OT Just how bad is the drought? Just curious OT

So it really doesn't matter how much goes abroad. If all of it stayed here it's still a bad investment.

In the winter of 1915, southern California was experiencing a devastating drought that had drained area reservoirs to record low levels over more than three consecutive years, causing massive agricultural and ranching losses. Residents of San Diego County were so desperate that the city of San Diego hired a man called Charles Hatfield, known as "the Rainmaker" [later immortalized in song by Bob Dylan as The Rainman]. The city promised Hatfield $10,000 if he could make it rain significantly by the end of the year. Hatfield's venture was apparently a success, but it is not known what actually caused the massive floods that tore through the county beginning December 9, the day after he started his inconspicuous scheme.

More than thirty-nine inches (991 mm) of rain fell during the following month, and storms continued deluging the county well into early 1916. The area's rivers and streams rose to their highest recorded levels in years. More than 200 bridges were washed out, entire communities were swept away, levees collapsed, and valleys were inundated. All the bridges along the San Diego, Sweetwater and Otay rivers were washed out except for a rail bridge that was left standing alone with its ends missing. The earthen Otay Dam, several miles southeast of the Sweetwater on the Otay River, burst on January 27 sending a wall of water into southern Chula Vista. Flooding deposited so much sediment that the southern end of San Diego Bay was filled with it – much of the sand remains today in the form of shoals that must be periodically dredged to accommodate boat traffic

“It’s actually stealing,” said state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, a northeastern farming and ranching town on the plains, who voted against the rain barrel measure when it landed in the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee he leads. “You might say, it’s a little bit of water, just a barrelful, how much damage could that do to someone downstream?”

But, he continued, “If it’s just a little bit, why wouldn’t we allow everyone to go to into 7-Eleven and take just one bottle of water, just a little bit?”

Jun 16, 2015 - 07:11am PT
I'm not sure what unsubsidized rates or market rates means in terms of farming. Irrigation water from any source in California is heavily subsidized by the federal government infrastructure in the form of the dams, canals, and basically free land to pump the water to. Without the water it's desert and worthless. There is no possible way to have the users pay for what it cost and economically farm.

Sure if you roll back the clock 75 years. But in today's reality, no. The water infrastructure is already paid for, in large part. Except of course for net new delivery systems and repairs. Let the rate payers cover those costs, as we do in my water district.

Its moot, We are not going to go that route anyway, so clarification is useless. We will go the opposite and fully socialize the water table, top to bottom, within a generation.

And there ain't gonna be no canal to bring down Canadian water to douse desert lands in old Mexico.

DMT

90.40.010
Eminent domain by the United States.
The United States is hereby granted the right to exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire the right to the use of any water, to acquire or extinguish any rights, and to acquire any lands or other property, for the construction, operation, repairs to, maintenance or control of any plant or system of works for the storage, conveyance, or use of water for irrigation purposes, and whether such water, rights, lands or other property so to be acquired belong to any private party, association, corporation or to the state of Washington, or any municipality thereof; and such power of eminent domain shall be exercised under and by the same procedure as now is or may be hereafter provided by the law of this state for the exercise of the right of eminent domain by ordinary railroad corporations, except that the United States may exercise such right in the proper court of the United States as well as the proper state court.


[1905 c 88 § 1; RRS § 7408.]

The researchers found that the Arabian Aquifer System, an important water source for more than 60 million people, is the most overstressed in the world suffering rapid depletion with little or no sign of recharging.

The Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan is the second-most overstressed, and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa is third.

California's Central Valley, utilised heavily for agriculture and suffering rapid depletion, was slightly better off ..

RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF. — Drought or no drought, Steve Yuhas resents the idea that it is somehow shameful to be a water hog. If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water.

People “should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns, golf on brown courses or apologize for wanting their gardens to be beautiful,” Yuhas fumed recently on social media. “We pay significant property taxes based on where we live,” he added in an interview. “And, no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water.”

Yuhas lives in the ultra-wealthy enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, a bucolic Southern California hamlet of ranches, gated communities and country clubs that guzzles five times more water per capita than the statewide average. In April, after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) called for a 25 percent reduction in water use, consumption in Rancho Santa Fe went up by 9 percent.

C'mon.

The Feds have already pledged 190 million in drought relief and are tacking another 90 million on top of that for the drought in Western states. California takes the biggest chunk.

Jun 17, 2015 - 11:33am PT
Reilly

I don't have a copy of the Carta (whoops, put the Carta befora the Magna) so I cannot say for sure. The date of the law is not apparent either.

Webpages are not, it seems, required by law or eminent domain to provide dates, so this is the best I can do (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=90.40

Chapter 90.40 RCW
WATER RIGHTS OF UNITED STATES

Complete Chapter


RCW Sections
90.40.010 Eminent domain by the United States.
90.40.020 Right to use water courses.
90.40.030 Notice and certificate, effect of.
90.40.040 Appropriation of water -- Title to beds and shores.
90.40.050 Reservation of needed lands -- Procedure.
90.40.060 Restrictions on sale of state lands within project.
90.40.070 Federal water users' association -- Exemption from fees.
90.40.080 Federal water users' association -- Records by county auditor.
90.40.090 Permit for Grand Coulee project.
90.40.100 Columbia Basin Project -- Water appropriated pursuant to RCW 90.40.030 -- Periodic renewal not required.

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As to the war, I'd say soon.

Property Rights – Background
“Property rights have two basic components: the individual’s rights and those of
society (the collective public). The individual’s rights, as protected in law,
prescribe acquisition, possession, exclusion of trespass, use for private gain, and
transfer of ownership from one private individual to another. But social rights in
property maintain that the individual rights in property were originally
established and enforced for the collective social welfare and that individual
rights always remain subject to the absolute power of the sovereign or the
state.”