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| California Drought Tests History of Endless Growth |
| 2015-04-05 |
| LOS ANGELES ‐ For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life ‐ 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and dreams, money and beauty. It was the cutting-edge symbol of possibility: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, aerospace, agriculture and vineyards. But now a punishing drought ‐ and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption ‐ is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state's driving engine has run against the limits of nature. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage The 25 percent cut in water consumption ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown raises fundamental questions about what life in California will be like in the years ahead, and even whether this state faces the prospect of people leaving for wetter climates ‐ assuming, as Mr. Brown and other state leaders do, that this marks a permanent change in the climate, rather than a particularly severe cyclical drought. This is a long winded NYT article...California as seen from the other coast. Much more at the link and a very dramatic picture. |
| Posted by:Abu Uluque |
| #6 That is exactly what the Santee lakes system does. Santee is in east San Diego Co the effluent goes to a regular waste water plant, then flows through 5 small lakes for biological cleaning. the water at the end is potable, but is used in purple pipe irrigation systems by the City, County and State for highway, parks and public area landscaping. |
| Posted by: Vernal Spavins7649 2015-04-05 23:26 |
| #5 The problem with desal is that you are left with a highly concentrated brine that you have to dispose of. Nasty stuff. The better solution in my opinion is to convert all of the municipal wastewater plants to be able to fully, or nearly fully, recycle that water to drinking water standards. This type of water is not a significant challenge to clean (I'm in the wastewater treatment business). The hundreds of $billions that will be spent on that stupid train should be diverted to this task. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2015-04-05 22:43 |
| #4 I was here in san Diego during the 88 to 92 drought. We cut our water usage in a major way. So as the water utilities bill by the amount you use rather than free market pricing or access charges they doubled the rates. Next two years we were clobbered by El Nino's with massive flooding. If we quit flushing freshwater out the Delta for an invasive bait fish, dumped the high speed rail, California could build dozens of desalination plants, even inland at the Salton Sea. Imperial Co has Geothermal power perfect for desal plants. Carslsbad is trying to license a desal plant next to the Natural Gas power station right on the coast, but it means expanding the plant -so of course the greenies are trying to block it. |
| Posted by: Vernal Spavins7649 2015-04-05 20:34 |
| #3 You need to add to growth, regulation and immigration the amazing failure to create more water capacity to capture the run off. Above ground, below ground, desalinization, pipelines, all done in a timely manner and growth could have been managed.....but no, instead now we're building a train for the loony Jesuit in Sacramento.... |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2015-04-05 16:39 |
| #2 It's outta my sector but from what I've been able to gather, it's not 'endless growth' that is the problem, but rather endless regulations and gummit meddling. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-04-05 16:27 |
| #1 The limits of relying on nature... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2015-04-05 15:50 |