CA water

California is looking at DeSalination. That is a good idea, Israel has done this for years. I think all coastal cites should do this.

Probably alright two or three droughts from now,but I'd bet it would take at least that long to get something up and running on a large enough scale wouldn't it?

It will take YEARS to get enough equipment. The issue is that they stop planning when it rains and start planning when it stops raining. They gotta keep the commitment.

CA has plenty of water, just too many people.

Also too many endangered useless fish such as the snail darter. They're more important than farmers trying to feed us, don't you know? TDF

I was surprised that with something like 38 million people, that AG still uses about 80 percent of the water supply. The AG sector there is humongous.

Desal plant under construction right now in Encinitas, California. Just up the coast from San Diego.

Although the technology for desalination plants is relatively simple the cost to run them is prohibitive. Even with less expensive natural gas the price would sill be wicked. With those plants would also come air and water pollution. The best solution to the water shortage is conservation and redistribution of suppy via market pricing. Ag uses 80% of the state water, and it is less than 2% of the states GDP. Also, about 90% of the water used in CA agriculture is paid for by the state and federal taxpayers. Millions of homes in the centeral valley don't even have water meters, and so long as ag is paying pennies on the dollar (many farms don't have meters either) for what they use there is no incentive to conserve. All that is needed is a meter for every user and everyone paying market based pricing for water. Let it go to the highest bidder. This America after all. The only reason that it can work in Israel is because of the Billions of $ the US sends to them every year, but that will quit with time. Our own Cadillac desert needs to dry up get off the back of the taxpayers. We certianly have no reason to subsidize one in the middle east.

Lets hope it rains soon in CA. It is going to cost all of us a lot. 38 mil people without water is as bad as Katrina, or Tornados in Okla. or Ala. or Iowa, or the big New Jersey/New York storm last year. We all pitched in to help our neighbors and fellow Americans. People in CA take water for granted, just like the people in your town. Most people in both places have never even noticed the water tower outside of town.

All the floods in the midwest, south, northeast.....did the people leave? Nope, just hoping it was a rare 100 year event.

My point is that the average person has no way to know that these unusual and hopefully very rare events could happen or be so devastating. If the point is that the governement should not let it happen in the first place....That is in conflict with folks that want much less government and very few any controls.

We have a desalination plant here that's been running for more than ten years. The Newark CA Desalination Facility was placed in service in September 2003. It utilizes a reverse osmosis membrane filtration process to treat brackish groundwater.

An expansion of the plant in August 2010 doubled the production to 12.5 MGD.

A lot of years ago CA tried to get some water from the Columbia River. OR and WA said no way.

KEH

Most farmers say they are for free markets,capitalism etc until they actually have to compete in the market then its crying the blues time.

(quoted from post at 21:23:17 02/17/14) Most farmers say they are for free markets,capitalism etc until they actually have to compete in the market then its crying the blues time.

Click to expand...

Yep, as most are with any controls. Fine for the other guy but let it hit them....

Desalinization makes sense where energy is very cheap or there's no other source of water. But, as Scott pointed out, it doesn't make sense economically or environmentally in most cases.

You're probably talking about the desalinization project in north San Diego County. Because of topography, it's difficult to import water into San Diego. That makes SD a better choice for desalinization than, say, Los Angeles. But it's still hard to justify the expense of desalinization plants for cities when ag interests are getting water almost for free.

Lots of information on the Carlsbad desalinization plant at the link below.
Carlsbad Desalinization Project.