6 Scary Facts About California's Drought

[Iwillnevergiveup]

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/01/california-drought-scary-facts-snowpack

##snip##

"Fire season just didn't end this year."

"The comment came from Scott Miller, the Los Angeles County fire inspector, in the wake of the Colby Fire in the foothills near Los Angeles. The fire is now 30-percent contained, but it serves as the latest reminder that California is facing an increasingly alarming drought—one that yesterday prompted Gov. Edmund Brown, Jr., to declare a state of emergency.

Last year was California's driest on record for much of the state, and this year, conditions are only worsening. Sixty-three percent of the state is in extreme drought, and Sierra Nevada snowpack is now running at just 10 to 30 percent of normal. "We're heading into what is near the lowest three year period in the instrumental record" for snowpack, says hydrologist Roger Bales of the University of California-Merced.

Water shortages, devastating wildfires, and growing economic impacts: All could be on the way unless more precipitation arrives, and fast. Here are some scary realities about the drought:"

##snip##

[Bennyboy]

1. I live the forests.....

and it is dry up here like you would not believe. Took a river tour the past couple and there ain't no water nowhere.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

2. I know what you mean

Yesterday I was shocked to see the ornamental pear trees in full bloom around S. Pasadena. As if it were April instead of January.

[PasadenaTrudy]

5. I live in S. Pasadena

and I was saying the same thing the other day! All the trees and flowers are blooming like spring and summer. It is so odd to be smelling the night blooming jasmine in January!

Which trees are the ornamental pears? The ones with the big purple/white flowers? I'm trying to figure out what those trees are, they are so lovely

[Iwillnevergiveup]

11. Trudy - if you shop

at the Vons or Pavilions on the corner of Fair Oaks/Monterey Road, you will see them in all their glory - mostly white blossoms.

[PasadenaTrudy]

12. Yes

I'll look for them today, thanks!

[Bennyboy]

3. People are now starting to leave CA. This is going to be devastating here. No food. Not just for CA

but we supply an awful lot of the world's food. Right now it is time to buy seed, and with no water, why would you bother? No seed, no crops. No crops no food, no jobs in the fields, the processing plants, the trucking companies..... no nothing.

The thing is, with this water shortage nobody has said stop watering your freaking lawn and stop fracking. (We do a LOT of that in CA believe it or not) average lawn uses 20K gallons per year of water. Fracking takes millions of gallons per well.....Pisses me off.

I went around to water up here in the sierras yesterday and there ain't none. There is not ONE INCH OF SNOW on the mountains that is not man made for skiers. (and that takes MASSIVE amounts of water to create) There is no water in the lakes, the rivers, the streams or the NID Ditches. NO WATER. Today I am going downstream from the Sierras to the valley and will look there, but I already know the lake levels. At my home lake, Folsom, the level is lower than anytime in my lifetime.......The old town of Mormon island is exposed and that has never happened. The river is in the original, pre dam channel now.

Anyone remember the pentagon report on global warming? Well, it is happening. Millions of people are about to be on the move in this country in search of water. Not gonna happen all at once, but it going to happen. Katrina is part of that. 1/3 of the city is gone and a good number of them moved to a place that has water issues, like Texas, or Arizona, or CA, where the situation is about to become desperate.

Here's a thread about the migration from the other day that I started: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024357024

[PasadenaTrudy]

7. We aren't leaving

Can't leave, either. I'm going to tear out the small amount of grass I have, and do my part to help. Not sure what else I can do. We live in a small apt, already take 3 minute showers, etc.

[Bennyboy]

8. Tell me where your water is going to come from next year...

if this continues into next year? You will HAVE TO MOVE. There will be no water, none, in your taps or anywhere. THERE IS NO WATER. NONE. NADA, ZIP, NIL. The Colorado can only supply so much water to SOCAL. There is no desalination plant online that could possibly cover it.

Might be able to drain the aquafier, but without replenishment, that will only last so long and most is contracted to farming concerns so it ain't gonna hit your tap......

I am telling you, prepare for the worst case scenario now. It is coming. There is no water. No water in any of the reservoirs here. One drought year in CO and CA at the same time and SOCAL is doomed.

[BlueCaliDem]

10. California has desalination plants ready to go should that happen.

But it's not the answer and, really, not necessary (and it's FAR too expensive).

Switching our wasteful farms to hydroponic farms (that uses and reuses very little water and no soil), and conserving and recycling water, is the answer for California's future.

"...Orange County has a model water recycling operation down the road in Fountain Valley, where sewage water is purified in a treatment plant and then pumped to large ponds to percolate into the groundwater supply. This costs about $900 an acre foot and uses one-third the amount of electricity of a desalination plant, according to the Orange County Water District. And it reuses wastewater rather than sticking a straw in the ocean."
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/13/news/la-ol-ocean-water-desalination-20131112

[XemaSab]

18. I think we have two in the whole state

Desal is not going to save us.

[BlueCaliDem]

19. Nope. Desal isn't going to save us and it's not the answer,

as I've outlined in my post.

Recycling and conservation is the answer - and it's far less expensive than desalination on every level.

[Bennyboy]

20. But see, we can talk all we want about that BUT,

it ain't gonna happen. PERIOD, get past that, NOBODY IS GOING TO CUT BACK, the Frackers are still gonna Frack, the malls, the golf course the trailer parks are all gonna use water like they always have (The mobile home park I lived in has five acres of grass, strictly ornamental, no use whatsoever) and there will be no changes. They watered this AM, like always down at the Country Club and at the strip malls on the way there....Like always.

You saving water is nothing (use a tired pun here) or me putting a brick in my toilet ain't gonna do nothing. HEMP is decades from a reality. Drip irrigation to a farmer who can't grow crops this year? HA HA HAHHAHAHHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA! Forget that expense.

People don't change and quite frankly we are way too late in the game for it to have any effect before the state runs completely dry. Or before Texas goes dry, or Arizona......

[BlueCaliDem]

22. I don't have such a pessimistic view of California as you apparently do.

When push comes to shove, California always finds a way out - as long as Republicans aren't in charge of the State or Federal gov'ts. We always do.

[PasadenaTrudy]

14. So...

millions of people are just going to pick up and move? Sorry, can't see that happening.

[Bennyboy]

21. Katrina.....

1/3 of the city vanished. 1/3 of the region's population vanished. Millions of people, on the move. The problem is they went to Texas, Arizona and Ca where there is soon to be a different type of climate disaster.


really, re read the Pentagons report on global warming and look at the 20 year projections and then figure we are about ten years into it.

Millions of people, all over the globe, on the move, water refugees.

[BlueCaliDem]

23. You cannot seriously compare a State like California to Louisiana, Bennyboy.

That's comparing apples to oranges. They're totally different.

[Bennyboy]

25. Not really when talking aobut the Pentagon report on global warming....

exactly the scenario they talk about. Catastrophic weather and climate events that create mass refugees. some, due to too much water and others, not enough water. Tell me how Phoenix survives 10 more years. tell me will ya? What about Las Vegas? How do they survive 10 more years?

I am telling you that there are hundreds of thousands of Mexican laborers that will be moving in the not too distant future if there is no water. Most that come up at this time, are staying put in Mexico with no water and now no income....In the Sierras, already hundreds of thousands of people have moved from the resorts to find work. No snow, no skiing industry, no hotels, no maids, no bartenders, baristas, casino employees, servers, artists, etc.....

it is already happening, you just don't see a dust bowl thing going on with miles of walking people , but it is def happening.

BTW< CA is not the only state in severe drought. Oregon is also in severe drought (not as severe as CA, but still severe drought) : http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?OR

The rest of the country: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx

[BlueCaliDem]

27. I've heard lots of frightening things about California in the past.

We had real smog-alerts in the 70's when the sky was so brown, you couldn't take a deep breath without feeling your lungs burn. Schools were let out early so children could get home, and P.E. was canceled for those weeks. It were dark, dark times in my childhood.

We tweaked a few things, used innovation, and now our smog is less than half what it used to be in the Valley of Smoke (San Gabriel Valley), thanks to stricter E.P.A. standards and the Clean Air Act.

If we do absolutely nothing different than we're doing now; if we don't conserve, and if we don't recycle our water...yes, you're right. We'll be in BIG trouble. But before we crow "exodus California!", we need to remember California's fighting spirit, and as with all other problems that CA has faced and beaten in the past, we'll definitely find innovative ways to keep from becoming bone-dry in this State - and the Pentagon reports will help in that endeavor.

[Bennyboy]

30. denial much....

NOBODY IS GOING TO DO JACK FREAKING SQUAT, don't you get that? We haven't yet and we won't and as we are walking through the desert we will keep that CA spirit (what the fuck is that anyway) in our rear view mirrors. Putting a brick in you toilet ain't gonna help.

[BlueCaliDem]

31. Hate California much?

Being a Badluck Schleprock won't get people to take you seriously, Bennyboy. CA spirit is just that: California's spirit in never giving up and fighting to overcome bad hands we're dealt. And we continue to do so. I've heard people much like you railing and crying that CA is doomed - ever since I can remember. And guess what? We're still here.

But you keep looking at tomorrow with jaundiced eyes of today and keep thinking the glass is half empty. I'll stick to CA's proven track record for resilience and perseverance, thank you very much.

[Bennyboy]

33. Well let's take a look at current CA water plans shall we?

This is coming from a Democratic HERO< Jerry Brown:

Expand fracking.

The tunnels shipping NORCAL water south for agricultural interest.

Yep lotta conservation involved in those plans.

The Governor declares a drought and yet tells NOT ONE SINGLE BUSINESS IN THE STATE to stop watering. OR FRACKING. or put the tunnel plan on hold. or stop water deliveries.

No, the most forward thinking plan so far (not the Governor's.......yet) is decades old, dam some more rivers to hold water. The long dead Auburn dam is being revived.

At the same time, the best business to be in right now is well drilling. EVERYONE is having their wells dug another 50 feet, after having done that 5-10 years ago.........

Now I can say that a State can make it rain and wave my Bear Flag but that ain't gonna help. THERE IS NO WATER. NONE> ZIP< NADA< ZERO. The Sierras have NO SNOW on them. NONE. (and what they make is so water intensive, especially with the warm daytime temps and melting) And as much as I would like the ghost of Earl Warren to wave his magic wand and make it rain, it ain't gonna happen. We may get rain, even a lot of rain, but the cards are dealt and have been for a few years now. A drop in the bucket isn't even going to be that really.

Water deliveries are going to seriously curtailed for farming this year and that means one hell of a lot of people are going to be out of work. Millions of people. Farm workers (they still count don't they?) to truckers, to processing plants, to distributors to consumers.

then we have a serious problem with our fruit trees with no rain this winter. Devastating crops. Again we are talking millions of jobs. We are already seeing it with avocados. http://www.cbsnews.com/videos
/avocado-crops-feeling-sting-of-california-drought/

My good friends are all almond farmers in the Chico area and they are freaking out right now. The trees need water, and that has always been provided via rainfall, but now they are having to buy water or let the trees die. They also need to drill a series of new wells. (Enormous cost). Thankfully, they are using the aquifer for most of their water, rather than rely on deliveries, but that will drain the aquifer sooner rather than later.. And the almond industry produces MILLIONS OF JOBS........One of the biggest private industries in Sacramento is the Almond industry.

We are talking MILLIONS of people with no income, no jobs, no water no nothing come June and July.

[BlueCaliDem]

34. First off, Jerry Brown is NO hero of mine. But he was FAR better than Whitman

(or any other Republican).

Second, if fracking (that you claim exacerbates the supposed drought) is going to cost millions of jobs, you can be sure California Democrats will do something about it. Do you seriously think California Democrats are going to let California businesses - and millions of jobs - fall by the wayside, and do California's economy serious harm? Really?

Less [URL=http://www.sherv.net/][IMG][/IMG][/URL] and more rational thinking.

[Bennyboy]

35. Why yes I do......

CA democrats, and 90% of Democrats nationwide, will side with business, especially energy businesses in every instance. They are bought by corporations just like Congress is bought by the corporations. The typical CA Dem now is Jerry Brown, who would be considered a conservative when he was first governor.

Fracking: The average fracked well in California used 166,714 gallons of water, according to a 2013 Ceres report.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), whose members account for 80 percent of the oil and natural gas drilled in California, said WSPA companies fracked 628 oil wells in 2011 -- about a quarter of all oil and gas wells drilled across the state that year.[3] In 2013 California's Department of Conservation director Mark Nechodom estimated the state "might see around 650 hydraulic fracturing jobs a year."

MORE: http://ftp.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=California_and_fracking

More on fracking in CA: http://www.cleanwateraction.org/fracking-california

Please note that fracking is expected to cover the entire central and San Joaquin valley. That is the aquafir.

[Bennyboy]

36. There are 1,140 golf courses in California.

http://www.golflink.com/golf-courses/state.aspx?state=CA

How much water do they use? http://www.ehow.com/about_6311062_water-consumption-golf-courses.html

Golf courses utilize large amounts of water for course maintenance. According to the Alliance for Water Energy, turf grass requires approximately 25 to 60 inches of water per year. However, water audits indicate that golf courses utilize 20 to 50 percent more water than required to maintain healthy golf courses.


Editorial comment: (But have made no changes)

Now imagine the golf courses in Indio. Or Palm Springs. Who's gonna bring the water? We are talking MILLIONS of gallons of water per day, yet the restrictions placed on them are 15 percent. Again, the replacement water will be the aquafir. And if that is not being replenished, then that will dwindle (thankfully that is the first place rainfall goes) quickly.

All around me are golf courses. All in places that ten years ago were natural grasses, typically foothills style and now are full of golf courses. There are four del Webb courses and countless country clubs all within about ten minutes of my door.

[pinto]

29. NOAA predictions don't see a "miracle March", as has happened before. Drier may be the new normal.

The high pressure ridge could break, of course, and enough rain may result to get the west through the year. Yet long term, I agree. We need to adapt and adjust all things water to manage the resource effectively. Long term. And I expect some changes will be made mandatory by state and local officials. Across the board - commercial, residential, recreational, etc.

A couple of points. Apocalyptic hyperbole runs rampant on the web sometimes. The west is surely going to change if this pattern persists. Yet I doubt it will shrivel up and die. You mention hundreds of thousands leaving the Sierra - is that an estimate or some established data?

I think a fact based approach to the challenge is our best bet.

[XemaSab]

32. Unless you're a Native or a Californio

Your ancestors came here in the last 150 years.

49ers, pioneers, Mormons, Chinese, Basques, Armenians, Italians, invalids, Okies, African-Americans, post-war suburbanites, Southeast Asians, Indians, and Hispanic fruit pickers all came here in huge waves.

People picked up and came here by the millions, and people can and will pick up and leave here by the millions.

[BlueCaliDem]

9. Why not replace your lawn with "Cutting Edge" grass? The reviews are great

and you rarely have to mow (Cutting Edge Grass has up to 48 inch long roots and dwarfed grass - the opposite of other grasses AND it's blend is Kentucky Bluegrass which is the most resistant against pet urine stains) and you only water your lawn once every five months.

It's not expensive, either. For a small yard such as yours, it's cost effective to seed and it's the best possible solution. Tearing out your grass and replanting with desert plants will result in excessive dust (bad for allergies - and your home) and lots of bugs you don't want around. Cutting Edge, to me, would be the best possible solution.

We're going to tear out our large front and backyards of grass and replace it with Cutting Edge Grass this spring. It's an investment of less than $200 dollars for huge water and care savings!

In order to do our part conserving water, when we shower, we turn on the water, get the body wet, turn off the water in order to soap ourselves in, then turn on the water again to rinse. Those of us in our household who have long hair (like me) wash our hair separately and use the same technique.

The result: water use in our household has dropped significantly.

Our water bill (water is very expensive in Fontana) for a household of five grown people, has dropped from a whopping $120 per month to $65 in less than four months. It will drop even more once we've established Cutting Edge Grass for our lawns and don't have to use the sprinkler system three times a week anymore. Can you imagine the water savings and conservation?

[PasadenaTrudy]

13. I'm going to

meet with the water conservation analyst for my city. It's a strip of grass along the sidewalk that I maintain. The city maintains the trees that are in it. So, first we have to determine who is responsible for it. Me, I think, but I don't want the city to get after me if I needed approval first. Just dirt would cut down on my maintenance bill.

[BlueCaliDem]

17. If it's just that strip that you might be responsible for, and it's far enough away

from your windows and doors, then perhaps you can get away with tearing out the grass and just leave dirt. I wouldn't choose to go that route, personally, but I understand if you'd rather do that than invest $25 for Cutting Edge Grass other people would enjoy (especially the City) rather than you and yours. It makes sense.

[PasadenaTrudy]

24. Huh?

There's too much grass and lawn in this town. Even the city is starting to tear out grass in medians, etc.

[BlueCaliDem]

28. Then it's time for technology to kick in.

And that grass I've provided a link for will help tremendously.

[Galileo126]

4. here in the High Desert of SoCal

This is supposed to be the 'rainy season'.

I haven't seen a drop. Not one.

I've lived in SoCal, in various places, since 1987. This is the worst I've seen since I've moved here.

Un-freaking-belivable.

[PasadenaTrudy]

6. I've been here

my entire 50 yrs. and never seen a Jan. like this...at least not that I can recall.

[bayareaboy]

15. I fled to Oregon & Washington in 1976 ...

Where the weather in California was much like this year, it lasted for another year, throughout 1997. At the time I was working in nursery management. It was devastating for a lot of people in California.

[PasadenaTrudy]

16. I remember....n/t

[Warpy]

26. I'm surprised the teevee folks aren't all talking about the current El Nino

The eastern Pacific around the northwest coast of South America is the warmest I've ever seen it, with little cold water welling up at the coast and warm water at the surface a good 10F higher than it has been in past years.

When it oscillates back, California will get drowned at the wrong time of year and with much of the vegetation that holds the water and soil dead, there will be a lot of tragedies there as mountainsides give and houses slide.

Climate is changing. Flowering trees are already budding here in NM and that's almost a month early.

[Bennyboy]

37. Yeah it is on

Right,we get heavy spring rains and the farming year is done. I just started following thisEl Nino yesterday thanks to BBC!

[Warpy]

38. I've been keeping an eye on it for years at the NOAA site

and this is the worst I've seen in over ten years, at least.

[Bennyboy]

39. California experiencing its worst drought in more than a CENTURY

with no signs of it ending thanks to high pressure 'ridge' offshore that is baffling scientists

High pressure ridge lurking offshore and blocking the typical winter storms needed to drop rain along the West Coast
So far the ridge has been present for 13 months and the longer it last the less likely to it is to disappear
Scientists have nicknamed the ridge of high pressure the 'ridiculously resilient ridge' due to its 13-month duration
The duration of its presence is unprecedented in modern weather records and puzzling researchers
Nearly four miles high and 2,000 miles long, the mas of high pressure is to blame for the emerging drought


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544531/California-experiencing-worst-drought-CENTURY.html#ixzz2rKMzGfZG
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co

[Bennyboy]

40. Yesterday House Speaker John Boehner visited a dusty California field

joining Central Valley Republicans to announce an emergency drought-relief bill to help farmers through what is certain to be a devastating year.

If passed, the bill that's already stirring controversy would temporarily halt restoration of the San Joaquin River designed to bring back the historic salmon flow, among other measures. Farmers want that water diverted to their crops.

Standing on the field just outside of Bakersfield, Boehner said that where he's from in Ohio, the logic applied in California regarding water policy would cause people to shake their heads.

'How you can favor fish over people is something people in my part of the world would never understand,' Boehner said. Without the emergency legislation, thousands of farmworkers will be unemployed, he said.

The bill is expected to be introduced in two weeks. It calls for allowing farmers to pump from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as water permits and forms a House-Senate committee to tackle water troubles.

Boehner was joined by three Republican colleagues: Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Rep. David Valadao of Hanford.

The announcement followed Gov. Jerry Brown's declaration on Friday that California is suffering from a drought.

Valadao said Boehner's visit draws the nation's attention to California's dry weather. In turn, each lawmaker railed on Senate Democrats for failing to negotiate with them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544531/California-experiencing-worst-drought-CENTURY.html#ixzz2rKNdFfLk
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Cleita]

41. I think it's starting to lessen. Maybe the ridge is going away.

Keeping my fingers crossed. Temps dropped on the coast yesterday and fog rolling in. It's not rain but wet. I have some hope we'll get a break soon. The hot, sunny, cloudless weather was getting creepy for this time of year.

[Bennyboy]

42. A bit of snow in Tahoe last night.....

Some clouds anyway.

Record high today in Sacramento: http://www.sacbee.com/weather/

5 day says clouds but no rain on Monday and Tuesday.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

43. Egads - in L.A. another week of 70's

but 20% chance of rain on Saturday Feb. 1 and 30% on Sunday, Feb. 2. Rain always looks and feels so close, but never happens. For my northern Californian friends, I heard a guy saying he was in San Francisco last weekend and walked around in shirt sleeves at night! I remember years ago being there in June and having to wear a sweatshirt in the day time!

[Bennyboy]

44. Cattle ranchers feel brunt of the drought; some fear costs will triple

It’s easy to see how harshly drought has visited Stanley Van Vleck’s 10,000-acre cattle ranch. In all directions, across plain and foothill, the landscape is colored sickly brown.

Winter is normally the time that California ranchers rely on the rain to turn the grass green, providing food for cattle that roam the hillsides. This year, though, there is no green grass to be found on Van Vleck’s sprawling ranch south of Highway 16 near Rancho Murieta.

“This is worse than the drought in the 1970s,” Van Vleck said. “That drought lasted longer but at least there was more rain per year. So, our lands are severely impacted. When you have no water, you have no grass. And when you have no grass you have no meat.”

Van Vleck’s ranch gets all of its supply of water from rain. It’s water that he traps on 15 ponds and a large lake. Currently, half of the ponds are nothing but dust sinks. The 350-acre lake, which he uses to irrigate pastures, has shrunk to a 10-acre pond. The water level is so low it now lies several feet below the spillway used to send it to pasture areas.

Van Vleck, like many other cattle ranchers in California, is coping by selling off as many cattle as he can without crippling his business.

“We’re downsizing like we never have had to,” said Van Vleck, who sells premium Kobe beef to Snake River Farms. “This is now more a drastic situation than we thought it would be.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6101551/cattle-ranchers-feel-brunt-of.html#storylink=cpy

[XemaSab]

45. Lot of hay trucks coming down the 5 from Oregon

[Bennyboy]

46. Oregon is in drought as well......

Not as severe but drought all the same. Come summer it's gonna be harsh as hell.... Imagine if the lake never goes above whee it is now by April 1st..... Shasta supplies one heck of a lot of people with water downstream.....

[Bennyboy]

47. Some water management issues.....

During the current drought, the public will hear a lot about water management in California. Unfortunately, Californians are being presented with a false dichotomy – that California’s water problems are about fish vs. people. It’s what large corporate agribusinesses from the Westlands Water District and Kern County Water Agency have been pushing on the public since 2009. While we agree with these opposing groups that we have a water management problem that is harming everyday people, the facts show that the causes and solutions are different than what they claim.

Over the past 10 years, Westlands and Kern have taken more water from the Delta on an annual average basis than the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District combined – even though tens of millions of people use water in these urban water districts. Yet Westlands and Kern County growers contribute less than 0.3 percent to the state’s annual GDP, and the farmworker communities found within these water districts suffer from high unemployment even when there’s plenty of water flowing through the system.

Reservoirs serving the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California are filled to 93 percent, 97 percent and 103 percent of capacity. Recently, Metropolitan Water District’s Jeff Kightlinger said the district has enough water in storage to get through the next two to three years if this dry period should continue.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6097073/viewpoints-better-solutions-for.html#storylink=cpyhttp://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6097073/viewpoints-better-solutions-for.html

[Bennyboy]

49. Stormy seas ahead for the California water debate

Stormy seas ahead for the California water debate


WASHINGTON -- The California drought will soon expose the geographic, political, personal and institutional divisions that complicate meaningful congressional action.

Forget farmers versus environmentalists, that classic California plot. These divisions go deeper, and could easily kill the legislative fixes House Republicans vowed to make at a Bakersfield-area farm last week.

In the state’s Central Valley, the potential farmer-against-farmer conflict could pit East Side versus West Side and North versus South. On Capitol Hill, besides the never-ending clash between Republicans and Democrats, unresolved tensions divide House from Senate. One on one, bad blood divides certain key lawmakers.

“It’s probably going to be very difficult for Congress to respond,” Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, said in an interview Friday, “but this crisis is so big that Congress has to try.”


Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/27/6099476/stormy-seas-ahead-for-the-california.html#storylink=cpy

[Bennyboy]

48. California drought threatens coho salmon with extinction

The lack of rain this winter could eventually be disastrous for thirsty California, but the drought may have already ravaged some of the most storied salmon runs on the West Coast.

The coho salmon of Central California, which swim up the rivers and creeks during the first winter rains, are stranded in the ocean waiting for the surge of water that signals the beginning of their annual migration, but it may never come.

All the creeks between the Golden Gate and Monterey Bay are blocked by sand bars because of the lack of rain, making it impossible for the masses of salmon to reach their native streams and create the next generation of coho. The endangered coho could go extinct over much of their range if they do not spawn this year, according to biologists.

"It may already be too late," said Stafford Lehr, chief of fisheries for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "The Central Coast coho could be gone south of the Golden Gate."

The situation is bad even in the one place fish can get upstream, in West Marin County. Very few coho have been seen in Lagunitas Creek, long considered a bellwether of salmon health in the region, according to Eric Ettlinger, the aquatic ecologist for the Marin Municipal Water District.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-drought-threatens-coho-salmon-with-5175736.php