Above S. Central Valley 17 California Towns Confronting Imminent, Critical Water Shortages

[hatrack]

EDIT

But for 17 small rural communities in California, the absence of rain is posing a fundamental threat to the most basic of services: drinking water. And Lake of the Woods, a middle-class enclave 80 miles from downtown Los Angeles, a mix of commuters, retirees and weekend residents, is one of the most seriously threatened. Signs along its dusty roadways offer stark red-on-white warnings of a “Water Emergency” and plead for conservation.

“I didn’t think it would come to this,” said Diane Gustafson, the manager of the Lake of the Woods Mutual Water Company, as she greeted a team of county and state officials reviewing the community’s request for emergency funds to drill more holes. “Our wells are so deep. I have lived here for 40 years, and this is the first time we’ve had a problem like this.”

So far, nothing has seemed to have helped: not the yearlong ban on watering lawns and washing cars, not the conscientious homeowners who clean their dishes in the sink and reuse the gray water on trees, not even the three inches of rain that soaked the area last weekend. Three attempts to drill new wells, going down 500 feet, have failed.

For a while, Lake of the Woods bought water from Frazier Park, five miles up the road, but that community halted sales as its water table dropped through the winter. Now Lake of the Woods is trying to line up alternatives, and fast: State officials predict the existing water supply will last no more than three months.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/us/a-dry-california-town-struggles-to-save-its-water-supply.html?_r=0

[hunter]

1. Composting toilets, sponge baths...

... and the only laundry you do regularly is socks and underwear.

It's survivable, but not an entirely attractive lifestyle.

What we ought to do, before the current trickle of climate change refugees turns into a flood, is to create political mechanisms for relocating communities that are no longer viable. At the very least their ought to be a strong social safety net to support those displaced by rising seas and climate change.

[phantom power]

2. “I didn’t think it would come to this”

Maybe we could put that on our gravestone