aja8888
Moderator Emeritus
When I lived in the greater Los Angeles area in the 1980's, many of the golf courses I played already were watering with reclaimed water from the publicly owned treatment plants. It's nothing new out that way.
The implication is that ALL Californians will be affected to some extent, but one poster above had noted that Orange County was not affected. I wonder how easily water supplies from different suppliers can be shared in southern California?
Leaving aside golf courses, if the situation is truly dire, shouldn't reclaimed water (not sure exactly what that is, perhaps it's just retreated water?) be used for agriculture? If corporate and public lawns are still green, what message does that send?
Leaving aside golf courses, if the situation is truly dire, shouldn't reclaimed water (not sure exactly what that is, perhaps it's just retreated water?) be used for agriculture? If corporate and public lawns are still green, what message does that send?
This community near Phoenix has a beautiful park complete with a huge fountain that is operated totally on reclaimed water.
Great photo, all green around the pond, and dry brown in the area farther out.
What is reclaimed water ? , just processed sanitation water ?
I believe it is water from sewage that has had some significant level of processing. There are signs at the park that warn against drinking the water or swimming in it. FIW, the ducks don't seem to care one bit.
I recall back when Richard Nixon was President, a new plant opened that was supposed to produce water pure enough to drink from sewage. Nixon was there inside the plant, hard hat and all. The plant operator got two glasses and filled them with the reclaimed water and offered one to Nixon. Nixon looked at the glass and said, "No thank you, I don't drink."
In one of the most far-reaching efforts to protect California’s water supplies this year, state regulators on Tuesday ordered thousands of farmers, irrigation districts and
municipal water agencies, including the city of San Francisco, to stop making draws
from rivers and creeks.
The reality of drought isn’t sinking in for most Californians — or maybe people just don’t care. Cities and towns across the state have not only recently failed to meet Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request to cut water use by 15%, compared with a year ago, but urban water use has increased over the last year, up 17.6% in April, according to new state data released Tuesday. (Alexander, 6/7)
This community near Phoenix has a beautiful park complete with a huge fountain that is operated totally on reclaimed water.
^^^^^^^^
Hmmm. Lets put 40 million people in a mostly desert area. What could possibly go wrong.
I actually understand this as much of Hawaii is a desert (under draught conditions) - and we can't bring in water from other states. Fortunately, we have fewer than 1.5 million population.
^^^^^^^^
Hmmm. Lets put 40 million people in a mostly desert area. What could possibly go wrong.
I actually understand this as much of Hawaii is a desert (under draught conditions) - and we can't bring in water from other states. Fortunately, we have fewer than 1.5 million population.
It's pretty fruitless to require residential water use to be reduced since so little of California water is used by residents.
The breakdown is like this; 50% environmental, 40% agricultural, and 10% urban. Environmental means half of all the water in California must run naturally to the sea. The other 50% is ag and home use. That means 80% of water harvested is used for ag and 20% for residential. IF the governor mandates a 15% reduction for residential use, that is only 15% of 10% of all water in the state, or 1.5%. A literal drop in the bucket. It's nothing in the totality of the state's water. I drove up and down the central valley of California this spring and saw acre after acre of new almond groves. Almonds take more water than just about any other crop other than rice, and guess what I saw other than almonds? That's right, rice.
But making such a mandate has neighbor turning on neighbor. If anyone was caught watering their lawn, washing their car, hosing down a patio, their neighbor rats them out to the authorities. As far as I can tell, in this day and age of rage of people towards other people, not a good thing. Someone's libel to retaliate towards their neighbor, and for what? Less than 2% total water use reduction?
It's hard to rationalize letting my yard die and the fire hazard risk that brings when Google Earth shows dozens of 18 hole golf courses in the Palm Springs area alone.
And as to why the whole state? The San Francisco Bay and South Coast regions account for most urban water use in California. Both rely heavily on water imported from other parts of the state. Why 'punish' the whole state when the water use is isolated to these small areas?
Total urban water use has been falling even as the population grows. Even before the latest drought, per capita water use had declined significantly—from 231 gallons per day in 1990 to 180 gallons per day in 2010—reflecting substantial efforts to reduce water use through pricing incentives and mandatory installation of water-saving technologies like low flow toilets and shower heads. In 2015, per capita use fell to 146 gallons per day in response to drought related conservation requirements. Much of the recent savings came from reducing landscape watering, which makes up roughly half of all urban water use.
This isn't just my speculation, this is from the government of California itself.
Here's the link:
https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Webs.../June2019_Item_12_Attach_2_PPICFactSheets.pdf
If half of all urban water use is landscape, then if all landscape waterin use was restricted, that would only be 5% of all water for the state? Asking residents to reduce their water use and planting all those new trees and rice for mega farms has to beg the question who's calling these shots?
Good analysis.
Showing my bias as a holder of an ag degree from a western school. CA for years grew a substantial portion of the nation’s fresh fruit and produce, much of which was shipped to other states.
With the environmental uses sacrosanct and everyone else taking a cut, no one should be surprised if we start seeing shortages and higher prices for food historically grown in CA.
Political leadership unable to balance needs across multiple constituencies is a problem with no obvious solution as the shrill minority seems to have the greatest political influence at this point in time.
12,000 gallons! Wow!
Two of us and a dog and a yard that has a sprinkler system, and we use about 5,500 gallons/month at the hottest time of year! Without the sprinkler system running, we use about 3,000 gallons a month plus or minus a few hundred gallons.
My wife just opened the monthly bill from the city.
Out of the total of $120.45 only $26.82 is for water usage, and it's for 12,000 gallons last month. The rest of the bill is for sewer, garbage collection, and various environmental things.
My wife said "See that. I should be able to water my plants more."
Water usage like 12,000 gallons for a month equates to 200 gallons per person, per day. Not excessive if it's in a dry state like California. I think it rained twice this rain season; October when we got over 6" of rain in one day, and again in January sometime. Otherwise, it was 1/2" here, 1/2" there. Nothing that would be considered enough to water landscaping. Our water comes from the snow pack and run-off into reservoirs. Not from local rainfall. So all landscaping requires all irrigation all the time in most of California and the West for that matter.
I don't know where you live, but if it rains enough to turn off the sprinklers occasionally, then you have mother nature backing you up. We don't out west. Along with long stretches of dry weather, humidity is usually in the low teens. I have hanging pots around my porch. They hold 3 gallons of soil and each takes 1/2 gallon of water twice a day. That's how hot it is and how low humidity sucks the moisture right out of things. All mine is on drip, timers and moisture sensors. They won't water if the water moisture is more than 80% saturation. At 60%, the plants die and they never drip out of the pots.
My wife just opened the monthly bill from the city.
Out of the total of $120.45 only $26.82 is for water usage, and it's for 12,000 gallons last month. The rest of the bill is for sewer, garbage collection, and various environmental things.
My wife said "See that. I should be able to water my plants more."