Earlier this year, The New York Times wrote an article entitled “California Drought Tests History of Endless Growth”, which garnered significant media attention. The article prominently featured a picture of a large house with a green lawn in the middle of the desert, with a large suburban subdivision in the background. In fact, the picture was taken in Rancho Mirage, a city in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs. Further research determined that the subdivision is a gated community named “Versailles”, and the houses are built near the famed Sunnylands compound, which has hosted among others, eight US Presidents, Queen Elizabeth and one of Frank Sinatra’s weddings. Sunnylands is a 200-acre estate with a 9-hole golf course, 11 man-made lakes and a pool. Continue reading
Water Use Restrictions – The new norm in the Western United States?
Earlier this year, The New York Times published an article arguing that, “In California, a wet era may be ending.” The article pointed out that California has a long history of drought conditions, and that the wetter-than average conditions that the Golden State generally witnessed over the last 100 years may not be “normal” at all. In fact, looking at tree ring data, scientists have determined that over the last two millennia, California has experienced many periods of drought that lasted a decade or more. In two instances, “mega drought” conditions lasted more than 100 years straight. When Governor Jerry Brown announced mandatory water restrictions in April, he echoed similar sentiments saying that drought conditions across the state are “the new normal.” Continue reading
El Niño 2015: A Drought Buster or Just a Bust?
The Western United States remains mired in a serious drought. According to the most recent US Drought Monitor, 74.51% of the Western United States faces some sort of drought conditions. Extreme drought covers 18.87% of the West, with extreme and exceptional drought covering portions of California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Despite an abnormal dose of rain last week from the remnants of Hurricane Dolores, forecasters have little hope in the immediate term that the record drought will abate. (However, the storms from Hurricane Dolores did break records in some areas for rainfall in July. Los Angeles averages just .01 inch of rain in July. On July 18th alone, Los Angeles received .36 inches of rain, which broke the monthly record of .24 inches set in 1886.) But in the longer term forecasts, scientists are feeling more certain that an El Niño pattern may strengthen this fall to provide drought relief to the parched West. Continue reading
Stormwater Infrastructure and its Potential Role to Change Water Supplies in California
As California slogs through the fourth year of unprecedented drought, all options are on the table to provide new water supplies to the drought-parched state. Last week, I wrote about recycled water and its potentially increased role in the Western United States’ water supply. In the post, however, I cautioned that the high costs associated with this water as compared to surface water supplies during “normal” rainfall years may make the implementation of widespread recycled water programs economically infeasible. Also, I alluded to the fact that the public sometimes has an aversion to recycled water programs due to phrases such as “toilet to tap” to describe the process of turning raw sewage into drinkable water. (Even some popular shows have discussed the theme. The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon had Bill Gates on as a guest, and he and Jimmy Fallon drank water from the Janicki Omniprocessor, a machine that can create clean water from sewage in minutes. Gates hopes to send these machines to areas across the globe to cut down on diseases due to inadequate sanitation systems.) Continue reading