Don’t count on vegetable and fruit prices to be dropping in the next few years. I’m sure all the Hollywood elite will be letting their acres of grass go dormant.
For First Time In History, California Governor Orders Mandatory Water Cuts Amid “Unprecedented, Dangerous Situation”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/01/2015 14:32 -0400
Amid the “cruelest winter ever,” with the lowest snowpack on record, and with 98.11% of the state currently in drouight conditions, California Governor Jerry Brown orders mandatory water cuts in California for the first time in history…
Lowest snowpack on record…
98.11% Drought…
And finally some action…
Gov. Jerry Brown orders mandatory water cuts in California after snowpack shrinks to record low http://wsj.com
As ABC reports,
California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced a set of mandatory water conservation measures today, as the state continues to struggle with a prolonged drought that has lasted for more than four years.
“Today we are standing on dry grass where there should be five feet of snow,” Brown said in a statement after visiting a manual snow survey in the Sierra Nevadas. “This historic drought demands unprecedented action.”
For the first time in the state’s history, the governor has directed the State Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory water reductions across California, in an effort to reduce water usage by 25 percent. The measures include replacing 50 million square feet of lawns throughout the state with drought-tolerant landscaping, banning the watering of grass on public street medians, requiring agricultural water users to report their water use to state regulators, and requiring large landscapes such as campuses, golf courses and cemeteries to make significant cuts in water use.
The governor’s announcement comes just a few weeks after NASA’s top water scientist, Jay Famiglietti, declared in a Los Angeles Times op-ed that California only had a year’s-worth of water supply left in its reservoirs.
The last four years have been the driest in California’s recorded history. As of March 24, more than 98 percent of California is suffering from abnormally dry conditions, with 41.1 percent in an exceptional drought, according the U.S. Drought Monitor, which estimates that more than 37 million Californians have been affected by the drought. The state’s snowpack, which is largely responsible for feeding the state’s reservoirs, has been reduced to 8 percent of its historical average, and in some areas in the Central Valley the land is sinking a foot a year because of over-pumping of groundwater for agriculture.
…
“We are in an unprecedented, very serious situation,” the governor said in his January statement. “At some point, we have to learn to live with nature, we have to get on nature’s side and not abuse the resources that we have.”
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And as we noted previously, while all eyes are focused on dry river beds and fields of dust, the maountainous ski resort areas are seing their economies devastated. As Bloomberg reports,
Last year Vail reported a 28 percent drop in skier visits at its California resorts, and the company warned investors that its financial results would be worse than anticipated.
Those numbers reflect what could be a larger contraction of Tahoe’s ski industry. Seasonal and part-time hiring has slid 27 percent over the last three years, according Patrick Tierney, a professor of recreation, parks, and tourism at San Francisco State University, and spending on ski-related services has decreased from $717 million a year to $428 million. An older analysis by the San Francisco Reserve Bank showed that the value of resort-area homes in places like Tahoe can depend heavily on climate; even a 2-degree increase could cut home values by more than 50 percent.
* * *
The drought is getting worse… not better.
Evermore government controls.
How about some Free Market measures:
1. Charge market rates for water, including to major growers and industrial concerns. I don’t give a damn if your effing water contract DID promise you water for $10 an acre-ft or whatever ridiculously under-market number BuRec promised you. These contracts are illegal and should be voided. You shouldn’t be getting subsidized water to grow water hungry crops in one of the more arid places in the world.
2. Stop paying other farmers in water rich states like MS and LA to NOT GROW the wet-climate crops that could be, and once were, grown profitably here but are now be grown with subsidized water in CA, like rice, to name but one example.
3. Too dry to graze your cattle on the land you get practically for free from the BML, and grow alfalfa and other low value crops with your socialized BuRec water? Go back to Ohio, or Indiana, or other central and Mid-Atlantic states where vast tracts of fine, fertile land lie fallow. You can graze your animals on a fraction the acreage it takes out west.
4. NO NO NO we are absolutely completely NOT going to build a pipeline from the Mississippi River for you because it is so costly and will require so much energy to pipe water 2000 miles and over mountains that A. You will never be able to come near paying for it because the crops you grow are worth 1000th, if even, what it would cost per acre to bring this water to you and B) the Misssissippi Valley states need the water, have the first claim on it, and would suffer a water deficit of their own.
5. When in doubt, move the fuck out.
I love this part of Bozo Brown’s commentary: “Today we are standing on dry grass where there should be five feet of snow”
Should be? What the fuck? Should be? Those arrogant pricks think they should be able to command the damn weather. Maybe “normally be” or “there historically would be” – but “should be”.
That shows how the fuckers naturally do things – they automatically phrase things so as to avoid any responsibility for their actions. Hey, the fact that we let agriculture run wild with water use, that is not our fault. By God, there “should be” water here right now!
Another little tidbit – cities and all their sundry activities use 20% of the states water.
How in the hell are they going to cut 25% of usage without attacking agricultural water use? And the only initiative re agriculture is to make them report their use. What a fucking joke.
I would be surprised if they can cut even 5% with the plans laid out.
Fucking idiots.
The obvious solution is to allow the developers to build hundreds of thousands of more houses in the de facto desert areas of California, without bothering to build the infrastructure, or assess the available resources, needed to support those houses.
Pumping more toxic fracking crap into previously usable aquifers is probably a good idea, too.
Because this plan has worked out so well to date.
I really can’t decide is the State legislators in California are stupid, corrupt, incompetent, or insane. I am beginning to suspect it’s a 4-way tie.
Next up: no-flow toilets.
Get used to it.
The long term prognosis is not good. Not if the findings of geologists and geoscientists, along with paleo-botanists and archeologists, in conjunction with atmospheric meteorologist research has any bearing.
Their findings all point to a long term repeating weather cycle that has a short 80 to 150 year “wet” period, interspersed with “dry” periods (droughts) that may continue for up to 350 years or more. It is surmised by the naturally preserved record that the latest “wet” period is coming to an end.
So, how long do you think the already much abused southern California aquafer will supply drinking water to the 10’s of millions persons that are there now, not counting the influx of immigrants to come? At least dying of thirst is much quicker than starvation.
Don’t ask for Canadian water. Plus, I don’t think Oregon or Washington folks would enjoy seeing mass migration. Learn to use water, wisely.
OutLookingIn – the problem is not the population. Thee is plentiful water for that, it seems. As mentioned above, only 20% of CA’s water is used by the cities/its population. The rest is used to grow agricultural products, many of which suck up enormous quantities of water (almonds, for instance). Growing fruit trees in a desert is always a good idea, dontcha know.
So, if CA stops its ridiculous use of water to grow trees and plants ill-suited to the area, they likely could adjust.
I’m wondering if there will be watering restrictions on lawns. And how that will impact Mexican landscapers.
Thinking to myself…a 3rd water barrel, here in Ohio, might make me some export dollars. (Minimal asbestos, consider the dregs to be my Bock water.)
The libtards in Cali should file a civil action suit against reality. It’s not fair that reality doesn’t provide all the water they need because, well, they NEED it!
As a side note, it’s kind of funny to me that I was reading about all the doom scenarios that have been heralded over the years, like the Yellowstone supervolcano blowing up, the new Madrid fault, the big EQ in Cali, and many others. But the real doom just silently crept up and surprised everyone.
I sell alfalfa hay into central Cali, from northern Cali and Southern Ore. and have for about 40 years, so I have a fair idea of part of the situation down there.
Alfalfa is one of the largest users of water by crop in Cali, and one of the least valuable. ….and there is a glut of it! And there is a glut of corn and wheat on the market too.
Cali is pumping out their aquifer with little to no restraint, to water more corn, alfalfa and wheat?? But a committee of Californians are on it, with results expected in 27 years or there about.
Of all the comments and suggestions made, I see none that are free market based; just more big government controlling the most valuable resource.
The cost of a pipeline from the Mississippi River too expensive? Let the farmers who grow the food ( and we grow a lot!) decide if they want to pay the cost for it or not.
If they do, let the price of food rise to true market costs and see whether the rest of the country wants to pay it or compete against it.
Or how about from the Columbia River? It’s got 15 times the flow rate of the Colorado and it’s closer than the Mississippi.
Locals in these areas lay claim to this water? How about selling it? If the price is right, I bet you would; you’ve got plenty.
How about desalination? It’s not cost competitive during rainy periods. How about now? Maybe it would be if government wasn’t involved.
If a guy wants to tow iceburgs down from the Arctic (that was a serious consideration a couple of droughts back) let him try.
It’s the bought and paid for gov’t bureaucrats that create the problems in the first place. They’ve skewed the market towards agriculture by their Central Planning mindset. Now they have a stranglehold on any solutions and will most likely enrich themselves and/or their cronies in their exercise of that control.
Governor Brown and our legislature are no better than banksters. Off with their heads alongside Bernanke, Yellen, Dimon and all the others.
@ AC. CA legislators are STUPID & CORRUPT. There is enough water in CA IF you plan for the droughts. This is the 2nd major drought I have lived through and absolutely NOTHING has been done to increase the water storage capacity etc. The last major drought was the winter of 76-77 I believe. So in almost 40 years NOTHING has been done. We can get about three years worth of water in six weeks in a wet winter, but most of that runs out to the ocean once the reservoirs are full. Why do I still live here? Third generation native CA so its hard to leave.
Constman54, some asshole claimed whites were being ethnic cleansed out of Cali. It has escaped the media but what’s your take on that?
Billy , looks like the golden horde will be coming your way.I’m sure they heard about all the water in Kentucky . Just think having a million Mexicans as neighbors. Oh the joy.Could be worse. Just think of having a million blacks as neighbors.
@ AC
You jest about no flow toilets, but they can’t be much worse than the low flow toilets they foisted on us a while back.
I can’t flush even a small turd without plunging.
When I built my house back in 2001, I was considering a composting toilet until I learned that the local building code required a flush toilet. Even if they would have considered a variance on the toilet, and even though I had a graywater system for all other water disposal, the gov’t bureaucrats still would require me to install a septic system even though it would never see a single drop of water! Assholes!!
Dirtscratcher – I agree free market based is the solution. I doubt that the Mississippi is an option, but the Columbia is the mightiest river in the US, and could supply the water if there is a will to get it to CA. It would probably require a pipe – a pipe the size you have never seen before. The cost of which I could not even begin to estimate, but hundreds of billions might be my starting point as a guess.
A twenty four foot pipe, 60 miles long for NYC is taking 50 YEARS to build (largely underground), and is not nearly big enough for the entire city. So you can only imagine the cost of a pipeline from Portland to LA, for instance – 1000 miles – of a much larger diameter.
Best to just stop subsidizing water, and let the chips fall where they may. Charge market rates for the current available water, and see what happens.
llpoh—A twenty four foot pipe, 60 miles long for NYC that takes 50 YEARS to build has to be a government project. Only an entity using someone else’s money could be that incompetent. I would submit that a private entity that’s putting it’s own money at risk would study the shit outta that project and would proceed diligently if it penciled out.
I’ve daydreamed on this Mississippi pipe line a time or two. A few years back, there was a huge flood in North/South Dakota along the Missouri River ( a main tributary of Ol’ Miss). Being about eight or nine hundred feet above So Cal, a siphon tube such as that which is part of the Los Angeles aqueduct system, could transport water from there without pumping. It’s about a thousand miles or so; sounds formidable and cost prohibitive until you think about the Alaska pipeline. But again, that was done by private enterprise.
llpoh–I do agree with you though: Stop subsidizing and let the chips fall and see what happens. Only then will we see whether a pipeline or any other solution is feasible.
llpoh says:
Dirtscratcher – I agree free market based is the solution. I doubt that the Mississippi is an option, but the Columbia is the mightiest river in the US, and could supply the water if there is a will to get it to CA. It would probably require a pipe – a pipe the size you have never seen before. The cost of which I could not even begin to estimate, but hundreds of billions might be my starting point as a guess.
A twenty four foot pipe, 60 miles long for NYC is taking 50 YEARS to build (largely underground), and is not nearly big enough for the entire city. So you can only imagine the cost of a pipeline from Portland to LA, for instance – 1000 miles – of a much larger diameter.
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Llpoh, if you understand the geography, a pipeline from the Columbia River to California is all but impossible, unless it were undersea.
Dirtscratcher – I seriously doubt that a siphon would work. I am not a physicist or civil engineer, but I do have some understanding of these things.
One of the issues will be friction generated over 1000 miles. It will be enormous, and it serves to offset the gravitational pull of the siphon. too much friction = no siphon. Additionally, changes in atmospheric pressure will have an effect – ie a high prssure zone at one end and a low pressure zone at the other will affect the siphon.
But most critically:
I believe there is a limit to the height water can be siphoned. You propose siphoning water over the Rockies. Ummm, I don’t think that is possible:
“For water at standard atmospheric pressure, the maximum siphon height is approximately 10 m (32 feet)”
Basically, what happens is that you are pulling on the water – and the force required to pull water up 32 feet is very significant. At that height, the water begins to bubble, as I understand it, and the siphon is lost. For instance, a suction pump, which works on the same basic principle as a siphon, has as a maximum height of pull only 32 feet. So unless your pipe can be kept form climbing no more than 32 feet at any point the siphon will not work.
Further, the Alaskan pipeline is 48″ – 4 feet. We are talking about a pipeline much, much,MUCH bigger than that.
What else you got? That one will not work.
Z – I sorta said that by saying my estimates for the cost started at 100s of billions of dollars. It is not an option.
llpoh says:
But most critically:
I believe there is a limit to the height water can be siphoned. You propose siphoning water over the Rockies. Ummm, I don’t think that is possible:
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The height limit is 32 feet for a siphon. (2.31 feet per psi). This is based on sea level atmospheric pressure.
llpoh says:
Z – I sorta said that by saying my estimates for the cost started at 100s of billions of dollars. It is not an option.
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Technical issues aside, it is also politically impossible. The Columbia River is the source for much agricultural irrigation. The Pacific NW also experiences droughts and Portland Oregon is a major port. As it is during low water years there is very little clearance for ships to reach Portland without running aground (it has happened).
Z – I said that too!
I would love to sell those fuckers some water from the Columbia River. California can build the pipeline or canal, then the power plants for the pumping stations. $7500 an acre foot. Profits to be split between Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I pay approx $44/month for 500cuft in Oregon or about $3800/acre foot. This is what you idiots get for flushing your water down the drain for a stupid smelt or whatever critter the hippies think is endangered. Unfortunately the hippies also want to flush all the Columbia water as well then demo the dams so the west coast can brownout….pure insanity.
Having recently driven through the CA central valley – ALL of it – I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy. It is simply more of the California mindset of doing something that is technically possible at one snapshot in time and then treating it as a birthright, natural law and maybe even commandment of God from that day onward. Irrigated alfalfa and rice in a drought is mind bogglingly stupid. Cut the supports and let them figure it out. I don’t see any technical fix that’s feasible within the necessary timeframe (and am dubious even on a 30-50 year timeframe), and I don’t expect political fixes to actually work out. I would not be surprised to see a surprisingly rapid exodus from large parts of California in just 1-2 years. You would think that the descendants of dust bowl farmers would have learned something.
Z – the Columbia pumps enough water – it flows at 7,500 cube meters per second.
Let that sink in for a minute, and get back to me. That is over 225 trillion cubic meters per year. You might have to time when the water can be taken – during snow run-off, etc., but there is plenty of water. Ecological issues aside, of course.
P – we descendants learned to move to Australia! 🙂
Having now done the calcs, it would take 20% f the Columbia flow to replace all of CA’s water. That is more substantial than I thought. The Columbia maybe could replace a quarter, perhaps half, of CA’s water without doing too much damage to the environment.
llpoh says:
P – we descendants learned to move to Australia! 🙂
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My understanding is that Australia has severe water problems itself.
PS. The average IQ in Australia is in the 60’s. Sup with that?
poh says:
Z – the Columbia pumps enough water – it flows at 7,500 cube meters per second.
Let that sink in for a minute, and get back to me. That is over 225 trillion cubic meters per year. You might have to time when the water can be taken – during snow run-off, etc., but there is plenty of water. Ecological issues aside, of course.
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To be sure, in the winter and especially during flood years, California could have all the water it wants. Now add a few more hundred billion to build the reservoir big enough to hold it all.
Zara’s history lesson for the day. Ancient Persia grew to become a great empire partly by building underground aqueducts, called Qanats, to transfer water from the Alborz mountains in the north to the dry plains in the central parts of the country. One of them supplied water to Persepolis. Some of them are still in use to this day.
Australian Aboriginals have the lowest IQs tested anywhere in the world. Otherwise, overall, they are a smart bunch, given the pretty high number of Asians in the country.
Australia is the world’s driest continent, and certainly has some water issues due to the numbers of folks in the south, especially.
However, the north has an abundance of water (and boy, howdy, during certain months do they ever have an abundance).
By and large, Australia is pretty good at catching water behind dams and in reservoirs. It does however do some of the same stupid things CA does – it grows crops not suited to the areas, and drains too much water from its one major river (hardly more than what Oregon would call a creek) – the Murray.
llpoh says:
By and large, Australia is pretty good at catching water behind dams and in reservoirs. It does however do some of the same stupid things CA does – it grows crops not suited to the areas, and drains too much water from its one major river (hardly more than what Oregon would call a creek) – the Murray.
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The Brazos River is about five miles from my house. In Oregon it would barely qualify as a river.
“One of the issues will be friction generated over 1000 miles. It will be enormous, and it serves to offset the gravitational pull of the siphon. too much friction = no siphon. Additionally, changes in atmospheric pressure will have an effect – ie a high prssure zone at one end and a low pressure zone at the other will affect the siphon.
I believe there is a limit to the height water can be siphoned. You propose siphoning water over the Rockies. Ummm, I don’t think that is possible:
“For water at standard atmospheric pressure, the maximum siphon height is approximately 10 m (32 feet)”—-llpoh
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Dang!! I had visions of opening a water park at the outlet of said pipe. Geez, llpoh; you’re such a buzz kill.
Dirtscratcher – a 12,000 foot drop water ride would be quite an attraction! You had me laughing out loud.
The tube would have to be seriously wide, tho, if my fat ass was going to make it through.
Damn, that was funny. Thanks DS, you made my day.
Dirtscratcher says: I believe there is a limit to the height water can be siphoned. You propose siphoning water over the Rockies. Ummm, I don’t think that is possible:
I think we already pump water over the Tehachapi Mountains and check out the spillway right off the 5 north of Sylmar.
EC
Just curious, how much does the average monthly water bill run in your neighborhood?
Hey, you dumb Spic – you know the difference between “siphoning” and “pumping”?
Let me ‘splain it to you – when you Mexikins go out and actually pay for gas, you pump it!
But when you steal it, as is far more likely, you siphon it.
One requires a motor, and one does not.
Mexican pumping:
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Mexican siphoning:
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Damn, I thought I would never find a pic of a Mexican pumping/buying gas. That is rare as an Ethiopian chicken. Lots of photos out there of them siphoning, tho.
Bea Lever says: EC Just curious, how much does the average monthly water bill run in your neighborhood?
$50 but then again, I covered over the backyard with pavers and planted drought tolerant bushes out front with only a small patch of junk grass – probably St Augustine – for a lawn. My dumb-ass neighbors still irrigate their lawns at night. I wrecked the sprinkling system and only use a water hose to water the plants and trees.
EC out watering his lawn:
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Here I thought the Indians were against tapping the Columbia River. You’d sell your peeps out for a dime, frijo.
Not my river – my peeps are Okie Indians.
EL Coyote says:
Bea Lever says: EC Just curious, how much does the average monthly water bill run in your neighborhood?
$50 but then again, I covered over the backyard with pavers and planted drought tolerant bushes out front with only a small patch of junk grass – probably St Augustine – for a lawn. My dumb-ass neighbors still irrigate their lawns at night. I wrecked the sprinkling system and only use a water hose to water the plants and trees.
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St. Augustine grass is prevalent here. It turns brown in the winter when it is cold and rainy and green in the summer when it is hot and dry (except for the thunderstorms).
Z – exactly, it is called by the Nahuatl – zacate whereas good grass deserves the Spanish term – pasto.
LLPOH, that’s me bro!
Actually, agriculture is an excellent use of water, rumor is, that’s where food comes from. I like food. So do all my friends. If california were serious, they would stop dumping all their water in the ocean. Totally manmade crisis.
Yes, El Coyote, CA already does pipe water over the Tepahachi Mountains, at a gigantic cost in energy. In fact, the the energy used to lift the water over this mountain range cancels out the energy benefit of the dams built to produce energy to pay the cost of the dams. It doesn’t pay their costs because it is used to lift the the water over 3,000 feet.
Imagine what it would cost to lift it over the Rockies and ship it 2000 miles. Additionally, it would put the Mississippi Valley states, or Great Lakes states, in water deficit.
That’s just great, isn’t it? We of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states have had to subsidize the destruction and depopulation of our towns, to the arid West, for the past 80 years, as our taxes our siphoned to build hundreds of federal dams out west. We have sacrificed regions with fertile land, ample fresh water, and excellent water tranportation to enable 50 m people to live in areas that do not support human habitation. Now we’ll finish the destruction of our eastern and central cities, and the desolation of vast tracts of the finest farmland in the world, to keep on enabling the Eloi of CA, AZ, and NV to pretend you can live on the desert like it’s Hawaii.
I haven’t read the article or comments yet but why did they wait until the reservoirs were empty to implement rationing? Where were all the liberal, progressive Kali tree huggers and environmentalist harpys for the last few years. Those fuckers could ruin lives and kill industries to protect a fucking snail, minnow or a flower but when it comes to protecting the one thing all of those things and all other life requires, they’ve been oddly quiet an ineffective.
One things for sure, before long there won’t be anymore Kalifornians driving up tax rates around here. Can’t say I’ll miss that.
If I were living down there I’d become a renter ASAP! Property values are about to tank. Fresh fruit and veggie prices are going to get ugly for all of us.
Why does (imported) water have to go OVER the Rockies?? Does Highway I-80 go OVER the top of the mountains …. or does it snake through the valley’s at basically ground level? Just askin’ ….
Anybody notice how high beef prices are? Bought a pound of high quality ground beef at Trader Joe’s this week ….. eight fucking dollars.
Now fruits and veggies are going to get pricier … maybe a LOT pricier.
Krist … we spent $181 at TJ on Saturday …. just two of us (although I do make some stuff for mom and dad) …. and we didn’t get THAT much!!
How the fuck people live on $10 – $15 dollar an hour jobs is a mystery to me.
I80 excedes 8600 feet. That is a pretty high valley, Stuck. You got to go over the Rockies. Not the peaks, but they are high even in the “valleys”.
Llpoh
Oh, thanks. I didn’t realize that. 8,600 feet?? Wow.