ot. drought

[scaredyclassic]

Anyone else scared?

[The-Shoveler]

I have seen estimates that say As much as 70 percent of all residential water use in LA goes to landscaping.

I am not scared but I fully accept rock and bark landscaping.

OK maybe a few Cacti

[Coronita]

No, because it will bring opportunities for water desalination companies, albeit water may end up being more expensive….

Plus, I live in a lizard invested suburb with virtually no lawn….

[spdrun]

Didn’t NorCal get some rain and snow in the last week? (finally)

The problem is that something like 85-90% of CA’s water supply goes for agriculture, not for residential use.

[The-Shoveler]

They are shutting down a lot of farms,

I think our snow pack is only about 25% of normal

OK maybe we could go another year or two before they get real drastic, but it cannot continue too long without a lot lot more rain,

IT would have to rain constantly for about 30 days and nights to get back to normal IMO.

[UCGal]

San Diego county only gets 5% of its water from the California water project (aqueducts from Oroville). So Northern CA rain and snow will help Northern CA – but not So. Cal as much.

Kern and one other county are being cut out of the CA water project this season because there isn’t enough water. Farmers are in trouble. (Heard this on KPBS).

We had a person come in from the San Diego Metropolitan Water District a few years ago to talk about drought. She said 60-70% of potable tap water goes to landscaping and pools… not indoor consumption.

We’ve started our conservation. We have buckets in our showers – so while the water is heating up, we capture the water…. use it to deep water our fruit trees. The old Yellow/Brown rules are in place… which my boys are on the fence about – partially think it’s cool, partially think it’s gross. We’ve stopped watering the lawn – just the hedges, fruit trees, etc…

[scaredyclassic]

Just feels creepy.
So dry….

I don’t mind going days without showering. He’ll I could happily go a week or two if social views change.

composting toilet.

I am going to need a few glasses of water though.

[no_such_reality]

You’re being played. The OC Register had a graphic a couple weeks ago of the last 60 years of rainfall in California.

We’re in a completely TYPICAL cycle. The the current ‘drought’ is no more severe and duration as 5 previous droughts in the last 60 years. And our ten year rain totals are about 1/2 inch below annual ‘normal’ for the same period.

[jeff303]

I’m just wondering at what point gray water systems start to make sense on a massive scale? Perhaps at the moment the cost/benefit still does not sway in favor of installing them for most people, but surely if current trends continue then this could change?

[SD Realtor]

Definitely Jeff… Had a thread on this site about 5 years ago about gray water systems. That should have been well thought out about oh…. 40 or 50 years ago and should have been mandated for builders to install them for residential landscape irrigations.

Also agreed with nsr. In fact regardless of the typical or atypical nature of the weather patterns, fresh water (as it is gathered and distributed now) can be essentially considered a finite resource. So the weather patterns don’t really matter. Population growth will exhaust the supply eventually. At that point water supply will come from the ocean.

California is at the front of the line but the entire midwest is not far behind. There is a large aquafir under much of the midwest that is being consumed without adequate replenishment.

[an]

If there’s all these research put in to produce BEV and FCEV, why aren’t there a lot of research being made in desalinating water? After all, the ocean water is abundant. If we can desalinate at a more affordable cost, then all these talk about drought would be moot.

[livinincali]

[quote=AN]If there’s all these research put in to produce BEV and FCEV, why aren’t there a lot of research being made in desalinating water? After all, the ocean water is abundant. If we can desalinate at a more affordable cost, then all these talk about drought would be moot.[/quote]

Yeah, but we might kill a fish.

[no_such_reality]

Courtesy of JPL

That minus 2 and minus 4 are quite large given the anemic nature of our rainfall in Southern CA, but overall, Cali and the west coast are getting wetter.

[paramount]

You may want to hold off in cutting back on water use until it is mandatory..

(I’m not suggesting wasting water however)

[CA renter]

[quote=SD Realtor]Definitely Jeff… Had a thread on this site about 5 years ago about gray water systems. That should have been well thought out about oh…. 40 or 50 years ago and should have been mandated for builders to install them for residential landscape irrigations.

[/quote]

Could not agree more. I also have a problem with using potable water for toilets. Not sure about you guys in SD, but my DH and I remember well the drought in the 80s up in LA. One has to wonder why haven’t we done anything about it in the past 30+ years? It’s not like we’ve ever had abundant water supplies here.

Same goes for solar, too. All recent developments should have had solar installed on the roofs, IMHO.

[Author]

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