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California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

drought.ca.gov

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Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#71

Post by jeffbee »

Barrera wrote: post #67

> Statewide precipitation for the water year to date is 73 percent of average. Sierra-Cascades snowpack for the water year to date is 10 percent of average, down from 18 percent last week. Statewide reservoir storage is 71 percent of average for this time of year. And more stats like that. Where are the stats about California's reservoir levels? Isn't that the relevant metric? The state's very existence depends on wa…

The state provides an abundance of such data, from thousands of sensors, in real time and in daily reports.

https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reservoir.html

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#72

Post by harlanlewis »

Barrera wrote: post #67

> Statewide precipitation for the water year to date is 73 percent of average. Sierra-Cascades snowpack for the water year to date is 10 percent of average, down from 18 percent last week. Statewide reservoir storage is 71 percent of average for this time of year. And more stats like that. Where are the stats about California's reservoir levels? Isn't that the relevant metric? The state's very existence depends on wa…

Current reservoir levels: https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=rescond...

Snowpack is not an irrelevant statistic. Gradual melt from snowpack is what flows into reservoirs. 10% of avg snowpack now means significantly less gradual resupply as we head into summer.

“ Snowpack accounts for the much of California’s water source and storage, because early spring snowpack “contains about 70 percent as much water, on average, as the long-term average combination of the major and ‘other’ reservoirs” (Dettinger and Anderson, 2015).”

- https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2016/3062/fs20163062.pdf

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#73

Post by guelo »

eixiepia wrote: post #64
paulcole wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we’ll never “stop the climate crisis.” Everybody thinks somebody else is causing the problem and that somebody else needs to change more than they themselves do. The truth is, stopping the climate crisis involves everybody changing how they live in a significant way. Anything short of that and you better hope your great grandkids like eating crickets and forest fires. The sadder truth is that the climate…

Quoted post unavailable.

If the most conscientious people stop having kids it will leave the next generation in worse shape to fight climate change. The CO2-lovers are having as many kids as possible and indoctrinating them heavily.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#74

Post by kolanos »

orlp wrote: post #2

"Californians are being asked to reduce their water use by 15 percent over 2020 levels to protect water reserves and help maintain critical flows for fish and wildlife wherever possible." And by that they surely mean agriculture, right? Right? The industry responsible for 80% of the water usage in California? They surely couldn't just be asking urban consumers to reduce? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/2…

> Climatologist Bill Patzert estimates that more than 80% of the region's rainfall ends up diverted from urban areas in Southern California into the Pacific . “All those trillions of gallons of rain, which sound so sweet, really end up in the ocean,” he said. [0]

> Statewide, average water use is roughly 50% environmental, 40% agricultural, and 10% urban, although the percentage of water use by sector varies dramatically across regions and between wet and dry years. Some of the water used by each of these sectors returns to rivers and groundwater basins where it can be used again. [1]

[0]: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-rainwater-lost-wet... [1]: https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/jtf-water-use.pdf

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#75

Post by spaetzleesser »

briga wrote: post #21
thisNeeds2BeSad wrote: post #13

The irony being that israel has "solved" water problems in agriculture largely, by reusing waste water and drip irrigation and simply have the users pay for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in... This sounds like a typical US thing. Suffering from a solveable problem, while creating the maximum public drama and having the society incapable of reform as a sort of greek-tragedy-background…

The situation is a bit more complex than you're making it out to be. Leaving aside the somewhat unique politics of Israel, it is a much smaller and more unified country than the US--the problems in the US are simply orders of magnitude bigger, even if you were to only consider California. If the solutions were in any way "easy" the drought problem would have been solved already. It isn't, and the percentage of the US…

I don't like the excuses that things are harder to solve in the US because it's so big, diverse or whatever. If anything I think it should be easier in the US because it can solve a lot of problems without having to think about what the impact on neighboring countries is. As far as water goes, the US has pretty much all types of climate zones under its control so it could divert water or move agriculture to more favorable locations. A small country like Israel doesn't have access to water rich areas but the US has.

The only reason why the US can't solve problems is because it's dysfunctional and people prefer to fight each other and not accept facts they don't like.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#76

Post by [deleted] »

paulcole wrote: post #36
bamboozled wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! It's also why I don't like being told to stop eating beef / meat to stop the climate crisis when fracking and other ridiculous practices are still legal. Food and nutrition is important. Disclaimer: I tried being a vegetarian for 2 years, I didn't feel good mentally and physically so I went back to consuming meat. I'll probably try again another time.

This is why we’ll never “stop the climate crisis.” Everybody thinks somebody else is causing the problem and that somebody else needs to change more than they themselves do. The truth is, stopping the climate crisis involves everybody changing how they live in a significant way. Anything short of that and you better hope your great grandkids like eating crickets and forest fires. The sadder truth is that the climate…

[deleted]

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#77

Post by rayiner »

eixiepia wrote: post #64
paulcole wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we’ll never “stop the climate crisis.” Everybody thinks somebody else is causing the problem and that somebody else needs to change more than they themselves do. The truth is, stopping the climate crisis involves everybody changing how they live in a significant way. Anything short of that and you better hope your great grandkids like eating crickets and forest fires. The sadder truth is that the climate…

Quoted post unavailable.

That’s fine with me. More resources for my grandkids!

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#78

Post by throwaway09223 »

rmah wrote: post #57
jillesvangurp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, Californians should stop pretending water is cheap, plentiful or sourced in a sustainable way. It simply isn't. Instead of pointing fingers at each other, the best way is to price it accordingly. The root problem is that this is not the case and it's too cheap. And it's only cheap because it comes from non renewable sources that are getting scarcer. Everybody feels entitled to the cheap water and then end…

Um, but the water in California is cheap and plentiful. Sustainably sourced, I don't know. But the root of the problem is that farmers do not pay a "fair" price, they get steep steep discounts. All the lawn watering, all the toilet flushes, all the swimming pools, etc. all amount to around 10% of water use in California. And those people already pay, on average, many multiples of what farmers pay per gallon.

Exactly so. Water is cheap, plentiful and available in nearly limitless quantities in the amounts used for urban living.

The only scarcity centers around the far larger amounts of water used by agricultural industry -- which are in large part not growing food needed for sustenance. Much of what we grow is exported, and could more easily be grown elsewhere. For example, Saudi Arabia has been expanding hay and alfalfa farms in California because they wish to reduce the depletion of the Saudi aquifers. California water policy simply allows this to happen, at the expense of our own aquifers.

Domestic water curtailment programs are a fraud. The only issue is industrial allocations of farm water.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/25/california-w...

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#79

Post by mistrial9 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #59
thaumaturgy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be a carefully-considered market-based solution to a complex problem, but there are a few details I'm struggling with. Significantly increasing the price of a natural resource would have severe impacts on impoverished communities while having no effect at all on wealthy people and companies; is this intentional? Around 45% of households in California are rentals. Renters are often restricted by their re…

> Significantly increasing the price of a natural resource would have severe impacts on impoverished communities while having no effect at all on wealthy people and companies; is this intentional? Not with tiered pricing. The poor don't use any more water than the middle-class.

Please understand that in the suburbs of Contra Costa County, where swimming pools are very common and a few still raise livestock, there was a county initiative (pre-2007) to dramatically rise the price of water use for those properties using more than 1000 gallons of water per day, and there was a mass scene at the Board of Supervisors meeting with irate home owners. The initiative did not pass.

Re: California Drought Update May 2022 [pdf]

#80

Post by mistrial9 »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #32
bamboozled wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! It's also why I don't like being told to stop eating beef / meat to stop the climate crisis when fracking and other ridiculous practices are still legal. Food and nutrition is important. Disclaimer: I tried being a vegetarian for 2 years, I didn't feel good mentally and physically so I went back to consuming meat. I'll probably try again another time.

Is there actually fracking in California?

yes - Bakersfield, Calif. and a few other places, mostly in SoCal.
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