Sobering Facts on Depleted Wells & A Possible 100Year Plus Drought-California
Cisterns, gray water usage, conservation. Oh by the way why are building permits for new residential structures still being issued at a pre drought pace? Because or government needs the permit fees and taxes. Because birthrate and immigration are population pressures that are allowed to trump drought/water supply worries. Which of course only reduces the amount left to us folks asked to conserve. Or quit growing (fill in blank to suit critics of agriculture), or quit making drinking water.
When is a drought not just a drought but in fact a political weapon being used by critics of big business, real or imagined excess profit margins, etc? Right now right here. If you are a critic you say “Big agriculture”. Which of course is the only way to feed tens to hundreds of millions of people. Big agriculture aka breakfast, lunch and dinner. Had a longish discussion on another Page just the other day, where several unrelated issues got dragged into the discussion. Nestle, WalMart, bottled water margins. Just questioning the connection between these issues and the drought got me accused of being a republican. *Gasp!* So anyway that’s just an illustration of strong emotions coming into the issue, understandable.
California drought shaming takes on a class-conscious edge
But this year #droughtshaming - the act of naming-and-shaming water-wasters on social media - has taken on a new, class-conscious, anti-corporate life of its own.
Thing is there is no end in sight to the drought.
Severe Ancient Droughts: A Warning to California
BEGINNING about 1,100 years ago, what is now California baked in two droughts, the first lasting 220 years and the second 140 years. Each was much more intense than the mere six-year dry spells that afflict modern California from time to time, new studies of past climates show. The findings suggest, in fact, that relatively wet periods like the 20th century have been the exception rather than the rule in California for at least the last 3,500 years, and that mega-droughts are likely to recur.
The evidence for the big droughts comes from an analysis of the trunks of trees that grew in the dry beds of lakes, swamps and rivers in and adjacent to the Sierra Nevada, but died when the droughts ended and the water levels rose. Immersion in water has preserved the trunks over the centuries.
Just a few months ago, the state’s top water officials said they had reason for optimism. Rain was cascading down on California in December and water conservation passed 20%.
“I, for one, had high hopes,” Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources, told a California Senate joint oversight hearing on the drought last week.
Cowin and his colleagues sat before lawmakers and took turns delivering a series of sobering facts and figures about the state’s persistent drought: The mountain snowpack was dismal; conservation is falling far short of Gov. Jerry Brown’s 25% mandate; officials are curtailing water rights.
One fact in particular caught senators’ attention, though. About 1,900 wells have gone dry, Cowin said.
More: California Water Officials Deliver Sobering Facts on Depleted Wells