Dan Espen wrote:
....
I understand Calif is getting closer to drinking some of that
recycled waste water.

already does in some places, they pump it back through a
wetland or put it back underground and then pump it back up
and run it through a treatment plant again. these are now
getting more and more common and people stop objecting
because that's pretty similar to what people in the rest
of the country also do (they drink treated water that comes
from rivers that have other cities upstream).


I'm for thinking bigger. We need Calif agriculture to feed us and the
country. A mega project to build a pipeline to the Columbia River
is a solution for the longer term.

peanuts compared to what they could accomplish if
they just stopped dumping all their treated water
and storm run off into the oceans and recycled more
water. they'd be just fine. it's just that it's
been so cheap now to just dump it that is what they've
set up to do. this is changing...


As for the crude attempts to slow down water consumption,
what do you expect? Without increasing supply none of "solutions"
are going to work.

Don't expect any politician to endorse slowing or reversing growth.

there's plenty of places that won't develop any more
as there is no water and they've so poorly managed
their wells that the groundwater is gone now too.
CA is a good example of how to be environmental on
the surface but their overall system is not integrated
or designed for arid spells longer than a few years
instead it was designed to exploit cheap water and it's
done that for 90 years.

if there continue to be low snowpacks for the Sierras
and Colorado Rockies then things will get pretty
interesting for Arizona and LV but we may not hit those
too hard for a few years yet if we're lucky (hope the
el nino gives a break this late spring and next winter).


songbird