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California Drought

S

Spudm

Member
From what I understand, the drought is harder on Farmers and their equipment than it has been on Consumer prices for fruits & vegetables so far. I heard there is a shortage of Well Drillers & equipment and some wells are 1,500 feet deep or more to reach water.
Anyone seen first-hand what the farms look like out there in California or have comment on the drought?
 
Drought in CA plus their irrigation water allotment has been cut, so that will raise prices of produce. All the chickens being destroyed because of the bird flu will raise the price of eggs and meat will go up along with the price of chicken meat. It there is not a good crop of grains across the Midwest, everything else that we eat will go up also.

Don't like that? Complain to your senators and representatives; see what help they will give you.
 
Was a darter I believe. The species continued existance required minimum flows, legislation
required water to be released at specified minimums but the recharge wasn't there. Another
example is the lower Colorado and lake Buchanan northwest of Austin, tx. Although that one does
provide irrigation for the rice farmers on the coast, among other things.
 
I heard on TV the well drillers are going much deeper and have 6 months of work backed up. Then the government is worried about water and want to regulate how much they pump. One farmer is making for money selling his water rights than he could make farming.

Makes one wonder why so dry so long.
 
The fish thing is Federal. Not our fault.
I was in the valley yesterday. Lots of guys out disking tall grass before it gets hot. We have had some good rains a few times in aht last 3 weeks, and more tomorrow, but not enough to help the reserviors. The biggest one near me is at 15% capacity, 226 feet low.
 
You'd think they'd be loading all their possessions on a Model T and heading for Oklahoma wouldn't you?
 
Just an observer, so don't shoot me for this... but.I think farmers in the northeast should milk the cows, where crops to feed cows grows from rain. Not milking cows in 5000 cow herds in near desert conditions, fed feed grows under irrigation. I am pretty sure the farmers in the north east can easy fill the market, with dairy in a more sustainable way, and the price of your milk will still be about the same. Tougher to grow oranges in New York state though I'll bet. Neverbeen to Cal. ,but would sure love to go and see that state for my self.
 
Conservative Columnist Walter Williams had an excellent article on the California water situation last week.To sum it up he said trying to grow food in the desert is pretty stupid but what even more stupid is for the Gov't to subsidize growing crops in the desert.Water like everything else should be on the open market for sale and those that want to pay the most get the water.
 
News item heard on the car radio, several celebreties apparently have plenty of water for their lawns while others are on water rationing. Nothing ever changes.
 
Minimum river water flow requirement downstream of a dam? Some folks would shut the water off to downstream communities if they could get away with it.
 
not to mention it reported that a lot of trees are dying,,, and now just in there is a 20 percent increase in bug infestations in peoples homes.
it seems like Calif. has been cursed.
 
I have been making the trip across the state from the SF Bay Area
to the foothills once a week for the last 3 weeks. There is still
a lot of water flowing in the valley. Most of the tree crops have
senior water rights. There is a lot of cotton and corn planted and
alfalfa. I don't get down to the west side. I think that is where
most of the problems are. They do not have very solid rights down
there. I wish they could cut off the water they pump over the hill
to Los Angeles, they are still watering lawns and golf courses down
there with our water. Not too many lawns in the Bay Area, most people
have landscaped with native plants. I came through Modesto a couple
of times, lots of water there, the San Joaquin still has water in it.
Lots of alfalfa and permenent pasture. I raise oat hay on the coast,
dryland. We have only had 10" of rain the last two years where 20" is
normal. I have had good crops though. It is interesting thay you can
get by on that much less. A while back I talked to a grower from down
south where it is much dryer, he said they can get a good crop of oats
with 8" of rainfall.
 
(quoted from post at 16:35:05 05/13/15) I'm not convinced that growing crops in the desert is worse than building cities in the desert.
Click to expand...

So very true. Build in the desert and you are bound to get dry. Build in a flood plain and you are going to get wet. Both the large city populations and farming in the desert are disasters waiting to happen.

Rick
 
If farmers in the Central Valley had to pay for their water anything close to what that same water is worth in L.A., there would be no water shortage.
 
(quoted from post at 17:59:01 05/13/15) Just an observer, so don't shoot me for this... but.I think farmers in the northeast should milk the cows, where crops to feed cows grows from rain. Not milking cows in 5000 cow herds in near desert conditions, fed feed grows under irrigation. I am pretty sure the farmers in the north east can easy fill the market, with dairy in a more sustainable way, and the price of your milk will still be about the same. Tougher to grow oranges in New York state though I'll bet. Neverbeen to Cal. ,but would sure love to go and see that state for my self.
Click to expand...


Way too much common sense in that idea Bruce.
 
(quoted from post at 18:29:30 05/13/15) I have been making the trip across the state from the SF Bay Area
to the foothills once a week for the last 3 weeks. There is still
a lot of water flowing in the valley. Most of the tree crops have
senior water rights. There is a lot of cotton and corn planted and
alfalfa. I don't get down to the west side. I think that is where
most of the problems are. They do not have very solid rights down
there. I wish they could cut off the water they pump over the hill
to Los Angeles, they are still watering lawns and golf courses down
there with our water. Not too many lawns in the Bay Area, most people
have landscaped with native plants. I came through Modesto a couple
of times, lots of water there, the San Joaquin still has water in it.
Lots of alfalfa and permenent pasture. I raise oat hay on the coast,
dryland. We have only had 10" of rain the last two years where 20" is
normal. I have had good crops though. It is interesting thay you can
get by on that much less. A while back I talked to a grower from down
south where it is much dryer, he said they can get a good crop of oats
with 8" of rainfall.
Click to expand...

I heard on the radio yesterday that those with "Senior Water Rights will now be getting rationed.
 
(quoted from post at 13:59:01 05/13/15) Just an observer, so don't shoot me for this... but.I think farmers in the northeast should milk the cows, where crops to feed cows grows from rain. Not milking cows in 5000 cow herds in near desert conditions, fed feed grows under irrigation. I am pretty sure the farmers in the north east can easy fill the market, with dairy in a more sustainable way, and the price of your milk will still be about the same. Tougher to grow oranges in New York state though I'll bet. Neverbeen to Cal. ,but would sure love to go and see that state for my self.
Click to expand...

The cost to grow the feed is higher in the northeast, but if the price of milk gets high enough a lot of marginal land could go back into production.
 
> Are the people in LA pumping their own?

Actually, they are. A lot of the water in the LA basin comes from wells. I know the city of Long Beach gets about half of its water from pumped groundwater. And they replenish the groundwater by diverting excess flow from the San Gabriel River to retention ponds.

Southern California gets its water from wherever it can. Northern California, Owens Valley, Colorado River. Plenty of dams in the mountains, too. They're building a desalinization plant near Carlsbad. Santa Barbara has another desal plant that's currently mothballed, but they'll probably fire it up soon. Desalinized water is fantastically expensive; the fact that cities are willing to go that route is a pretty fair indicator of how valuable they consider their water supply. Water pumped from 1500 foot wells is still dirt cheap compared to the cost of desalinization.
 
(quoted from post at 05:30:11 05/14/15) Are the people in LA pumping their own?
Click to expand...

I bet that they could pump a lot more water if instead of directing all of the storm water into those huge concrete waterways, they replaced some unused parking lots and other properties with detention ponds so that the water could get into the ground.
 
Just speculating but if the dairy products from the east were shipped to California the shelf life might be shortened especially for fresh milk and cream. I have heard, though, that Blue Bunny ice cream made here in NWIA is served at Disney World in Florida.

Its too bad the excess water that is falling in the mid section of the us couldnt be sent to California.
 
>I bet that they could pump a lot more water if instead of directing all of the storm water into those huge concrete waterways, they replaced some unused parking lots and other properties with detention ponds so that the water could get into the ground.

Very little water flowing down the San Gabriel river makes it to the sea; it's almost all captured in dams and retention ponds, or it seeps through the gravel riverbed.

The LA river is another matter; Nobody thought about capturing its flow when the Corps of Engineers channelized it back in the thirties, so on the rare occasions when it floods the waterflow is lost. The riverbed is concrete instead of gravel like the San Gabriel, so none of its flow can soak into the aquifer. It's a terrifying site to see the LA River in full flow, with ten thousand acre-feet pouring into Long Beach Harbor every hour. I know there has been a lot of discussion about how the LA river flow might be captured, including one idea of constructing a huge rubber dam around its outlet to create a freshwater reservoir in Long Beach harbor.
 
I live in a little river valley in very far northern California. Even in this drought, we still have sufficient water. Virtually all of the land here is used for growing hay, that gets shipped south. A significant portion of it goes to feed stores, and ends up as someone's pet horse's poop. So really, the best thing a person could do to improve the water, food supply issue would be to go outside and shoot your neighbors horse.

Ben
 
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