California's Drought

We in Canada rely on California fruit and vegetable and also Mexican. I knew that growing almonds was never good for water usage.

I have seen many pictures of the water levels in your dams and have read about the diversion of water to the sea.  Criminal.

A cousin of my newfound paternal ancestry lives in Redding and she has told me about the water shortage and fears what the future will be.

A new Water Act has been drafted and signature collection will start November 1. It's not a bond or tax increase. It forces expedition on approved water projects, a streamline process for future projects, forces money already collected and future monies collected for water infrastructure to be spent on water infrastructure, 2% of the annual State general fund to be spent on water and an increase in 5 million acre feet of water storage either in reservoirs or ground water, at which time the Bill will expire. A preset expiration event is rather unusual in and of itself. https://morewaternow.com/summary-of-initiative/

My only hope is that the new water act addresses something besides the thirsty Southern California housing push. The population density has now been increased by the latest legislation, but water allocation and water sources haven't been addressed.

It looks like all aspects of "water for California" is being addressed. Your water bill is something that I've been curious about. Where does the water come from? Wells? Long distant piping?

Kristi Diener does a wonderful job on the FB page. The reports she posts come from the State, so the government can't really argue against her! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1618715255012234/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=2950866601797086

Author Kristi Diener.  Subject: How much water is needed in the Delta to keep salt water intrusion at bay?
One paragraph from a longer article.

"Knowing that 4,500 acre-feet )sic per day) has been enough to keep salt water at bay in the past, and for the sake of argument, I generously subtracted 5,000 acre-feet for salinity protection outflow for each day in this graph (346 days). That amount of necessary outflow came out to 1,730,000 acre-feet. The actual outflow, even in this supposedly exceptionally dry year, was 4,017,000 acre-feet. The difference is the wasted outflow, or 2,287,000 acre-feet. That is enough water to meet the needs of 22.8 million people for a year. "

Another statement from the same article.

"the wasted outflow in 2017, was 44,387,700 acre-feet. That is enough water to meet the needs of 443,877,000 people for a year. In other words, in a single year, 17.75 years' worth of water for the 25 million people who receive water from the Delta, was wasted outflow."

A really interesting article that goes into great depth.  Interesting how people argue that lawns are good.  I agree that they are much better than concrete, but it is the makeup of lawns needing grass that needs so much watering, when there are other plants that are more diverse and are good for insects etc. and allow the collection of water.

Air Quality in California, especially in the long bowl of the Central Valley where I live, has plummeted.  I remember when the air would be dusty during certain farming activities, but that's the cost of a very productive agriculture environment.  I did my MS thesis on the relationship of 6 environmental factors and 3 pollutants.  This was 50 years ago when visibility was measured from less that 1 mile to greater than 20 miles.  At that time, visibility was 15-16 miles 1/3 of the time.  Today it is a good day when it's 10 miles.

Fast forward 50 years and the air quality is bad.  Mega wildlife fires are the norm after 40 years of no forest management (logging, grazing, thinning, clearing understory and ladder fuels, managed burns).  More dry fields of topsoil are relocated by the wind.  Larger populations result in greater man-made pollutants.  Two major transportation freeways run through the valley.

Yesterday, I started taking down the sun shade and washing them.  The plants are filthy but they will be hosed down with Dr. Bronner's Liquid Soap.  Likewise the stucco walls of the house and other hardscapes.  This photo shows the dust and smoke ash that were captured by the sunshades.  A photo is worth a thousand words.

Our ancestors knew instinctively how to manage the forests and meadows, by burning  to clear the land and then eventually moving on so the land was safer from forests fires
due to deadwood building up. I have read the the fist people in Australia did that as well. 

Now we work the land to death. Also too much monoculture.

Bipartisan support for the new water initiative. I will be active in harvesting signatures to get in on the ballot in Nov 2022.