California's Drought

NSR, I'm not quite sure what you are saying and I don't want to misunderstand. I was thinking that our water storage is better, with more of the reservoirs with more water than last year this time.

It doesn't solve the Central/San Joaquin Valley ag problem, though. Millerton water flows to the SF Bay or joins in the Friant-Kern canal to supply water on the east side of the valley all the way down to Kern County (Bakersfield). The West side ranches are only allotted 5% this year except for the grandfathered users.

The lack of rainwater that we Californians are aware of isn't the only water problem we're having, Take a look at 2 Million People in California It's a very well shared topic of discussion.

First I read of this problem. I went on to read two gov reports on this to get more informed. I knew we (in the SJ Valley) have a problem with nitrates, DPCP and EDB in drinking water due to ag use. I knew of uranium and gross alpha pockets in the mountains from my days of testing new wells. One consumer called them gross alfalfa and uranus!) But I did not know nitrates affected the natural uranium. We force-feed our soils with nitrates to grow mega crops (like stuffing geese for fatty livers) and our population increases resulting in more human nitrate wastes. I don't know what the solution(s) is(are).

Sanderson,  probably because I responded to the link without verifying what you were actually saying. :-)

I got distracted by Hetch Hetchy is currently in a fight to drain the reservoir.  Granted, it's in Yosemite and it's owned by San Francisco.  And San Francisco filled it with black plastic balls to reduce evaporation.  

Chalk that up, IMHO, one of the many questionable water war power grabs of the California cities way back when.

As the thread has weaved though, we have several water problems.  

Drought, near drought, non-drought, mega-drought, really depends where in the State you are.
Surface water in resevoirs which is primarily used for people and agriculture.
Aquifer status (most being pumped dry0
Drinking water quality.
Surface water quality (Delta smelt)
Aquifer water quality  (salts, nitrates, etc)

then environmental complications (Hetch Hetchy and the Delta smelt). 

Meanwhile, the media blasts "agriculture" takes "80%" of the water.  And people can't connect the dots that agriculture is them and the food they load up every week in their cart or buy in the restaurants.

Or even understand the restaurant food is an even worse "waster" of agriculture water.

But hey, why should I worry.  Here in SoCal, they're "recharging" the groundwater by pumping 
treated wastewater 'effluent' back down.  Granted, current water standards, don't measure, don't test for or have standards for contamination of active pharmaceutical ingredients.  It's not like majority of us are on a wide range of drugs that end up in the sewer one way for another.

And literally, last weekend, I overheard a hipster looking 30-something talking about the need for greater water restrictions on "lawns" while finicky-ly looking over the USDA Prime tomahawk ribeyes at Costco before picking the ones he wanted.

And sadly, I think that last sentence really sums up the California situation all too well.

Interesting article on farm waste being driven by consumer expectations.

Pretty sad, IMHO that so much produce is going straight to the waste bin because it doesn't meet cosmetic standards.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect

A CA friend just sent this to me. http://www.breitbart.com/california/2016/07/13/jerry-brown-flush-california-water-sea-save-delta-smelt/

Aww...I hope it works:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/19/goats-sheep-reducing-californias-fire-risk-one-bite-at-a-time.html

We have goats on long tethers tied to trees in a park down the road every Sunday to eat the poison ivy and sumac....and fertilize I would guess.

CC

I would take a gazillion goats to help CA!  My husband took his Razor (side-by-side) up to the mountains and he said it is sad to see whole areas of dead trees.

Added: Okay, I just watched the video. It must have been made in the spring or stock footage, because, there's no green grass or plants right now!

The forest damage is massive.

Even scarier is the urban tree die-off.  Here in SoCal,  Lots of dead urban trees.

Dead watering doesn't seem to help.  Too much drought stress, water table is gone too low and with so many people desert-scaping large swaths are basically impervious hardscape.

I didn't want to start a new tree thread. I just found this on Facebook. I recently saw another video with a similar concept. Now if the orchard growers would mulch the ground, what a savings it would be. http://www.wimp.com/farm-equipment-inventor-goes-on-shark-tank/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=video/

Oh my GOSH!  Could it be?  Farmer's Almanac has posted their predictions for the 16-17 winter season.  " In addition, another active storm track from the Pacific will deliver a dose of above-normal precipitation across the Western States. "

http://farmersalmanac.com/weather-outlook/2017-winter-forecast/

They were correct last year when they said El Nino would pass us by.  I hope they are as accurate this year.

We can only pray!

Mellen wrote:Oh my GOSH!  Could it be?  Farmer's Almanac has posted their predictions for the 16-17 winter season.  " In addition, another active storm track from the Pacific will deliver a dose of above-normal precipitation across the Western States. "

http://farmersalmanac.com/weather-outlook/2017-winter-forecast/

They were correct last year when they said El Nino would pass us by.  I hope they are as accurate this year.

We can only pray!

Oooo, I hope you're right. What I read about "La Nina" was that it would be an abnormally dry year for us. I definitely like this prediction better.

El Nino! El Nino!

Meanwhile, 82,000 people have been evacuated from San Bernardino.

I read that this afternoon.  82,000!....AND the 20,000 (so far) due to the Louisiana floods.  Lots of prayers needed!

I'm hoping Cajun Cappy lets us know how they are personally faring. 500 year flood

I this is a cartoon and perhaps is supposed to be funny.  But funny it isn't.  Just sad.  

Did anyone today see a video of a cloudburst somewhere in North America?  It was awesome.

It seems all or nothing with Mother Nature.

I didn't realize that this video would get so political at the end, but turn the sound off and one can just watch the devastation of the agriculture business in the Valley. It does explain how water is moved through the State. 50% is lost to the ocean, 10% is used for cities and 40% is used for ag. Around the 27 min mark, there is an explanation of how much water it takes to make a cheeseburger! 744.5 gallons! On the right hand sound bar, there are several YouTube videos on vermicomposting if one is interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ipF30Myo1k&feature=youtu.be

Anyone get any rain? I received 27 drops. I guess the PNW is getting slammed.

No rain here in Carmel Valley, but the area south looks like it got a light sprinkle.... well, we can hope that some will come our way.

Not a drop  

We tore the cover off of our greenhouse today.  We are trying to find out what to replace it with.  We have 10' x 100' wide roll of 6 mil material but trying to figure out how to use that without it blowing apart in the first storm.

Photo of the naked frame?

Right now, the sky is blue with wispy clouds to the south and dark grey clouds to the north.

We got enough rain last night to leave a few puddles, and it's drizzling constantly throughout daybreak. Good to see a rainbow for a change after seeing nothing but smoke for 2 month. Our dog won't go out to do her thing, so that's a good sign (I guess)- sort of like Groundhog Day; dog's predicting more rain to come. We buy a roll of sod during the rainy season and keep it in the garage so the dog has a place to do her thing without getting wet. It's set on a thick plastic shower curtain so we can roll it out on sunny days and keep it green. Too bad I was such a skeptic and didn't set out a winter garden sooner, but the peppers and the "Last of the Mohegan" zucchini has two hot dog sized fruit that I hope don't drop before I give up and yank it out for the season. I'm sure the Leaf Miners will miss it more than I will.

sanderson wrote:Anyone get any rain?  I received 27 drops.  I guess the PNW is getting slammed.

We had a cloud that parked over our house for several hours and dumped at least 3". Our yard was a river flowing down to the creek behind us. The weird part is that the weatherman said we only got a little over an inch and it barely sprinkled at our son's house and daughter's thrift shop.

Got some good rain this evening, at least enough to finally wash my truck, lol!