Re:California's dry season is turning into a permanent state...
by rrss on Sunday August 15, 2021 @11:38AM
(#28189616)
> Not a single new reservoir has been built since 1979
This is not an accurate simplification of "did not construct one additional, large-scale water storage project." The have been a number of new reservoirs constructed since 1979. e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Valley_Lake
There are also sort of a lot that have been proposed, but have not been funded, due in part to the 1986 federal law that banned federal funding for water projects unless most of the funding came from other sources.
The emphasis on population growth IMO suggests that the water consumption has just increased linearly with it, which is not true:
> Total urban water use has been falling even as the
population grows.
Also urban water use is a fairly minor part, and it looks like agricultural water use is actually also down in the last few decades too:
> Farm production generated 38% more gross state product in 2015 than in 1980, even though farm water use was about 14% lower
These sorts of claims that suggest California needs to increase its water supply by 50% should be argued using water usage data, not using population numbers.
p.s. if all the reservoirs proposed were magically built this year, I think the total new water supply would be insignificant compared to the existing huge reservoirs in prime locations.
This is not an accurate simplification of "did not construct one additional, large-scale water storage project." The have been a number of new reservoirs constructed since 1979. e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Valley_Lake
There are also sort of a lot that have been proposed, but have not been funded, due in part to the 1986 federal law that banned federal funding for water projects unless most of the funding came from other sources.
The emphasis on population growth IMO suggests that the water consumption has just increased linearly with it, which is not true:
> Total urban water use has been falling even as the population grows.
Also urban water use is a fairly minor part, and it looks like agricultural water use is actually also down in the last few decades too:
> Farm production generated 38% more gross state product in 2015 than in 1980, even though farm water use was about 14% lower
https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2019/...
These sorts of claims that suggest California needs to increase its water supply by 50% should be argued using water usage data, not using population numbers.
p.s. if all the reservoirs proposed were magically built this year, I think the total new water supply would be insignificant compared to the existing huge reservoirs in prime locations.