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More wrathful grapes on the way, then?

Now what we need is, say, Iran to get uppity, or the gas pipeline to Yerp to mysteriously break...

I'd better give my imagination a break before I get even more good ideas.

A drop in the bucket, so to speak. The obscenity that is federal water policy isn't going to stop any time soon.

The water shortages are so severe most cities will have to start mandatory ration programs by summertime, and residents will be asked to reduce their usage by 20 percent, Snow said.

“You’ve got to think about water as a precious resource,” he said. “It may seem a stretch to conserve 20 percent of your water, but that’s nothing in comparison to the consequences of the drought and job loss in agriculture.”

What a crock. Anybody with a basic education has heard about supply and demand. The government supplies practically free water to farmers in the desert - what the smurf did they expect would happen? Why would anyone know how to conserve something that the taxpayers kindly ship them in limitless quantities?

ANOTHER BAILOUT! WE NEED ANOTHER BAILOUT!

smurf that, I need another thread...

Shouldn't they be rationing the water to Las Vegas instead -- they waste it like there is no tomorrow.  Let them dry up into the desert they are.  California farms are a lot more important than a bunch of behemoth sized hotels in the middle of the smurfing desert trying to pretend their not in the desert.

-mark

avkills wrote:

Shouldn't they be rationing the water to Las Vegas instead -- they waste it like there is no tomorrow.  Let them dry up into the desert they are.  California farms are a lot more important than a bunch of behemoth sized hotels in the middle of the smurfing desert trying to pretend their not in the desert.

-mark

If I heard the news correctly - people are moving out of Las Vegas by the droves.
That city is probably already dropping its water usage considerably on that fact alone.

I believe they get most of their water from Colorado. I imagine some CA farmers may get there water from Colorado, but I think most get it from the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River.

If it was Desert, then why would it have Gopherus agassizii ??

resedit wrote:

avkills wrote:

Shouldn't they be rationing the water to Las Vegas instead -- they waste it like there is no tomorrow.  Let them dry up into the desert they are.  California farms are a lot more important than a bunch of behemoth sized hotels in the middle of the smurfing desert trying to pretend their not in the desert.

-mark

If I heard the news correctly - people are moving out of Las Vegas by the droves.
That city is probably already dropping its water usage considerably on that fact alone.

I believe they get most of their water from Colorado. I imagine some CA farmers may get there water from Colorado, but I think most get it from the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River.

And yes, it doesn't matter what you think of the evil fat cigar-smoking casino owners in their sin city vs. the salt of the earth farmers - if the Valley's reservoirs are running dry, the reservoirs are running dry. It's not like the federal government has a giant tank of water that they pipe to everyone in the country and they can just fill up the Shasta Reservoir out of Lake Mead.

We're suppose to recycle. They can actually fine us if they find recyclables in our trash.
Now - the recyclables often end up with the rest of the waste because their is too much supply and so it is cheaper to just dump it than recycle it.

We are also required to rinse out all our recyclables. I just finished a jelly jar. I wonder how much water is used in rinsing out recyclables, and I wonder how much water is wasted rinsing out recyclables that just end up at a land fill.

I like the idea of government giving credits for the installation of graywater devices.

resedit wrote:

We're suppose to recycle. They can actually fine us if they find recyclables in our trash.
Now - the recyclables often end up with the rest of the waste because their is too much supply and so it is cheaper to just dump it than recycle it.

We are also required to rinse out all our recyclables. I just finished a jelly jar. I wonder how much water is used in rinsing out recyclables, and I wonder how much water is wasted rinsing out recyclables that just end up at a land fill.

Frankly, compared to what happens when you put 132 inches of irrigation water a year on your fields, urban use is miniscule. Only when you look at the total consumption of a place like LA or San Diego does urban use have a significant impact.

Yes, I said 132 inches. Western desert irrigators put many times on their crops what mother nature puts on Kev's crops.
Planting alfalfa or avocados or cotton doesn't transform a desert into a paradise. It just puts crops in a desert. A desert is practically defined not by what life exists there or how much water is dumped down, but by the ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration. In order to grow Illinois-style cropland, you need to dump Amazon-level water on it because the soil doesn't hold it and the sun bakes it right back out.

Last edited by Tallgeese (2009-02-21 11:56 pm)

Desalination, anyone ? 

http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Governmen … salSum.htm

matt wrote:

I like the idea of government giving credits for the installation of graywater devices.

Some of the newer communities are being built with separate water supply for irrigation purposes, but most are not. They still have to treat that water though, last thing they want to do is end up with a bunch of sick pets and dead birds because the water used to water people's lawns was contaminated.

It doesn't need to meet the requirements for potable water though.

I need a graywater system myself. The old septic tank can't handle everything.