Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | FromtheFlats - 8/23/2014 17:17
Or we could stop putting population centers in the freaking desert. No civilization has ever done this and prospered in any way. Yet we do it on purpose and think its weird when there is a water shortage issue.
Much of California isn't a desert. The Central Valley used to be largely a wetland in the spring/summer when the rivers that run into it (tributaries of the Sacramento/San Joaquin River systems) ran full with the 100+ inches of snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada's, conveniently located right above the valley. With a Mediterranean climate in which you can grow just about anything, fertile soils, and perfect sources for gravity irrigation, there is no reason it shouldn't be such a great agricultural area. There is still, even in this unprecedented drought, enough water. Problem is we have put to many conditions (mostly environmental) on when reservoirs can be filled, minimum bypass flows in the rivers, when pumping can occur, etc. My own opinion is that we haven't developed things enough. If we had more reservoirs and more conveyance works, we'd have enough water in storage and the means to move it around that we could ride out a couple dry years.
Now Los Angeles and San Diego are in a desert, can't deny that. So is Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas and plenty of other cities. People have to live somewhere. Do you want them in your neighborhood? Me neither. |
California drought pictures
