The ghosts of Lake Mead

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Other crops aren’t as intensive, can’t continue dumping 90% of your water into a pit.

Funny part is many crops are functionally made illegal by lack of water, state could remove head from ass and be pro-active about land and water management with the main users of water but typically full stop only when they run out.
You might want to research that a bit deeper.

Almonds use between 8-10% of irrigation water in CA. And yes that is a lot of water. But alfalfa, for example uses more water. And if you kill almond production - this water doesn't suddenly become free, it goes to other crops. Makes no sense when almonds are such an excellent source of nutrition.

I find some of the reactions here evirocrowd following and not well thought through.

 
You might want to research that a bit deeper.

Almonds use between 8-10% of irrigation water in CA. And yes that is a lot of water. But alfalfa, for example uses more water. And if you kill almond production - this water doesn't suddenly become free, it goes to other crops. Makes no sense when almonds are such an excellent source of nutrition.

I find some of the reactions here evirocrowd following and not well thought through.

You are quite right in that with the water rights agreement, that water would just be used elsewhere, as they are entitled to a specific volume of water, even if it isn't sustainable in the river's present condition. That would have to change (the regulation) before any sort of recovery for the lake would be able to take place.

IMHO, the answer is desalination for CA agriculture and torpedoing that water rights agreement. The watershed can recover, Cali gets to stop worrying about water availability and a more resilient and long-term solution is implemented.
 
The Imperial county gets all its agricultural water from the Colorado river. They built a canal that runs from the river to the Valley alongside Intersate 8.

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This statement is absolutely factual based on decades of scientific research.

Many aquifers take hundreds or thousands of years to renew the water.

It IS mining. It IS extraction, to draw water from them as the water in them now will not be renewed.

The Oglala aquifer is but one of them.

Read the article I linked. From 12 years ago. This is a well understood problem…sorry…couldn’t resist that…

It may not be true for your well, but it’s true for millions of people. True for many millions of people in the Front Range of Colorado as many municipalities sink deeper wells.
This statement is incorrect.
 
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If they don’t natively grow there without irrigating, shouldn’t be allowed.

Almonds are the most energy and water intensive crop in California
That’s nearly all California Agriculture. Given that a large percentage of America’s fresh fruit and vegetables come from California, that’s not a particularly practical, or realistic, suggestion.
 
IMHO, the answer is desalination for CA agriculture and torpedoing that water rights agreement. The watershed can recover, Cali gets to stop worrying about water availability and a more resilient and long-term solution is implemented.
This really does seem like a no brainer when you see all that water just sitting off the coast.

Since this was brought up a couple days ago I've been doing a little reading and it seems like a good solution even though it's not perfected and can be energy-intensive and actually make things worse if not done right but they need to keep working on it to make it better. Here is a good one form what I have read.


Also about half way thru the article there is a link to a place in Iceland that is sucking C02 out of the air, very interesting stuff here, great post this one.

 
You are quite right in that with the water rights agreement, that water would just be used elsewhere, as they are entitled to a specific volume of water, even if it isn't sustainable in the river's present condition. That would have to change (the regulation) before any sort of recovery for the lake would be able to take place.

IMHO, the answer is desalination for CA agriculture and torpedoing that water rights agreement. The watershed can recover, Cali gets to stop worrying about water availability and a more resilient and long-term solution is implemented.
Wouldn't we need significantly more electrical capacity to run desalination plants? I believe that uses massive amounts of energy.

I agree it's the answer.
 
Now that would be silly. I'm certain there are ways to transport either the water or the energy to a safer place.
Glad you're thinking, though.
Right it would be silly. SoCal is the big beneficiary of water from the Colorado so it would make sense to build the plants there, but you can't put a nuke in SoCal in part due to seismic concerns which is why I posted the map of the various fault lines in the area.
 
Wouldn't we need significantly more electrical capacity to run desalination plants? I believe that uses massive amounts of energy.

I agree it's the answer.
Yep, shouldn't have retired SONGS...

Might make a case for a few new AP1000's, depending on the load.

Right now, it appears they are between a rock and a hard place, the alternative exists, just needs to be implemented. And yes, it will be expensive.
 
This statement is absolutely factual based on decades of scientific research.

Many aquifers take hundreds or thousands of years to renew the water.

It IS mining. It IS extraction, to draw water from them as the water in them now will not be renewed.

The Oglala aquifer is but one of them.

Read the article I linked. From 12 years ago. This is a well understood problem…sorry…couldn’t resist that…

It may not be true for your well, but it’s true for millions of people. True for many millions of people in the Front Range of Colorado as many municipalities sink deeper wells.
The aquifer below me fills very soon after a big rain. The state pumps water from the aqueduct into the Mojave river to recharge the aquifer if needed. Takes 3 days. Sure some may take longer.
 
Diablo Canyon and SONGS were both fine where they were placed. Water is transportable, and so is the power, there are options.
Well of course they're fine up until the moment the big one hits. Although Diablo risk was really really low. In any case it's not like the state is going to be building new reactors any time soon.
 
Wouldn't we need significantly more electrical capacity to run desalination plants? I believe that uses massive amounts of energy.

I agree it's the answer.
It's basically run through a giant Reverse Osmosis system. Like the ones they install under your sink. Only giant size. The biggest thing electrical consumption wise are the pumps.
 
The aquifer below me fills very soon after a big rain. The state pumps water from the aqueduct into the Mojave river to recharge the aquifer if needed. Takes 3 days. Sure some may take longer.
Some take several thousand years.

Some of the water being pulled out now came from glaciers.

You simply cannot extrapolate your property and say, “That’s how wells work.”

It’s how your well works.

But that fails to account for tremendous variation in geography, geology and topography across the country.

Read the article I linked. Or Google the subject.
 
Almonds use between 8-10% of irrigation water in CA. And yes that is a lot of water. But alfalfa, for example uses more water. And if you kill almond production - this water doesn't suddenly become free, it goes to other crops. Makes no sense when almonds are such an excellent source of nutrition.
I can't verify your statistics, but I don't disagree. But to your nutritional quality point, growing RICE in California is foolish beyond imagination. Drive up to far northern California. The extent of the rice industry is shocking. Completely flooded rice fields for as far as the eye can see.

Scott
 
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