On Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:31:16 -0700, Paul M. Cook wrote:

> "Bob Terwilliger" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Paul wrote:
>>
>>>> The water *is* there. Reservoirs in Northern California are doing just
>>>> fine. It is a *completely* political act.
>>>
>>> Tell that to my sister to works for the state water management district
>>> and who designed the SWAMP system while at Moss Landing. The water
>>> tables are being depleted at a rapid rate and the Sacramento River delta
>>> is being destroyed because of the water demands in the south. It is a
>>> nightmare. Not to mention we have had some state-wide drought issues for
>>> more than 10 years now.
>>
>> How old is your information?
>
> Very. We only this year out of the last 12 have had normal reservoir levels
> in the Sierras. That is anything but a trend and is in all likelihood a
> fluke when you look at then trend over time. We had one normal winter is
> all.
>
>>
>>>> Are you aware of the horrendous impact of desertification on the
>>>> surrounding environment?
>>>
>>> I am. Are you aware of wehat causes it?
>>
>> I know what's causing it in the Bakersfield area, which was the area under
>> discussion.
>
> That whole area for decades used the most wasteful water delivery system,
> namely flood irrigation which mostly evaporates. They could do it because
> they had all that wonderful underground water which is now mostly gone. The
> loss of the aquifers is causing the desertification. So now they compete
> for the water being piped down into LA from the Sacramento and San Joaquin
> rivers. The politics is merely a result of the fact that there is not
> enough water to go around.
>
> Paul

well, you could say that 95% of politics is allocating resources.

your pal,
blake