"StoneCold" (StoneCold) 08/20/2014 at 19:10 • Filed to: None

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Hey, are all you guys in California getting on okay? The drought stuff is kinda worrying me.

Soloburrito > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 19:13

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They live next to an ocean! Plenty of water!

TheLOUDMUSIC- Put it in H! > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 19:16

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hhhhnnnnnnnngggggggggggggg

CAR_IS_MI > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 19:27

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I don't see what those stuck up, water hogging Californians issue is. We only get an average of 11 days of rain per year here and yet we still survive... (god please get me out of this place! It's SO dry)

Dusty Ventures > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 19:33

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http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/califor…

55Buick, Oversteer Scientist > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 19:43

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Well, when I turn on the faucet, water comes out. So I guess I'm doing fine.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 19:51

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It's beautiful. Simply beautiful.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 20:07

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It's a mess. We're being asked to cut back though they haven't actually started fining us yet if we don't. Meanwhile some communities (like the capital, go figure!) don't even have water meters on their houses. But never mind the inconvenience of not watering your lawn, it's also having a significant impact on agriculture. A lot of produce comes from California.

There is a lot of concern about diverting water from [wherever] because it might affect [ecosystem], and there's significant resistance to even building new water storage. Nobody is exactly clamoring to flood another valley / town / whatever. So the politicians just sort of whistle past the graveyard and hope for the best.

Perhaps fortunately, they recently passed a bond measure (which I think goes on the ballot this fall) that will upgrade some of the water systems and authorize building two new reservoirs. So maybe years from now the problem won't be so dire.

[end unintended rant]

Meanwhile, if you have any extra of those white fluffy things in the sky—the ones that water falls out of—can you sent them our way? Thanks.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 20:42

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My brother lives in Merced, on 20 acres, and their land is surrounded by orchards. Their well just went dry, and they just deepened it three years ago...

RallyWrench > StoneCold 08/20/2014 at 20:44

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Not really. That truck is gonna have a lot more desert to roam if we don't get some serious water & snow this winter. We're under mandatory restriction, limited to watering or running dishwashers & washing machines 2 days a week on certain days by street number, only after sunset. No washing cars except at recyling car washes, fines if we exceed our current use, etc. They want everyone to use at least 20% less.

I live in SLO County on the Central Coast, and you'd think that with, you know, the OCEAN right next to us that this wouldn't be a problem. But local governments haven't seen fit to invest in desal plants, and the one that Morro Bay has costs a fortune to run because it's old as shit. They're really hosed though, because the City Council made a really shortsighted decision to bypass State water years ago. The pipeline runs through town, and they don't get any. My dad works for an avocado farm outside of town, and they've had to stump thousands of trees along Highway 41. It's sad to see.

The allocations or reserves that were guaranteed by the State have been cut way back or eliminated in some cases. The little town I'm in isn't the worst because we're on our own aquifer, but we're not incorporated and have our own issues with a sewer project and two different water companies, one of which charges double for the same water. In the north county there's a huge raging debate between residents & wineries because their aquifer is badly overdrawn and wineries are sucking it dry. San Antonio lake is effectively empty, Nacimiento Lake, which we share with Monterey County and feeds the lower Salinas valley Ag corridor, is miraculously at 20% or so (I think), but it's dropping fast.

The weather folks just downgraded the possibility of El Nino, which had been climbing, and many are worried it'll be weak in any case. If & when we do get a load of water, the ground is so parched & hard in many places that flooding will be real concern.

There are definitely areas that are worse off than here, but the whole state west of the Sierras and south of say Redding is pretty fucked in general. So much of the state relies on snowpack from the Sierras, and it's been a really weak few years. I've been here my whole life, and there are brown areas & dead trees appearing that I've never seen. Lakes & streams that were always there have disappeared.

Lots of stuff to burn out here though, so it's definitely on everyone's minds. I just can't believe how many people I see going about their lives without making any adjustments. I see guys hosing down driveways, golf courses running poorly aimed sprinklers at noon on a 90 degree day, and so on. This should be a reality check for a lot of people, and they just don't get it.

I mean, we could be in Africa, starving & with no clean water, so I really have no right to complain.