Editorial: California drier than it has to be
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the March 7, 2014, Orange County Register.
Despite the recent heavy rain, California’s water situation remains dire. Data from the U.S. Drought Monitor, a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows that 100 percent of California is “abnormally dry.”
But the state still seems bent on pushing ahead with water policies that appear to make the drought artificially worse, from the New Deal-style public-works Bay Delta Conservation Plan boondoggle that seeks to upend the Sacramento Delta for dubious water supplies and the benefit of a bait fish, the Delta smelt, to projects closer to home.
Typical Southern California whine – where should we steal our water next – the North or have we still not worn out our welcome in the desert communities?
20 million people will be heard Coop, it’s the law of numbers. Besides you wouldn’t want them all moving north would you? ;)
It is part of the human condition to want to modify our environment. But that does not make it right. The growth of the LA area is likely a given, but a condition of this growth should be that they live within the resources given them by nature. The Cadiz project will not replenish the basin, ground water levels will drop, and the powers that be will find ways to justify continuing.
The state law that requires water meters by 2025 will help, but unless made to do it earlier, most will wait until 2024 to begin the installations.
STPUD is just one example of this. Meters are being installed slowly on new construction, remodels etc, but not fast enough on existing homes.
Money drives everything, and the only way to make people conserve anything is to make it financially painful not to.
The new reality is that the world (the US in particular) has consumed itself into a corner in so many ways. Now, the over inflated standard of living we built for ourselves post WW2 is adjusting itself downward as the resources and support for the things we have come to take for granted becomes ever so much more expensive, even impossible. We should embrace these changes instead of fighting them. We could start by eliminating overuse of water in Southern California deserts.
Barring the successful development of a virtually unlimited energy source like cold fusion etc, the alternatives will be very ugly and will manifest themselves quicker, I fear, than anyone believes possible.
Thanks Observer; I drive the length of the Owens Valley about 30 times a year and I spend every trip thinking dark thoughts about Los Angles Department of Water and Power and what they’ve done, and continue to do, to steal and destroy the resources and residents of that beautiful region.
You won’t find the evidence of overpopulation in places like L.A. where it thrives, but rather in the places that are being destroyed to keep it spreading.
well dan, i see again the ‘law’ or some other dogma being spouted , typical of religion, and in this case, ignoring the fact that the problem is overpopulation, one of several consequences of religion…
California has 840 miles of Coastline and it is a big ocean out there… just salt water. Wave pressure reverse osmosis desalination at about 3/10ths of a cent per gallon anyone?