California and Florida may be on opposite coasts, but they have more similarities than you may expect in relation to water supply challenges. While California and much of the Western Unites States remains in the grip of a long-term drought, the Southeastern United States has quietly and unfortunately also entered into drought. Southern states including Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana are experiencing drought conditions, in some cases severe. The most recent US Drought Monitor shows that while drought conditions in the Sunshine State have abated somewhat, approximately 27.1% of Florida is experiencing some level of drought. The drought conditions are at their worst near the population centers of Tallahassee in the north and Miami in the south. Just a month ago, close to 40% of the state was in some form of drought and extreme drought covered parts of Southeastern Florida west of Miami. Continue reading
Report on California’s Critically Overdrafted Groundwater Basins has few Surprises but Opens Discussion for Additional Solutions
Land subsidence is not a new topic of discussion in California. It has been a part of California’s agricultural history ever since farmers introduced large-scale wells to pump groundwater from the Central Valley’s aquifers. In a very interesting photo, USGS Scientist Dr. Joseph F. Poland stood next to a telephone pole near Mendota, CA in 1977 to show the effects of land subsidence on the valley floor. As you can see in the linked picture, he put signs on the telephone pole noting where the land would have been in 1925, 1955, and 1977. Dr. Poland’s analysis determined that the valley floor in that area fell approximately 8.93 meters (over 29 feet!) between 1925 and 1977 when he took that picture. Unfortunately, after a century of pumping in the Central Valley, little has yet changed to make the process more sustainable. Continue reading
Eminent Domain and the BDCP
Rick’s Café Californian
California’s water world is abuzz with the revelation that the BDCP involves acquisition of land parcels for the project’s diversion facilities and 30-mile twin tunnels, either by acquisition or by Eminent Domain. As Rick Blaine (aka Humphrey Bogart) stated in Casablanca, “I’m shocked. Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.” Continue reading
Southern Nevada’s Water Supply through the Drought – Making the Most of Limited Water Supplies
In the drought-parched Western United States, it is hard to find a silver lining in the economic and social costs that the long-term drought has caused. But at Lake Mead on the Colorado River, people are trying to make the most of the limited water supplies and take advantage of the unique sights that the low water levels have revealed. In late July, CBS News reported that the exceptionally low lake levels have revealed interesting historical attractions that up until the drought, were essentially unreachable. The receding shoreline revealed the foundations of Saint Thomas, a pioneer town that Mormon settlers founded in 1865. Until the US government purchased the land in the 1930s, the town was inhabited and included a school, homes, a general store and ice cream parlor. In the 1990s, 100 feet or so of water would have covered the ruins of Saint Thomas. Now, visitors can hike for about a mile across the desert to reach the foundations of the former town. Continue reading