Some say the LA aqueduct saved Owens Valley from development. (I’m sure the old timers out there would have a different opinion)
The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
61–70 of 216 posts
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know NYC doesn't treat their water at all, but LA doesn't either? My city runs on surface water, so we have treatment and then pump to storage tanks. You would have to be out for quite a while to run the city out of water, though - the tanks are large.
Where did you get that idea about NYC water being untreated? NYC treats its water. Chlorine is added if and when needed. Testing stations exist to evaluate water quality all around the boroughs, etc. You can't have a city of millions of people and have the water be potable from the tap without testing and treatment
https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/10-facts-you-may-not-know-abou...
> New York City’s water (including drinking water) is unfiltered, making it the largest unfiltered water system in the country. Were New York to begin filtering its water, it would cost the city approximately 1 million dollars per day to operate the filtration plant.
They have hundreds of sampling stations to check daily.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/nyregion/nyc-tap-water-qu...
This causes some issues for observant Jews, because the water technically might not be kosher.
https://oukosher.org/blog/consumer-news/nyc-water/
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/nyregion/the-waters-fine-...
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#63For anyone interested in a deep dive, I recommend the book Vision or villainy: origins of the Owens Valley-Los Angeles water controversy.
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#64Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#65"Well There's Your Problem" on the collapse of the St Francis Dam, mentioned in Grady's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxLgM1vnuUA Also I love when they refer to it as the "_First_ California Water Wars" in a grim realization of the future of water scarcity in the West
There is no water scarcity in California, only misallocation. The vast majority of our water is heavily subsidized and used for agriculture, and a substantial amount of those crops are grown for export, yet agricultural exports makes up an insignificant part of California's economy. We could end all California water scarcity talk today, with no impact to food availability for Americans, by curtailing the internationa…
So why hasn’t that been done? Have some representatives and senators set limits on almond exports. Surely they wouldn’t be voted out in the next election given how farmers are outnumbered.
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#66The norcal/socal divide caused by the river is funny to me. I grew up in LA, then moved to the Bay Area for college. In LA we never really talked about where our water comes from. But we were always 'in a drought' and always taught to conserve water. My wife grew up in the Bay Area, and was told the same. But her family is from Sacramento. Up until about 15 years ago, everyone in Sacramento paid the same for water (b…
Owens valley, where LA "steals" water from, is on the eastern side of the Sierras. NorCal, including Sacramento, is on the western side of the Sierras. So unless they planned on pumping the water over/under the mountain range that surrounds it in every direction except for towards LA, that water was never available for any NorCal city to use.
LA also gets water from the state water project which does come from northern california: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Ca...
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you mean 32 Watt- hours / gallon?
Hard to say. The spec sheet calls out 4 Amps for the 12 Volt system or 32 Watts for a single gallon.
If it includes the time it takes to produce that gallon, there would be enough information to do the energy calculation.
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#68The norcal/socal divide caused by the river is funny to me. I grew up in LA, then moved to the Bay Area for college. In LA we never really talked about where our water comes from. But we were always 'in a drought' and always taught to conserve water. My wife grew up in the Bay Area, and was told the same. But her family is from Sacramento. Up until about 15 years ago, everyone in Sacramento paid the same for water (b…
Owens valley, where LA "steals" water from, is on the eastern side of the Sierras. NorCal, including Sacramento, is on the western side of the Sierras. So unless they planned on pumping the water over/under the mountain range that surrounds it in every direction except for towards LA, that water was never available for any NorCal city to use.
they are saying that LA takes water from sources which would otherwise drain into the sacramento and san joaquin river delta. The video from this post mentions the California State Water Project which takes water from the Feather River (Oroville Dam) and distributes it along the Western edge of the central valley South to Bakersfield where it is then pumped over the mountains both towards Los Angeles and further East to San Bernardino and Riverside. It provides way more water to SoCal than the two Los Angeles-specific aqueducts from the Owens Valley on the Eastern side of the Sierras.
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#69"Well There's Your Problem" on the collapse of the St Francis Dam, mentioned in Grady's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxLgM1vnuUA Also I love when they refer to it as the "_First_ California Water Wars" in a grim realization of the future of water scarcity in the West
There is no water scarcity in California, only misallocation. The vast majority of our water is heavily subsidized and used for agriculture, and a substantial amount of those crops are grown for export, yet agricultural exports makes up an insignificant part of California's economy. We could end all California water scarcity talk today, with no impact to food availability for Americans, by curtailing the internationa…
Almonds are climate-appropriate product and valuable. Alfalfa can cheaply be grown off rainwater in the Midwest and it alone frees up sufficient water.
Re: The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hard to say. The spec sheet calls out 4 Amps for the 12 Volt system or 32 Watts for a single gallon.
If it includes the time it takes to produce that gallon, there would be enough information to do the energy calculation.
I guess it would be 48W/h as it makes about 1.5 gallons an hour.