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California is doomed

Dinwar said:
In all seriousness, you grossly underestimate the cost of NEPA/CEQA compliance documentation. Get the BLM involved (they own a LOT of land out that way) and the costs go up further.

You can say a lot of things about California, but "Bastion of LFC" is not one of them.
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Can you expand the "LFC" initialism, please? The entry for "LFC" on Wikipedia gives over a dozen possibilities, but none seem to fit.
 
I admire the capitalist spirit of someone who, as their submarine sinks to the bottom of the sea, realizes that oxygen is becoming more valuable by the second, and sells it.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I admire the capitalist spirit of someone who, as their submarine sinks to the bottom of the sea, realizes that oxygen is becoming more valuable by the second, and sells it.
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Bad analogy.

A better analogy would be a market where, as water becomes more scarce, the price goes up, and people adjust their life choices and government policies to reflect the rising price of water.











ETA: Now that I think about it, that's not really an analogy, it's just talking about the thing in its own terms. Which is almost always better than an analogy, for really understanding a thing.
 
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Dinwar said:
Hell, just look at the sediment. The area is semi-arid, and has been for at least 5,000 years. The Central Valley is just as bad. I've seen the ancient streams, and they are MUCH bigger than modern streams. You don't get glayed soils anymore in the Central Valley.

California is what happens when politics and pull trump logic and reason.
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So - thanks Trump, eh?
 
Blue Mountain said:
Do you know how much of that 140 gallon figure is personal use at home and how much is industrial?

I saw a comment recently that said individuals in California could reduce their water usage by 50%, but due to the huge amount of industrial use the net savings would amount to only 10% of the total.
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That is a new stat to me. Hmm, does "Industry" include restaurants? Or just the fast food bakeries and pre-processors?
 
uk_dave said:
laissez faire capitalism?
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Yes, this.

Blue Mountain said:
Do you know how much of that 140 gallon figure is personal use at home and how much is industrial?
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The majority of California's water use is classified as "environmental", which includes things like making sure rivers have enough water for fish to survive and the like, as well as less sane options. The second greatest water use is agriculture. Without cutting those two, essentially it doesn't matter what individual homes do--conserve or waste, it's like being worried about an ant bite while you're on fire, it just doesn't matter.
 
theprestige said:
A better analogy would be a market where, as water becomes more scarce, the price goes up, and people adjust their life choices and government policies to reflect the rising price of water.
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But some things are too important to leave to market forces. Water, for one. If California runs out of water it will be an economic disaster. Government policy can't refill the aquifers. Deciding that the affected population "deserved" it doesn't make a disaster acceptable. The consequences of CA running out of water will not be confined merely to CA.
 
Agriculture is effectively an export of water. The state can't afford to let short sighted interests result in the depletion of the aquifers. Time to tax water use and water intensive crops.
 
How about we charge the same rate for water to all users in the state? Maybe give the users with pumps some kind of credit for their investment. Others would pay a premium for using the infrastructure, like I do now in an urban setting. I pay about 1/2¢/gallon. What would that do to those nut growers? No more pistachios or almonds, and 33 million of us can continue to shower and flush our toilets.
 
Funny thing. The city I live in is quite literally on the banks of one of the largest rivers on the planet. And it's particularly wide right here where we are too. You should see it, it's freaking huge. Yet, for some insane reason, we have to pay for water. Pay for it! Why, there's so much water here that if California was here rather than where it is, water wouldn't be a problem for it, and we'd still have plenty to boot. But I'm still paying for water here. I think that's why they're running out, they've been just giving it away all this time. Heck, I'll bet it's why some people even moved there in the first place, tired of paying 'the man' for water that falls out of the sky for free.
 
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Mike! said:
Funny thing. The city I live in is quite literally on the banks of one of the largest rivers on the planet. And it's particularly wide right here where we are too. You should see it, it's freaking huge. Yet, for some insane reason, we have to pay for water. Pay for it! Why, there's so much water here that if California was here rather than where it is, water wouldn't be a problem for it, and we'd still have plenty to boot. But I'm still paying for water here. I think that's why they're running out, they've been just giving it away all this time. Heck, I'll bet it's why some people even moved there in the first place, tired of paying 'the man' for water that falls out of the sky for free.
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You don't want to drink from any river that you can walk across.

Or one that catches fire sometimes.
 
Water is like solar energy. It comes from the sky for free, and if there were enough of it, we wouldn't need to drill holes in the earth to get more.

Lousy planet. Let's move.
 
Apropos of nothing, I'd like to say a certain country in the northern hemisphere is, in my estimation, enjoying* one of the coolest, and wettest Julys for many a year.

Meanwhile, I hear that a hotel in another country not too far away has recently employed a sommelier specifically for the serving of bottled water.

* - not enjoying, as such. But it's definitely cold and damp.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Apropos of nothing, I'd like to say a certain country in the northern hemisphere is, in my estimation, enjoying* one of the coolest, and wettest Julys for many a year.

Meanwhile, I hear that a hotel in another country not too far away has recently employed a sommelier specifically for the serving of bottled water.

* - not enjoying, as such. But it's definitely cold and damp.
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SW Florida has been the same. Well, not cold and damp, but 5 degrees F below the normal high almost every day, cloudy far more than normal, and somewhat wetter than normal.
 
lionking said:
Does California have desalination plants?
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Just looked it up. Building some. This is the answer. Apart from anything else, building large plants will break the drought, as it did in Sydney and Melbourne which built plants so far unused. ;)
 
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