California: Govenor orders historic 25 percent mandatory water use reduction

[Attic]

There are answers.

There's just not many answers people like.


Desalinization is perhaps one. Time frame is something it doesn't solve for the now.

Use less water. Yea, unpleasant, use less water or pay much much more for what you use. This should be done so that the extremely high rate hike doesn't hit poor middle class who don't use a ton of water, drop the big hammer in rates on the few residents who use much more than the rest (limosine liberals will not like this).

Get rid of your lawns, ties in with the point above.

Move out of the state. Southern Californians can't do this because the women are too hot, it's an asymptote.

 

[ivwshane]

It's pretty clear what makes sense and where the cuts need to be focused:

http://www.bayareascienceforum.org/gfx/water-1.gif

Even if every non agriculture business, home, etc stopped using water it still wouldn't equal half the water used by agriculture. The solution is pretty obvious to me.

There are answers.

There's just not many answers people like.


Desalinization is perhaps one. Time frame is something it doesn't solve for the now.

Use less water. Yea, unpleasant, use less water or pay much much more for what you use. This should be done so that the extremely high rate hike doesn't hit poor middle class who don't use a ton of water, drop the big hammer in rates on the few residents who use much more than the rest (limosine liberals will not like this).

Get rid of your lawns, ties in with the point above.

Move out of the state. Southern Californians can't do this because the women are too hot, it's an asymptote.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

It's pretty clear what makes sense and where the cuts need to be focused:

http://www.bayareascienceforum.org/gfx/water-1.gif

Even if every non agriculture business, home, etc stopped using water it still wouldn't equal half the water used by agriculture. The solution is pretty obvious to me.

What is the difference between environmental and agricultural? Is CA using more water staying artificially green than growing food?

 

[DrPizza]

We are outputting our water to you in the form of cheap fruits and vegetables. If we stop doing that and keep our water you will have a lot more needing figuring out then we will.

You're subsidizing your water to make it artificially cheap for people to grow crops in the desert.

 

[ivwshane]

What is the difference between environmental and agricultural? Is CA using more water staying artificially green than growing food?

Environmental is natural flowing water, ie rivers, lakes, non man made.

 

[DrPizza]

How about no garlic?

Garlic can be grown pretty much anywhere in the US. I'm actually amazed that such a high percentage comes from California. My grandfather used to give away tons of garlic, from just a tiny little garden in his back yard. I could grow enough in my field, in NY, to supply a small city. Of course, I don't have any cheap labor to plant it and pick it.... And, I'd have to pay for the electricity to pump the water out of my well, instead of just having it diverted to flood my fields for next to nothing...

Just to be clear I dont like the idea of having yellow toilet water while my water is being exported to all of you in the form of cheap fruits and veggies. We need to ask better questions though. WHY is California supplying 90% to 100% of a good number of staples? I dont have the answer to that. But I suspect the answer is more complicated then waving it off and saying the free markets will fix it.

You mentioned strawberries. So they become a seasonal item - who cares. Cherries are fairly seasonal - not available year round - and no one complains about the lack of fresh cherries for much of the year. If they weren't grown so cheaply in California, with such abundant cheap labor, all of the rest of us would easily pick up the slack and grow our own. There used to be tons of "you pick" strawberry fields in my area when I was younger - back before a more developed transportation infrastructure for shipping out California strawberries. And, the locally grown were much sweeter and tastier than the picked unripe crap that we have as a choice these days.

 

[postmortemIA]

Yep we got local co-op strawberries last year. They were so delicious. And all Californian are tasteless, like plastic - look good, but no taste

 

[Ns1]

Yep we got local co-op strawberries last year. They were so delicious. And all Californian are tasteless, like plastic - look good, but no taste

Lol. I love the ridiculous Cali hate. Keep it coming

 

[boomerang]

Lol. I love the ridiculous Cali hate. Keep it coming

Think of it as "tough love".

 

[DrPizza]

Lol. I love the ridiculous Cali hate. Keep it coming

I don't hate California - I hate that strawberries suck as a result of California subsidizing growing them there, resulting in them being able to sell for a lower price than other places, which in turn, results in a loss of quality. When consumers go to the grocery store, they see two packs of strawberries. Both *look* good. One costs $2, the other costs $4. Guess which one they're going to pick? I'm pointing this out because it's why these other places cannot compete - you simply can't say "people will be willing to pay more for better tasting strawberries" because you can't tell how they're going to taste in the store. Come out to NY in June and taste some California strawberries side by side with NY grown strawberries. There's just no comparison, the Cali strawberries are so horrible. (Though, often "prettier.")

 

[blastingcap]

You know what bothers me about this is how a) agriculture uses 80% of the water so whatever non-ag saves will barely make a dent in the problem; yet b) agriculture wastes lots of water ... they could save so much by drip irrigation like the Israelis do. Furthermore, c) a 25% across the board reduction wrongly punishes those homeowners who ALREADY installed efficient appliances/irrigation/etc. and wrongly benefits the slothful assholes who did not. Because it's a lot easier to go from highly inefficient to efficient, than it is to go from efficient to superhypermegaefficient. You pretty much have to stop showering and flushing. Lastly, d) the 25% reduction should be split into progressive tiers so that rich assholes like Governor Brown with big houses and pools have to pay more. Similar to electricity tiering where the more you use, the more you pay. If you already use little, you get a 10% cut, if you use more, 15% cut, etc. and the biggest users get 30% cuts.

 

[ivwshane]

I don't hate California - I hate that strawberries suck as a result of California subsidizing growing them there, resulting in them being able to sell for a lower price than other places, which in turn, results in a loss of quality. When consumers go to the grocery store, they see two packs of strawberries. Both *look* good. One costs $2, the other costs $4. Guess which one they're going to pick? I'm pointing this out because it's why these other places cannot compete - you simply can't say "people will be willing to pay more for better tasting strawberries" because you can't tell how they're going to taste in the store. Come out to NY in June and taste some California strawberries side by side with NY grown strawberries. There's just no comparison, the Cali strawberries are so horrible. (Though, often "prettier.")

I pick strawberries based on smell, not price. I agree though, most strawberries in CA suck and have very little taste to them, they're big though :rollseye

 

[ivwshane]

You know what bothers me about this is how a) agriculture uses 80% of the water so whatever non-ag saves will barely make a dent in the problem; yet b) agriculture wastes lots of water ... they could save so much by drip irrigation like the Israelis do. Furthermore, c) a 25% across the board reduction wrongly punishes those homeowners who ALREADY installed efficient appliances/irrigation/etc. and wrongly benefits the slothful assholes who did not. Because it's a lot easier to go from highly inefficient to efficient, than it is to go from efficient to superhypermegaefficient. You pretty much have to stop showering and flushing. Lastly, d) the 25% reduction should be split into progressive tiers so that rich assholes like Governor Brown with big houses and pools have to pay more. Similar to electricity tiering where the more you use, the more you pay.

Water rationing should definitely be proportional, at all levels and segments.

 

[IronWing]

Western water law won't allow for the pricing schemes that folks above are proposing, at least not on agricultural water use. California would have to rewrite well established water law, wade through decades of lawsuits, and pay enormous sums of money to buy out senior water right holders (mainly large farmers and ranchers) before a conservation pricing scheme could be imposed on agricultural uses of water. LA was visionary in its early buyout of agricultural water rights. Late comers aren't going to get water so cheap.

 

[TuSpockShakur]

Am I the only one that likes to see blue California suffer?

 

[blastingcap]

Am I the only one that likes to see blue California suffer?

You enjoy other people suffer. Enough said.

 

[JSt0rm]

You enjoy other people suffer. Enough said.

Whats sad is the people that suffer the most are in the red parts of the state.

 

[K1052]

Whats sad is the people that suffer the most are in the red parts of the state.

It's blue on the map.

 

[brycejones]

Am I the only one that likes to see blue California suffer?

How very American of you, hoping your fellow citizens suffer.

 

[JSt0rm]

How very American of you, hoping your fellow citizens suffer.

The moment we could all get on the internet and see how much we are different that shit went out the window.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

No the problem is you live in a state filled with morons ran by morons. You guys are in a drought more than you are not, yet you do nothing to fix the issue. And then when you do get rain, it's a national emergency because you morons build your houses and roads like morons.

The sooner California falls off the better.

No worries people ! Once we get our High Speed Rail system (at the cost of 60-90 billion dollars) everything will be fine ! That is all that matters the morons in my state that keep voting for other morons to spend "MOAR" money on a non-issue when there are/were much bigger fish to fry in terms of problems in the state. lol

 

[DucatiMonster696]

You're subsidizing your water to make it artificially cheap for people to grow crops in the desert.

Some people will never admit this point sadly. They have the blinder locked in place.

 

[Vic]

Yep we got local co-op strawberries last year. They were so delicious. And all Californian are tasteless, like plastic - look good, but no taste

Strawberries lose their flavor very quickly after harvesting, and California strawberries are probably a week or more old by the time they show up in stores on the east coast.
Please continue to eat locally.

 

[Ns1]

I don't hate California - I hate that strawberries suck as a result of California subsidizing growing them there, resulting in them being able to sell for a lower price than other places, which in turn, results in a loss of quality. When consumers go to the grocery store, they see two packs of strawberries. Both *look* good. One costs $2, the other costs $4. Guess which one they're going to pick? I'm pointing this out because it's why these other places cannot compete - you simply can't say "people will be willing to pay more for better tasting strawberries" because you can't tell how they're going to taste in the store. Come out to NY in June and taste some California strawberries side by side with NY grown strawberries. There's just no comparison, the Cali strawberries are so horrible. (Though, often "prettier.")

I know the $3 CA supermarket strawberries are terrible because we also have $7 california gaviota strawberries from the farmer's market which are like the second coming of christ.

but the $3 ones are the ones I use to sprinkle powdered sugar on ^_^

 

[postmortemIA]

I know the $3 CA supermarket strawberries are terrible because we also have $7 california gaviota strawberries from the farmer's market which are like the second coming of christ.

but the $3 ones are the ones I use to sprinkle powdered sugar on ^_^

Yep, sadly most of the nation gets these $3 strawberries only. Now since most can't afford more expensive choice, your cheap strawberries have totally killed the market. You don't get anything else anywhere. Except on farmers markets or co-ops. And how these work is that you get them only in their natural season, like late spring to early summer. But that is how it should be.