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klk
Trad climber
cali
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yeah chaz, co, city and homeowner assoc. requirements for lawns are one of the biggest problems in urban areas.
all the midwesterners who moved to california and brought their lawn fetishes with them. worse now, because over the course of the last century, americans have grown especially found of imported grasses that are watered right up to the edge of dying in order to get that particular shade of green that scott & co. hold out as the ideal.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Feb 16, 2014 - 12:52pm PT
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The President was out here last week, preaching how we need to re-think the way we use water.
Then, to demonstrate, he went golfing in Palm Desert.
No problem here, eh Mr President.
Instead of using water to grow food, it's best used to irrigate grass in a desert.
He should have found one of those mostly-dirt links courses to play on.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 19, 2014 - 08:37am PT
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Okay, I was almost going to start a new thread concerning this issue (and several other related issues) but this thread will suffice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26124989
NB Be warned, some of the photos are "scary", disconcerting in the least.
California drought: Why some farmers are 'exporting water' to China
While historic winter storms have battered much of the US, California is suffering its worst drought on record. So why is America's most valuable farming state using billions of gallons of water to grow hay - specifically alfalfa - which is then shipped to China?
The reservoirs of California are just a fraction of capacity amid the worst drought in the state's history.
"This should be like Eden right now," farmer John Dofflemyer says, looking out over a brutally dry, brown valley as his remaining cows feed on the hay he's had to buy in to keep them healthy.
In the dried-up fields of California's Central Valley, farmers like Dofflemyer are selling their cattle. Others have to choose which crops get the scarce irrigation water and which will wither.
"These dry times, this drought, has a far-reaching impact well beyond California," he said as the cattle fell in line behind his small tractor following the single hay bale on the back.
"We have never seen anything like this before - it's new ground for everybody."
California is the biggest agricultural state in the US - half the nation's fruit and vegetables are grown here.
Farmers are calling for urgent help, people in cities are being told to conserve water and the governor is warning of record drought.
But at the other end of the state the water is flowing as the sprinklers are making it rain in at least one part of southern California.
The farmers are making hay while the year-round sun shines, and they are exporting cattle-feed to China.
The southern Imperial Valley, which borders Mexico, draws its water from the Colorado river along the blue liquid lifeline of the All American Canal.
It brings the desert alive with hundreds of hectares of lush green fields - much of it alfalfa hay, a water-hungry but nutritious animal feed which once propped up the dairy industry here, and is now doing a similar job in China.
"A hundred billion gallons of water per year is being exported in the form of alfalfa from California," argues Professor Robert Glennon from Arizona College of Law.
"It's a huge amount. It's enough for a year's supply for a million families - it's a lot of water, particularly when you're looking at the dreadful drought throughout the south-west."
Manuel Ramirez from K&M Press is an exporter in the Imperial Valley, and his barns are full of hay to be compressed, plastic-wrapped, packed directly into containers and driven straight to port where they are shipped to Asia and the Middle East.
"The last few years there has been an increase in exports to China. We started five years back and the demand for alfalfa hay has increased," he says.
"It's cost effective. We have abundance of water here which allows us to grow hay for the foreign market."
Cheap water rights and America's trade imbalance with China make this not just viable, but profitable.
"We have more imports than exports so a lot of the steamship lines are looking to take something back," Glennon says. "And hay is one of the products which they take back."
It's now cheaper to send alfalfa from LA to Beijing than it is to send it from the Imperial Valley to the Central Valley.
"We need to treat the resource as finite, which it is," he says. "Instead, most of us in the states, we think of water like the air, it's infinite and inexhaustible, when for all practical purposes it's finite and it's exhaustible."
Piles of hay behind 'Product for China only' sign
Alfalfa farmer Ronnie Langrueber believes he's doing his bit to help the American economy out of recession.
"In my opinion it's part of the global economy," he says, adding that only a fraction of the hay goes to China.
"We have to do something to balance that trade imbalance, and alfalfa is a small part we can do in the Imperial Valley to help that."
He believes the whole "exporting water" argument is nonsense - that all agricultural exports contain water - and that there are few better uses for it.
"Is it more efficient to use water for a golf course for the movie stars?" Langrueber said.
"Or is it more efficient for farmers to use it to grow a crop and export it and create this mass economic engine that drives the country?"
Japan, Korea and the United Arab Emirates all buy Californian hay. The price is now so high that many local dairy farmers and cattle ranchers can't afford the cost when the rains fail and their usual supplies are insufficient.
But they have to buy what they can.
Cattle rancher John Dofflemyer certainly sees it as exporting water abroad - he resents the fact hay is sent overseas.
Hay trucks are a common sight heading north up the road from the Imperial Valley - despite the high prices, the cattle farmers have to buy what they can.
Even with recent rains in northern California there's still a critical shortage of water.
Drought is often an excuse for politicians to build dams or reduce environmental controls, but it's no long-term fix.
In those places awash with water - where global trade distorts the local market - decisions need to be made by those without something to gain.
That's where it gets even more complicated.
ENDS
So again, is it a case of big agribusiness sucking up the water or is it more like hundreds of small-time farmers?
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MikeL
climber
SANTA CLARA, CA
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Feb 19, 2014 - 11:45am PT
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^^^^^^
I can tell you're not in it.
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Splater
climber
Grey Matter
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Feb 19, 2014 - 12:55pm PT
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There is no drought in the dryest desert, the Imperial Valley. As the primary water rights holder to 3.85 million acre-feet, which is most of California's 4.4 million acre-feet per year from the Colorado river, the desert farmers are unaffected by the reality of most. $20 per acre foot is the delivered price that grows the alfalfa.
Cadillac Desert by Reisner is a superb book.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Feb 19, 2014 - 01:12pm PT
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Cadillac Desert is a terrific book. It is somewhat ominous though in that it very clearly discusses the West's limited water resources over the next couple of decades, which is really just a nice way of saying there will not be enough to go around given our current consumption.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Feb 19, 2014 - 01:44pm PT
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I wouldn't be so quick to assign a California (western U.S.) drought to global warming or even climate change. Drought IS THE NORM here. It has been for a long time. Global warming might induce climate change here in California but projection models have been fuzzy on what sort of change... warmer, wetter winters, perhaps. Warmer drier winters not as likely but either way the projections are not solid.
yeah, none of the folks I know and respect who are top-tier climate/earth science researchers are eager to point to anthropogenic warming as the cause of any particular storm or drought (aside from those involving rising sea levels). that said, every major model i've seen for southwest regions (including most of cali) have projected increased volatility but warmer and drier averages. and i don't know anyone who believes that having more carbon in the atmosphere is going to make the next megadrought better than the last one.
the Obama photo-op tour was really painful to watch. Amateur hour climate change speech followed by photo-ops of him golfing on subsidized lawns.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Feb 19, 2014 - 02:16pm PT
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the one way that global warming (and anthropogenic warming) interact with the drought is, ironically, the increased chances of catastrophic flooding.
warmer (and more temp-volatile) storm events are strongly correlated with past catastrophic flooding. and the higher sea levels produced by the polar ice cap melt are putting more pressure both on potential catastrophic flood events and on lowered levels of water in the bay and the delta.
higher sea levels mean more salt water intrusion farther up river, as well as more water available for flood events.
barnette, das, and dettinger have been the leaders in doing that research-- it's really sobering. so far as norcal specifically goes, i don't think anyone claims to have a predictive model that can focus down to that fine of a level, but most of the papers on sierra nevada is actually on the northern end because that's where most of the water comes from.
have you read lynn's book? she's the major figure on recovering and periodizxing the mega-droughts, and the new book is the best review of the lit that i know. it's a popular book, not a scholarly one, but folks can chase the bibliography.
http://www.amazon.com/The-West-without-Water-Droughts/dp/0520268555
our post-literate friends can watch lectures online. time-consuming, less detail, not the way i'd go. but the entire 2007 colloquium on water was youtubed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10TALq2Kirc
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Feb 19, 2014 - 06:16pm PT
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Cattle rancher John Dofflemyer certainly sees it as exporting water abroad - he resents the fact hay is sent overseas.
You wonder if he would be as resentful, if he discovered that he could double his profit by selling overseas.
This is a good thing, having a robust export market. It is good for the economy, and it is good for the country.
Maybe Dofflemyer should consider growing alfalfa instead of beef, which I understand is considerably more water intensive to grow.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Feb 19, 2014 - 06:18pm PT
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which is most of California's 4.4 million acre-feet per year from the Colorado river, the desert farmers are unaffected by the reality of most. $20 per acre foot is the delivered price that grows the alfalfa.
I was at a meeting of LADWP this morning, in which the cost of that same water to the city of LA was quoted as $862 per acre foot.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 19, 2014 - 09:07pm PT
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LADWP has to pump their water over a really big hill (more than once) and then treat it to drinking water standards.
CVWD just has to let it run downhill and the only treatment is to kill the Quagua mussels. A good chunk of the Imperial Valley is well below sea level.
In fact the Salton Sea owes it's existence to a flood event+earthquake induced break in the canal back in 1905
(then there's the LADWP, union embezzlement of tens of millions, maintenance of an extensive ancient distribution network, etc.)
Apples and oranges.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 19, 2014 - 10:10pm PT
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Yah,
I killed the Quagua mussels
(for MWD too)
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Feb 19, 2014 - 10:33pm PT
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TGT is in the business of watering down the truth...
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Feb 20, 2014 - 12:26am PT
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Mr Milktoast writes:
"I know if built they will be used to divert more water to SoCal and that water will be consumed to capacity."
The naïve part of me wants to think that one day maybe the water supply will catch up to the demand, but I'm afraid Mr Milktoast's observation is a lot closer to reality.
The first drought I remember was in '77. I was 14. We got a kick out of "if it's brown, flush it down - if it's yellow, let it mellow". I was living in Fontana ( CA ) then, and the population there in '77 was 24,000.
We endured a hot summer ( A/C was something damn few houses in '77 had, and ours wasn't one of them ) of warm pots full of piss, only clearing when someone crapped. It wasn't pleasant, but we were saving water, and that's all that mattered.
Now, I have a low-flow toilet that requires three flushes to clear a #2, and a low-flow shower head that more than doubles the time I need to get a shower. My truck hasn't been washed since it was in the Pacific Northwest, where it rains more-or-less constantly. I've let the lawn die, and go to dirt. I never wash the driveway with water, even though my goat pisses all over it every day. I go outside to piss, because using X-quarts of water to wash a pint of piss down to the septic tank makes less sense than simply walking out to where the septic tank is buried, and pissing there. So my toilet only gets flushed three times a day ( for the #2 in the morning ).
So today, after a lifetime of conserving water, what do I see? Right down the street, where once stood a vacant lot filled with weeds and rocks, there's now a housing development going in. Big billboard, reading "KB Homes. Here Comes The Neighborhood!" Several dozen houses, ALL of them hooking into the same water supply we've spent the last few decades saving and conserving. The same water supply for years we were told wasn't enough for those of us who were already here.
When we were conserving water, I assumed it was so I would have enough for later. Not for K.B. Homes to show up, buy low, sell high, f*#k everything up, and move on.
Remember I mentioned living in Fontana? In '77, there were 24,000 people living there. Then the Big Drought Of '77 hit, so we conserved water. Let the yellow mellow, and all that. Now, Fontana has a population over 200,000! That's right, a better than eight-fold increase, with no new sources of water. We weren't letting the piss stew without flushing so there would appear to be enough water to justify jamming tens of thousands of new people where they have no business being, but that's that what happened.
Today, after 35+ years of finding new ways to conserve water, I'm out of new things to do. This current drought will not alter my water use at all, because after a lifetime of cutting back, I'm through trying.
Because I live by myself, on a large ( five acre ) lot, my water use base-line, allotment, or whatever it's called, is about ten times what I'm using right now. Two showers, three flushes ( for one #2 ), and washing one pot, one pan, and one plate a day doesn't add up to a hell of a lot of water use.
Late last year, Governor Brown was crowing about all the new housing starts, after a few years of almost no new houses being built in California. Where the f*#k did he think they were going to get water? From like a flying unicorn, or something? Maybe he thought Jesus would bring us water for all those new houses. Or Obama.
Now, Brown says we need to conserve. Why? So we can cram even more people and more houses into an already depleted environment? Because that's exactly what happens when we behave like Good Germans, and conserve water. Every time. Without fail
Someone in government needs to have the balls to stand up to K.B. Homes and the rest, and say "the god damn boat is full here, go build somewhere else". And it should have been done forty years ago. Until then, I'll follow their lead, and keep planting avocados ( 40 new trees in 2013! More than that are planned for 2014 ).
I'll be re-planting the lawn this year, too. The dogs like it ( and they miss it now that it's gone ), its monetary cost will be small, and besides, grass in the desert has the Presidential Stamp Of Approval.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Feb 20, 2014 - 04:57pm PT
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Chas said: "Late last year, Governor Brown was crowing about all the new housing starts, after a few years of almost no new houses being built in California. Where the f*#k did he think they were going to get water? From like a flying unicorn, or something? Maybe he thought Jesus would bring us water for all those new houses. Or Obama."
That's a funny line!!! In fact, yesterday governor Brown announced a $678,000 upcoming bill for investment into water conservation (perhaps it's mostly spent on new ads that pitch the new motto: "if it's yellow and not jello walk away, if it's brown, don't frown") and it won't cost you a nickel. See? Jesus is listening and you get helped No Charge, voters already approved the borrowing it just wasn't borrowed yet. See? Free money?
http://www.kcra.com/news/gov-brown-to-announce-emergency-drought-legislation/24558278
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Feb 20, 2014 - 07:05pm PT
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Remember I mentioned living in Fontana? In '77, there were 24,000 people living there. Then the Big Drought Of '77 hit, so we conserved water. Let the yellow mellow, and all that. Now, Fontana has a population over 200,000! . . . Today, after 35+ years of finding new ways to conserve water, I'm out of new things to do. This current drought will not alter my water use at all, because after a lifetime of cutting back, I'm through trying. . . . I'll . . . keep planting avocados . ... I'll be re-planting the lawn this year, too. The dogs like it ( and they miss it now that it's gone ), its monetary cost will be small, and besides, grass in the desert has the Presidential Stamp Of Approval.
All fine with me, except that even with all the new urban populations, more than 70% of Cali water goes to agriculture. There are individual water districts where residential growth is an issue, but statewide, new housing starts and pops aren't the problem.
The problem is farming. We spend 70-80% of our water subsidizing 3-7% of our economy.
Are you MWD? I'm fine with you planting avos or whatever. If you're MWD, you're paying 5 times what corporate almond growers pay for the same water. If we just charged agribusiness the same rates we charge urban/residential users, the "drought" would melt. There's more than enough water in Cali for residential use up to and including old-skool Fontana big lots with some avos and maybe a chicken coop.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 20, 2014 - 07:12pm PT
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The orange groves were here before the suburbs.
Southern California was already overdeveloped by 1960.
Why should the latecomers usurp the rights of those that were here first?
Just because you outnumber the farmers?
The cost structure of a Semitropic, Imperial Irrigation District etc, bear no resemblance to MWD's
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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Feb 20, 2014 - 07:14pm PT
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I was reading on a fire fighter forum earlier today and one of the weather folks was suggesting that next week it looks as if the SoCal area may get a little precipitation. Not enough to put much of a dent into the drought, but should ease fire concerns for a couple weeks if it occurs.
Check out the US Drought Monitor for a startling pic of CA (and much of the Western US):
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu
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