our lakes are way below normal. Not a great lookout.
 

I used to have some family in Orange County.. and droughts are not new. I remember as far back as the '80s they had a saying.. "If it's yellow, it's mellow.. if it's brown it goes down" in other words, they even limited toilet flushing as long as possible. I do think that this is the most serious one experienced. Any explanations from "experts" on how long this is anticipated to last?
 
They are telling us that we are next to get the rain that Texas/Oklahoma is currently getting. I sure hope they are right-except if we get torrential rains we will then have to cope with flooding,mudslides and landslides. We have a huge pond next door to us-more like a tiny lake really-and it is pretty much dried up. All the vegetation is there but when you see the herons walking on it and only about an inch of their feet is covered,you know there`s not much water there. We are on a well,so we are not experiencing mandatory water rationing but are being as careful as possible. We have no landscaping whatsoever so don`t have to worry about any outside watering. My daughter and SIL,who live in town and are on city water,have a large (newer) lawn (they put it in the last year we had normal rainfall) and a swimming pool. I am afraid they are going to choke when they see some of their summer water bills.
 
Well that's one way to have people ration themselves... make the water usage so expensive over a certain amount that they will be careful how much they use.
 
I saw this posted on FB this morning. Hate to see how much everyone is going to have to pay for these foods this summer.....
 

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Often wondered about the feasibility of desalination plants.. My goodness, there is a lot of ocean out there.. and it's getting even deeper with the melting of the polar ice.. How about dragging a huge Ice burg and plopping it down right in the middle of the central valley?
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
They are telling us that we are next to get the rain that Texas/Oklahoma is currently getting. I sure hope they are right-except if we get torrential rains we will then have to cope with flooding,mudslides and landslides. We have a huge pond next door to us-more like a tiny lake really-and it is pretty much dried up. All the vegetation is there but when you see the herons walking on it and only about an inch of their feet is covered,you know there`s not much water there. We are on a well,so we are not experiencing mandatory water rationing but are being as careful as possible. We have no landscaping whatsoever so don`t have to worry about any outside watering. My daughter and SIL,who live in town and are on city water,have a large (newer) lawn (they put it in the last year we had normal rainfall) and a swimming pool. I am afraid they are going to choke when they see some of their summer water bills.
Click to expand...

If you are next, this is what you can look forward to!!! It has been raining every other day since the storm!! We are now in a flood stage!!
Good luck..
.
 
QuickSilver said:
Often wondered about the feasibility of desalination plants.. My goodness, there is a lot of ocean out there.. and it's getting even deeper with the melting of the polar ice.. How about dragging a huge Ice burg and plopping it down right in the middle of the central valley?
Click to expand...

I'm sure a good answer to this good question is available and well documented discussing the current cost of desalinated water and anticipated improvements in the technology. I just don't have the link. Maybe one of our California member could track that down.
 
Josiah said:
Maybe instead of building the Keystone pipeline, we could build an aqueduct from Canada to California?
Click to expand...

Another long term solution for the desert SW would be to build a big pipeline from the Mississippi River....somewhere along the Mississippi/Arkansas border...to the Southern/Central California and Arizona area. There is enough water that flows down that river, even in the "dry" spells, in one day, to supply the needs of the SW for months. It would be a major, and very expensive solution, but then, how much would it cost the nation if California and Arizona dry up and displace 10's of millions of people.

There was a report, a few weeks ago, about a new desalination plant opening in San Diego. It will cost a billion dollars, and will serve the needs of 300,000 people. At that rate, they would need over 100 such plants....and that probably doesn't allow much for all the huge farming operations.

The reality is...there is very little that can be done in time to alleviate this drought....only a substantial amount of rain and snowfall within the next couple of years is going to stave off really serious problems. Lake Mead has dropped to record low levels, and if there isn't some serious snowfall in the Colorado Rockies in the next two Winters, Las Vegas, and much of lower California may even face Problems with electrical power losses from Hoover dam.

There are climatologists who say that fresh Water will become the "New Gold" in coming years. With these increasingly shifting weather patterns...all over the globe...they may very well be Right. This year, Texas and Oklahoma are being inundated...and my poor garden is way too soggy wet to even think about planting...but these conditions could change almost overnight.
 
I've mentioned on this board that the drought here in California has me depressed. I'm not kidding, literally depressed. I also see many around me not trying to conserve water. We don't have foot pedal sinks at work and people turn the water on full blast stand there talk, let the water run while washing their hand. I know we need to wash our hands but if we had, and people used the foot pedal controls properly, it could save a lot.

I try to use as little water as possible.

There is also the idea of using grey water. Some people have those tanks installed and then water the yard with that. I have just a couple of plants on my patio but I use the cats old water or water from my stainless steel bottle if I didn't drink it all to water them.

I think were at totally f***ed in this state. If my step father wasn't here, I'd probably move.
 
Josiah said:
I'm sure a good answer to this good question is available and well documented discussing the current cost of desalinated water and anticipated improvements in the technology. I just don't have the link. Maybe one of our California member could track that down.
Click to expand...
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...salination-plant/story-fni6uo1m-1226793958319
We have this one and despite it NOT being used our water bills have more than doubled over the last two years, so be wary if your goverment wants to build a desalinated plant.We save water by mainly doing our washing outside on the verandah using a twin tub washer,using rain water ,,however our state goverment is talking about charging us for the water we catch off OUR roofs and store in tanks we purchased ..
 
I love California and feel for everyone that is having to deal with this, I can certainly see that it would depress one. I think we are in the first stages of having to deal with the consequences of climate change, it will and has effected us all.
 
Kadee46 said:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...salination-plant/story-fni6uo1m-1226793958319
We have this one and despite it NOT being used our water bills have more than doubled over the last two years, so be wary if your goverment wants to build a desalinated plant.We save water by mainly doing our washing outside on the verandah using a twin tub washer,using rain water ,,however our state goverment is talking about charging us for the water we catch off OUR roofs and store in tanks we purchased ..
Click to expand...

Thank you Kadee. Even though the link suggested failure, it still demonstrated that desalination is possible for domestic (as opposed to agricultural) water needs and sure it's going to cost a lot more, but that's to be expected.
 
For the last several years , the water in Lake Mead, which is the reservoir for Hoover Dam, has been slowly going down, inch by inch, because of the severe drought. Not only does Lake Mead provide water for a large area surrounding the dam; but Hoover Dam also supplies hydro-electric power for several nearby states.

On Friday, there was an earthquake that struck Nevada, around 80 miles north of Las Vegas and also about the same distance from Hoover Dam.
Since the quake was in the mountains, it didn't cause any damages where people lived, although it was felt in Las Vegas.
As I mentioned, Lake Mead loses water gradually, somewhere around an inch or less each day. However, the day after the earthquake, it had lost almost TWO FEET in just a matter of hours. And when I looked at the water chart today, it shows that the water has now dropped over six more feet; bringing the total water loss in just a couple of days to almost ten feet.
This is a HUGE lake, and ten feet is a lot of water that is just disappearing somewhere.

Has anyone that lives in that area heard anything about this, where the water has gone, and how they will stop it ?
If it keeps up like this, the lake will eventually be too low to provide either water or power to the people in several states around the dam.

http://lakemead.water-data.com
 

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