California drought: Jerry Brown declares emergency, asks public to ration water

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: SFGate

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday officially declared a drought emergency in California, asking residents to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent and committing to bolster the state's dwindling water supplies with better management and federal assistance.

The order, announced at a news conference at the governor's San Francisco office, comes as the state is gripped by a third consecutive year of dry weather.

Rivers are running low. Snowpack is meager. And communities across California are worried about having sufficient water for homes, businesses and farmland. The dry weather also has increased the threat of wildfire, with record acreage burning this month, including a 1,700-acre fire that continues to char the hills above Los Angeles.

With the emergency declaration, Brown said he would make it easier for communities to transfer water from wetter parts of the state to dryer areas. He also said he would seek federal assistance, though he didn't detail that effort.

"We are in an unprecedented and very serious situation," Brown said. "It's important to awaken all Californians to the serious matter of drought and the lack of rain."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-drought-Jerry-Brown-declares-5152625.php

[Arugula Latte]

1. Wow. Flashback. I remember rationing water as a kid in the mid-70s drought...

and Jerry Brown was governor.

[JNelson6563]

3. What a de ja vu moment for you, eh?

And no doubt many Californians.

Julie

[Arugula Latte]

5. Definitely. "La plus ca change" and all of that ...

I live in Oregon now. I know a lot of Californians can't take the rain and gray skies here, but I don't think I was meant to exist in a semi-arid landscape. I like greenery and a tree canopy and and rain-washed air and moss and moisture. I'm wondering if that terrible drought of my childhood had something to do with my preference.

[JNelson6563]

6. Same here, I need greens and blues in my world.

Michigander here! Visited Montana a few years ago, everything was beige. And dry. Was glad to get home. Glad you found home.

Julie

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Gov. Jerry Brown causes droughts

and it's all part of a family conspiracy going back to when his father was governor
(can you say "California Aquaduct????&quot


--future headline on Newsmax

[JNelson6563]

2. I think this will get worse and more widespread.

And I think it will get ugly.

Julie

[JDPriestly]

4. We need a moratorium on housing construction.

The drought is not a matter of a single year or a few years. We live in a desert. The more people and the more housing we have, the more water we need. We have to limit our population in this state according to the water supply. Either that or we need to start desalinating the ocean water that is so plentiful at our shores.

We have very mature avocado trees. They were dying until we deep watered them upon the advice of an arborist. If Los Angeles is to be livable as a city, we have to have some trees. I and many like me have switched from grass to succulents to save water, but there are limits. We will be forced to limit our population through some means if we don't find a source for more water. A city of the size of Los Angeles may be unsustainable in a desert climate like Los Angeles.

[Cleita]

13. I was doing drought tolerant but I think I'm going to have to a switch to succulents too

and rocks. However they aren't so good at providing a watershed so when it does rain, the hill doesn't slide down.

[JDPriestly]

18. Precisely the problem. That is why we have to water our trees.

My grandfather lived through part of the dust bowl. He became a conservationist. Trees must be protected. They hold the soil together. They secure hillsides. Trees are important and must be watered.

[Cleita]

19. I have several trees for exactly that problem and also for shade and a wind

break. I do give them a deep soak once a month. They are essential.

[XemaSab]

21. A lot of California and Southwest natives do very well with almost no extra water

This isn't the year to plant, though. :\

[JDPriestly]

29. We are on a hillside. Our trees hold the earth together.

Our house moves with the weather. If it rains we can close or open doors and when it doesn't rain, we can close or open other doors. I changed my front garden to succulents earlier this year. I'm so glad I did although I realize that they don't hold the soil in place.

[anasv]

38. I used to live in a flat area there.

Same thing with the doors. It was the clay expanding and contracting. Not that there aren't nasty hillside problems.

[Cleita]

14. Sorry, if you read the original post, I didn't mean it for you but the OP

I posted below.

[someone else]

28. At some point people will move out

Not enough water? We won't have to limit population, it will move.

[Berlum]

7. Republicon lies about climate change only make a bad situation worse

Republicons really need to stop lying, and get serious. This is going to impact their families, too.

[Nye Bevan]

8. If it's yellow, let it mellow...... (nt)

[KamaAina]

10. And what do you suppose I saw on the way to light rail this morning?

Some with his sprinklers on!

[Cleita]

12. To be less judge mental, the plants are living things that need a drink too and

they feed a myriad of animal life that depend on them.

[Cleita]

11. It's pretty awful. Everything is dying and where I live it used to be

green at this time of year. Now it's dry and yellow. My Irish husband often said how the terrain here in winter reminded him of Ireland and made him a little homesick. I'm glad he didn't live long enough to have to witness this.

[Cleita]

15. Things you can do before you stop watering plants.

Take fewer and shorter showers. Flush toilets once a day if only urine. Wash dishes once a day. Do less and only essential laundry. Don't wash your car. When you water plants, water each area only once a week and do it in the evening so it stays in the ground longer overnight. These little things save a lot of water in a week's time.

[grilled onions]

16. Usually this implies watering lawns,flowers

But when I see all those huge homes and each one complete with a huge pool it makes me wonder how much water it takes to fill each one. Secondly all these homes have so many bathrooms often with kids who tend to play in the water(as kids do) but in the fewer bathroom homes there is often an adult close by telling them to stop playing in the water, turn the water off etc.
At one time California was semi desert to many. Water rationing was a given. It's sad to think that Death Valley mode may come to pass once again.

[Cleita]

17. It's been my experience that those people who have the highest

use of water because their homes are too big and have too many bathrooms and a pool are the least likely to try to conserve.

[Retrograde]

33. +a lot

I've been through a few drought years here, with cutbacks on watering. What an across the board 20% cut does is penalize people who were frugal with water before things got dire. I got rid of my yard long ago, and now have plants that will survive with no summer watering. I'm not planning on planting rice or digging a swimming pool, but I intend to continue with my normal use - which my local utility recently informed me was among the lowest in the neighborhood for a house the size of mine.

Meanwhile, business complexes keep watering that green, green grass and letting the runoff flow into the gutters. When they cut down, I'll consider it.

[jakeXT]

39. Can you imagine? No more 1 hour showers .

“I’m really worried about how this drought is going to affect us,” he said. “I heard about the drought in the ’70s, and how people couldn’t water their lawns and wash their cars. They could take only one-minute showers.”

“Can you believe that?” his wife said. “We’re used to taking an hour.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/us/as-californias-drought-deepens-a-sense-of-dread-grows.html

[Jesus Malverde]

20. I believe an almost equal portion goes to lawns and golf courses...nt

[quadrature]

22. Strawberries need water.

Californians, apparently,
not so much.

(sarcasm)

[Le Taz Hot]

23. And one more idea:

Close ALL the fucking golf courses! Horrendous waste of water.

[Brother Buzz]

24. Close ALL the fucking golf courses?

How about letting the ones that have been irrigating with treated waste water for decades continue to operate?

[Le Taz Hot]

25. That treated waste water

should go to farms. Golf courses are a terrible waste of water, are a terrible waste of land and benefit a very tiny percentage of the population.

[GP6971]

26. And think of the pesticides

going into the groundwater

[Brother Buzz]

27. That water is FOB waste treatment plant...

and they will sell it to anyone. Who pays for the pipelines to deliver it to the farmers?

[CanSocDem]

40. And considering that...

...farms use the water to grow lettuce that contains more water than nutrients, farms as well appear to be a "terrible waste...".


.

[Le Taz Hot]

41. We partially agree.

There are certain crops, lettuce being one of them, that are a horrible waste of water, esp. for the lack of nutritional value in return. Our entire farming system could use reforming, everything from the use if "icides" to growing fruits, nuts and veggies that require less water to ensuring that minerals and nutrients are added back into the soil by natural means.

Having said that, my ORIGNAL objection was golf courses -- a complete waste of land and water that benefits a very small fraction of the population.

[CanSocDem]

42. And I object to...

...giving industry a pass while calling on the public to sacrifice more. While I don't object to public conservation, more attention should indeed be paid to the "entire farming system" that wastes resources like no industry I know.

The industrial food industry has even given FARMING a bad name.

.

[Le Taz Hot]

43. OK,

so, I'm guessing you're a golfer.

Have a nice day.

[CanSocDem]

44. No No No...

...I own some golf clubs but I don't use them.

I am, however, a picky eater.

.

[adirondacker]

30. Cadillac Desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert

[Luminous Animal]

34. It is an excellent book. I suspect that,

similar to the last sustained drouth that we experienced in the 90s, the north will be asked to make sacrifices to benefit the south and central.

[roody]

46. It is not raining up north either.

[ripcord]

31. I know we are going to need to update our mass transportation system

But instead of investing a fortune in high speed rail California should be investing in efficient water collection, storage and desalinization, it is without a doubt the most urgent need.

[The Second Stone]

32. Vote no on the Peripheral Tunnels

that will ship all the Northern California delta water to 400 farmers in Fresno and Bakersfield.

[Luminous Animal]

35. Yep. It will kill the delta. But the north has long been

the south and central delivery boy. It is an uphill battle for is environmentalists to defeat this.

[theHandpuppet]

36. Speaking of California

I frequently check the USGS earthquake maps and in the past day there seems to be some increased activity... even for California. Five along the San Andreas.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/

[Berlum]

37. Thanks for the heads up on this

[question everything]

45. Sad. Yet, I've never understood why so many development ruled by Homeowner Associations

in SoCal insist of lush water hungry lawns.

[Brother Buzz]

47. Growing numbers of those lush developments are using recycled water. Yet....

Dimes to donuts says those communities that use reclaimed water for irrigation will be the same asses that will believe they are doing more then their part in water conservation and will make no effort to save water inside their homes; twenty percent reduction is for chumps.

http://www.irwd.com/services/recycled-water