for California in most of the major papers. And please don't mention drought
because that's similar to defining our current economic recession... a
recession... oops, i mean 'bump in the road'.
The official water solution being offered is bigger and better reservoirs
and maybe even a peripheral canal to circumvent the bay area delta.
Maybe if the state could print it's own money and/or a lender was a half wit
but otherwise ...forget it.
What is not being emphasized is none of this will suffice if the
Sierra/Nevada mountain range continues to not experience substantial
seasonal snow. And I believe that is actually what is being projected for
the western states below Oregon. Dry, hot and with forest fires.
They are now acknowledging in another article that Lake Mead which is behind
Hoover Dam and located on the Colorado river will be functionally dry by
2017.
Mead is also used to generate electrical power and which will end when the
water level significantly drops.
The Colorado furnishes water for California and a few of the large cities in
Arizonian. And a tiny trickle is still getting to Mexico.
So what's the problem besides lack of snow and the state is thirsty?
We'll lets try too many people and way to much waste by agriculture who buys
water cheap and by the millions of water acres. Also the central valley is
the major fruit and vegetable producer for the nation. Aswell as growing
significant corn, wheat and rice and even hay and cotton crops. With
water,petroleum energy, fertilizer and the sun anything can be grown.
The farms in the valley who use the water are growing mono crops and using
the equivalent of 'Miraclegrow' to produce what is fed to livestock or
cotton. The fertilizer is primarily a nitrogen product and manufactured
using.... lots of energy.... from electricity and natural gas.
And if water is scarce for crops their goes the valley Argo industry along
with the valley's human population.
Then their is grain crops to feed animals so we can eat high on the food
chain. Energy and water wise this is completely unsustainable and
inefficient use of land and energy.
And to experience pure hate suggest to a meat/lacto consumer they may have
to switch to a lower energy consumer and environmentally friendly diet. So
on this issue it maybe be wiser to step aside and just not get hit when it
comes apart.
Southern California with 23-25 million people get their water primarily from
Northern California sources. It can't and won't be sustained unless they
significantly turn down the water faucets to the farms.
So I won't fill in the dots as to what may happen in a few years if the
drought continues and which seems more likely than not.
But helpful fellow that i am i will give one clue. migration... and you can
tell us where?
And as to what they will be eating when these fishes and loves types are
parked on our front brown lawns. We'll for a start how about anything that's
in the frig or hidden under the bed.
Now i am not talking about 'those brown people' who are trained fence
climbers. These are the Anglo God fearing types who now dwell in Orange
County and believe the northern part of the state is just their to furnish
them with resources.
Also, maybe we should consider the 'climate change' time schedule.
And for 'myths we are now living with' this knew one to appear may just be
the biggest con job going.
Who are these scientific wizards that have determined the earth has a...
time schedule... in which to sweep clean this disruptive surface problem.
And why would it consult us or inform us in what order or time frame this
all is going to happen?
So when they tell us the world glaciers will all be gone by the middle of
the century doesn't that strike you as simplistic? If the glaciers are
melting the interlocking feed back climate loops will be busy taking care of
some of the other destructive but important details. So in my opinion where
we maybe in twenty years may actually be where we are now being told we will
be in forty and then some if lets say the oceans methane hydrate beds...
also melt. These are indefinable fields of now frozen energy and waiting for
release by a temperature change.
And so I will say...if I may. Awaken Ye, my fellow citizen for verily it may
be later than.... big brother has bothered to mention.
----- Original Message -----
From: olcharlie
To: larry lewis
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 8:35 AM
Subject: snow pack
Snow levels below normal
Dry spell turns Sierra pack from promising to another challenge.
By Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
05/01/08 22:50:20
The driest March-April period on record has shrunk the Sierra snowpack to
about two-thirds of average, plunging California cities and farms into a
second consecutive dry year.
State officials Thursday stopped short of announcing a drought, but some
reservoirs probably will not fill to usual capacities in parts of the
400-mile-long Sierra range.
Meteorologists attributed the unusually dry spring to the Pacific Ocean
cooling trend called La Niña.
No water rationing has been announced. But some west San Joaquin Valley
farmers have been bracing for a dry summer since last year, when a federal
judge ordered less water to be taken from Northern California to protect
imperiled fish.
West-side farmers now must rely even more on underground water pumping,
officials said.
"Water supply is becoming a day-to-day issue for us because we're affected
by so many things," said spokeswoman Sarah Woolf of the Westland's Water
District, which has taken a third of its 600,000 acres out of production.
Westland's buys billions of gallons of water that come from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Snowmelt in the Northern California
rivers feeding the delta is running at 55% to 65% of normal.
The state Department of Water Resources on Thursday measured the snowpack
and confirmed that it is 67% of average. Last May, the snowpack was 29% of
average, the smallest in 19 years.
The consecutive dry years will result in reservoir levels dropping far below
average by fall. Lake Oroville, the state's principal storage reservoir,
currently holds less than 60% of its average capacity for early May.
Pine Flat Reservoir, east of Fresno, holds less than 70% of its average for
this time of year. The snowpack, which was above average in late February,
now offers little hope.
"This year's snowpack won't give us much water to carry over next year in
the reservoirs," said watermaster Steve Haugen on the Kings River. "We'll be
looking at using the wells more and more."
In the Central Valley, Sacramento and Bakersfield had the driest March-April
period since record-keeping began in the 1800s. Fresno had its second-driest
March-April on record, with 0.02 inches of rain. Fresno's record was set in
1934, when no rainfall was recorded in March and April.
La Niña sometimes brings California dry weather, sometimes wet. This year,
it seemed to bring both.
In January and February, when the Pacific cooling was at its maximum, storms
traveled into California. But as the ocean warmed slowly and La Niña became
milder, the jet stream altered and began sending storms north.
"We were looking so good earlier this year," said state hydrologist Maury
Roost in Sacramento. "But these dry months have put a real dent in the water
supply."
Frank Gherkin, the state's snow survey chief, said soils in many parts of
California are parched from last year's dry season. The soils will soak up
much of the early snowmelt, and the dry March and April have only made it
worse.
"It's a knockout punch to have that combination," Gherkin said Thursday.
Officials from both sides of the political aisle are weighing in.
Gov. Schwarzenegger said the situation underscores his argument that
California should conserve more water and build more dams.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature blocked Republican proposals to build
dams, favoring increased water conservation measures and water recycling.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said his vetoed legislation
promoting conservation and protecting Northern California ecosystems would
have helped the state right now.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. The reporter can be reached
at mgrossi@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6316.
olcharlie
will nap for food
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