[Newsbot]

Title: California governor order first ever water restrictions
Category: Uncle Sam
Posted By: xerxes
Date: 2015-04-01 15:21:48

[andyt]

snowpack at 5% of normal. You'd think they would have clued in a lot earlier.

[fifeboy]

No worries, Stevo will divert some river for 'em.

[Canadian_Mind]

I've said it before... Lets build a fuckload of desalinisation plants along our northern continental coast, enough to supply California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas with all the water they'd ever need, and pipeline it to them as "processed water." Gives us more presence and jobs in the north, gives them all the water they'd ever need, and we wouldn't be pumping fresh water our of our lakes and rivers.

[raydan]

Why wouldn't they build their own desalinization plants?

[andyt]

raydan raydan:

Why wouldn't they build their own desalinization plants?

The sun is too hot down there.

[xerxes]

And they're hella expensive.

[Jabberwalker]

Any plans to divert the Columbia southward so that Californians can have nice green lawns and huge swimming pools out in the desert?

[xerxes]

Is any water left in the Columbia that hasn't been dammed up?

[herbie]

They won't buy our water! BC is gouging at $2.25 per million litres now.

[Canadian_Mind]

raydan raydan:

Why wouldn't they build their own desalinization plants?

I'm going to guess that cost is a significant factor. I'd also imagine they are energy intensive. Not to mention ruining the scenery.

[andyt]

Looks like they're already on top of it:

$1:

Nation's largest ocean desalination plant goes up near San Diego; Future of the California coast?

The crews are building what boosters say represents California's best hope for a drought-proof water supply: the largest ocean desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. The $1 billion project will provide 50 million gallons of drinking water a day for San Diego County when it opens in 2016.

Fifteen desalination projects are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay.

Desalinated water typically costs about $2,000 an acre foot -- roughly the amount of water a family of five uses in a year. The cost is about double that of water obtained from building a new reservoir or recycling wastewater, according to a 2013 study from the state Department of Water Resources.

Sometimes the high costs can turn off the spigot.

After enduring severe water shortages during a drought in the late 1980s, Santa Barbara voters agreed to spend $34 million to build a desalination plant. It opened in 1991 and provided water for four months. When the drought ended, the city shut it down. Water from reservoirs and other sources was significantly cheaper.

Similarly, Australia spent more than $10 billion building six huge seawater desalination plants during a severe drought from 1997 to 2009. Today, Cooley noted, four are shut down because when rains finally came, the cost of the water became noncompetitive.

"We run the risk of building facilities that we don't use," Cooley said. "And that's a waste of money."

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_2 ... es-up-near

[Jabberwalker]

herbie herbie:

They won't buy our water! BC is gouging at $2.25 per million litres now.

Who says they're going to pay for it?

[raydan]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

raydan raydan:

Why wouldn't they build their own desalinization plants?

I'm going to guess that cost is a significant factor. I'd also imagine they are energy intensive. Not to mention ruining the scenery.

What I meant is why would they buy desalinated water from us, as you suggested, when they could do it themselves?

[BartSimpson]

raydan raydan:

Why wouldn't they build their own desalinization plants?

Because political power is obtained by stealing water from other people. Los Angeles has this shit down to a fine art. That's why I have warned you folks several times against getting tangled up with LA water plans on the Fraser or Columbia rivers.