California only has about one year’s supply of water left

[jimmy olsen]

The closest thing to a permanent solution is to build modern desalinazation plants in large numbers. However, even with Manhattan/Apollo project level resources behind such an effort, it would be a few years before they went on line.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/california-running-out-of-water-nasa-scientist-says-2015-03-14

California running out of water, NASA scientist says

By Joseph Adinolfi

Published: Mar 14, 2015 4:12 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — California only has about one year's supply of water left in its reservoirs, said Jay Famiglietti.

The senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, wrote that the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, in commentary published in the Los Angeles Times Thursday.

Citing NASA data, Famiglietti said that water storage has been declining steadily since 2002, the year that NASA began monitoring the state's water supply with satellites. He noted that groundwater supplies have been shrinking since the 20th century.

About half of the state's land area is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, according to the U.S. drought monitor, as a vicious drought enters its third year.

Famiglietti proposed four measures that, if implemented quickly, might save California from drying up entirely.

The first step: "Mandatory water rationing should be authorized across all of the state's water sectors, from domestic and municipal through agriculture and industrial."

The second: Speeding up implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. The law requires forming numerous, regional groundwater sustainability agencies by 2017. The new agencies will be tasked with devising a plan to sustainably manage water supplies, which they will need to submit by 2022 — with the goal of achieving sustainability by 2042.

"At that pace, it will be nearly 30 years before we even know what works. By then, there may be no groundwater left to sustain," Famiglietti writes.

Third: The state must create a "task force of thought leaders" who will brainstorm long-term water-management strategies.

Famiglietti said the public needs to become more involved with setting priorities for water usage. "Water is our most important, commonly owned resource, but the public remains detached from discussions and decisions," Famiglietti writes.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation told central-valley farmers in February that the U.S. federal government wouldn't delivery any water to them in 2015.

[sbr]

[KRonn]

I'm telling ya, there should have been a project setup to take the huge amounts of snow being removed from streets and other areas in the Northeast and put into massive "snow farms" and instead put it onto cargo ships and trains to move to California.     

[Valmy]

I am glad California is arriving at crisis levels first so we can copy whatever solution they find in a couple years.

[The Larch]

Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown.

Cutting water use by agriculture should work wonders, either through increased efficiency, higher prices or reduction of its most water intensive crops. It is as a sector by far the largest user of water everywhere.

[Ed Anger]

i suggest fencing off the state and letting nature take its course.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I am glad California is arriving at crisis levels first so we can copy whatever solution they find in a couple years.

Copy California???  Good God.  What's next?  New York???

E:  Wait.  Rick Perry is gone.  Might take a while to get his bros out of every government position he could provide though.

[garbon]

I am glad California is arriving at crisis levels first so we can copy whatever solution they find in a couple years.

Copy California???  Good God.  What's next?  New York???

E:  Wait.  Rick Perry is gone.

Well that is how things go in most of the US, whether they want to admit it or not.

[Eddie Teach]

But sadly, there's always another Rick Perry just around the corner.

[PDH]

I'm in CA right now.  The coastal mountains in the central part have had far more water this year than last, however the High Sierra is still really bad.

Mom will be all right, the canyons here in Big Sur captured enough rainfall so that they will run their streams all Summer. 

[Caliga]

There is a desalinization plant in Santa Barbara although they only run it when they need to.  I was there once when it was running and it makes the whole neighborhood around it smell really bad.

[derspiess]

There is a desalinization plant in Santa Barbara although they only run it when they need to.  I was there once when it was running and it makes the whole neighborhood around it smell really bad.

That's dumb-- They could have enough salt to last forever.

[lustindarkness]

It won't be a problem after May 29th. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2126355/

[Caliga]

That's dumb-- They could have enough salt to last forever.

Apparently it's just too expensive to run it all the time.

[jimmy olsen]

That's dumb-- They could have enough salt to last forever.

Apparently it's just too expensive to run it all the time.

I may have posted it here, I can't remember,  but the latest generation of plants are like an order of magnitude cheaper to run.