The California Drought

[sleepy]

This is a well-written article with a human angle, comparing the current drought that we are having with that of The Dust Bowl era, circa 1930's. The locals call it El Niño. The Child. Male.
The article points out that roughly 50% of our U.S. national agricultural produce comes from California. An emergency fine of $500 a day has been implemented against water wasters.
Our current water bill received a $10 credit for conserving water above the average usage.

It has been raining the last couple of days, with flash flooding and mud in the high plains.
However, it is not enough.

http://news.yahoo.com/california-drought-dust-bowl-040440797.html

 

[sleepy]

Some communities are now threatened with being left "waterless".
I'm thinking it's part of the reason why the food prices are going sky-high:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/103...s-migration-out-of-california-seems-imminent/

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

i was just reading that the most draught-ridden states were typically the biggest consumers of water. in the private sector in particular, because ppl insisted on keeping green lawns and such.

nothing like realising the veracity of a global situation only when it impacts you personally... then wanting politicians and others to do something about it, stat.

 

[sleepy]

You know what? In Glendale, Ca., just several years ago, the city passed a law prohibiting use of artificial turf for one's front (EDIT: but allowed for back yards), and in that city it is still illegal to pave it over. In other areas, they make it an offense to maintain a sandlot yard devoid of plant coverage. It affects the property values and the various 'Homeowner's Associations', along with the local taxman, don't like that.

A few of the cities out here made it a liability to skip planting grass.
And because water ain't free in Death Valley, our governments have made water a commodity 'for dependable revenue'. When the people have no money to pay, they either get cut off like a business, else have to fill out exemption forms and answer to the municipality. Like a dog and his Master.

But that's all blown sky-high when the water's run dry, and the article suggests a future mass exodus if the rain won't come. This will surely happen in the high and dry areas of The Mojave, in San Bernadino and Imperial Counties and similar.
Imperial County is high agricultural, but is near the California/Mexico border, not the central and northern wine country, though they are hurting as well.

 

[sleepy]

Here's an article from 2012 about Glendale. I wonder if those politicians are still in office?

http://articles.glendalenewspress.c..._artificial-turf-unnatural-surfaces-fake-turf

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

good points... i wasn't really following that line of thought to its next stop.


much further south, but also on the pacific, peru is facing a similar crisis. most of the inhabited areas are in the coastal desert, which mainly get their water from above-ground and below-ground rivers fed by glacial melt. now with glaciers dwindling all over the globe, the country's suffering right now and will be completely up the creek in around 10 years or so.

desalinisation plants to process ocean water was the last idea i heard to deal with the problem, but they will apparently foul the coastal waters something fierce. whatever's left of the fishing / guano industry would be hit very hard i suppose, offsetting the economic boom of the mining industry... which is driving the economy right now.

 

[sleepy]

It recalls The Salton Sea in California, a resort development built around a man-made lake. But the runoff into the lake and local desert minerals conspired to raise the salinity of the water so high that it killed off the fish and soon produced a never-ending foul pervasive stench. The development was finally abandoned by the residents in the 1970's
The location is now a ghost town, and it too is now seeing severe drought, and the evil lake has lost sufficient water table to the point that the lake has revealed many of its long-submerged secrets.

I remember in school, in the 60's, a couple of science teachers mentioning The Salton Sea as a location of high osmosis and displacement. They claimed the salinity was so high that you could literally lay on the water on your back and float atop of it.
But I wouldn't try that with the reported stench!

And Oh Boy! The Salton Sea is also located on The San Andreas Fault. Must be a Devil's Punchbowl.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

we do not ever mention the SALTON SEA! my god sleepy... pull yourself together, mate.

 

[sleepy]

Thank God I had no money invested in that Devil's punchbowl.

 

[sleepy]

And there you have it.
After literal years of devastating drought and strict water rationing under penalty of stiff fines, with the streets collecting motor oil, the hills ravaged by fires, and the debris of a decade of dead lawn grasses and plants and branches clogging our curbside street drains, El Nino appears, empowered by the extremes of strong anion ionics that are our parched deserts, and Pummels us all with Flash Floods and the resulting mudslides.

As I type this message, overhead are the network copters reporting on the closure of the I5 freeway which runs about five blocks from here. They are reporting on the closure of this freeway due to severe flooding. Like a lake. I walked down the street for food and was nearly knocked down by the strong river-like currents of the gutter water at the crossings. And I am no stranger to stronger riptides at the shores.

But the I5 now. It was recently remodeled to provide a super-wide center divider and to improve the road conditions. And yet, they still failed to correct for the terrestrial dip that, today, is flooded. Incredible our government is at its ineptitudes.

 

[StevOz]

Ah, yes it was predicted long ago...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geoeBhxjH5o

Now I awoke this morning to what looked like a thunderstorm, it was merely just smoke from raging fires over a 100 miles away...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-07/waroona-bushfire-emergency/7072498

 

[sleepy]

Well, the world spins, and that hole in the sky just shifts around.
And 100 miles away from any brushfire Is Good, though I hope the locals are safe.

 

[Coil_Smoke]

"Astro Turf" sounds harmless enough. What is the issue with using it for one's front lawn ?

 

[StevOz]

"Astro Turf" sounds harmless enough. What is the issue with using it for one's front lawn ?

Well it is a fire hazard, in the heat of summer you really don't want to walk across it let alone lie upon it, it is a toxic petrochemical, need I elucidate further?

 

[Coil_Smoke]

I had laid an old strip of original Astro Turf alongside a garden to suppress weed growth. It also stunted the growth of every thing near it. I thought my California Poppy plants might never come back. That "Turf" proved very durable and long lasting. After that I hauled it to the landfill. Now I wish I had tried burning some of that toxic stuff.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Arne! I see that green light on... you can't hide from me! Well... until 9 days from now. I was hoping you weren't washed away in the mud and rain!

 

[sleepy]

Yea Bill. That El Nino dumped on us all like an acid brat, and now we're back to drought.
But it'll probably rain on and off through June.