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Saving Water in California
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Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 15 7:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I managed to read the link, so thank you to the linky elves. At the risk of returning to the original topic, it was an interesting article, and if the water wasting ones and the water saving to the point of dirt ones came together, there might be reasonable use by everyone.

As a matter of interest, I found wearing 17th century costume, that although I had been really hot and sweaty one rather hot summer day, I didn't smell in the least as I had been wearing linen next to my skin topped with wool. The natural fibres are the best when you don't want to shower every day.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 15 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

desert living is possible but most city folk would find it very hard to adjust.

imho the californian problem is more about feeding the usa with fruit and nuts rather than giving the citizens say ten litres a day each

the amount of energy required to desalinate by reverse osmosis or evaporation could be provided by fusion but fossil or fission seems a non starter

water supply has been a limiting issue with an "industrial solution" in the deserts of the usa since the first nation's sustainable population and way of life were replaced by european invaders with "progress" and their big agricultural and industrial methods of seeking the good life.

however there is a finite amount of water that can be diverted for human use and once that is reached "development"cannot continue unless an alternative source is exploited or a different way of life adopted.

Tavascarow



Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 15 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

California drought: agribusiness, fracking untouched by water rationing.
Quote:
California has responded to the drought by rationing water, with $500 fines for domestic 'water wasters', writes Evan Blake. But agribusiness and water-intensive industries like fracking remain untouched by the restrictions, even though they consume over 90% of the state's water.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 15 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

more fiction

on a bigger scale the use of water from the mekong ,nile and the ganges catchments is becoming a source of tension.

the struggle for water is likely to lead to violence as it has in the past

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 15 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Desalinization

https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/04/04/california-drought-water-restrictions-desalination/25286677/

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 15 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

iirc desalination seems as though it should be easy but it isnt either on a small or large scale unless you use a lot of energy to boil or pump or cool or alter the pressure and similar difficult stuff.

the natural version uses a massive surface area of sea,huge amounts of sunlight and a large set of mountains drop the temp and pressure to get the vapor to condense into rain

mangrove trees are quite good at living in saline water and some plants have salt vaults that are shed with old leaves but most terrestrial flora and fauna is dependent on the rain cycle

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 15 2:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Focus on ground water and farming in California

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html?hpw&rref=us&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 15 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Rather sounds like too little too late, but a step in the right direction. I am pretty sure in the UK you have to have a licence to either extract water from rivers or groundwater, and there is some vague threat about utilising what falls on your own ground.

It is possible to get fresh water from saline without using a lot of power or high technology, but it probably wouldn't produce anything like enough. Just using the suns heat to evaporate the water under a plastic cover shaped to drop the condensate into run off channels will produce a fair bit even in the UK, but as I said, probably nothing like enough.

Tavascarow



Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 15 10:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

From what I've read on the subject the almond crop alone uses around 3.5 billion cubic metres of water per annum. When I first read that I didn't believe it, until I read that there is around one million acres of almonds there, & more being planted.
Walnuts & pistachios are also big orchard crops there, although almonds are the greatest.
The problem with orchard planting is the time investment.
In times of drought a salad or soft fruit grower can cut back production till water is abundant again. Sometimes it's more profitable to put land to fallow rather than pay for extra water.
Orchard trees are long term investments & need copious amounts of water to keep them alive.
Marzipan is going to be expensive this Crimbo.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 15 12:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

yucca and prickly pear etc etc would require little or no water.

growing almonds is a bit of a luxury crop for what is a desert landscape with a few rivers from the hills.

Tavascarow



Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 15 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

They need 'the water man of India'.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 15 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

He is talking a lot of sense. The first rule of farming is to work with the water, land etc. that you have to get the best crops, not try to change it out of all recognition because you have the technology. Think that is one of the problems with the almonds etc. in California. They are trying to grow too much of a crop because they have the sun and temperature without thinking sensibly about the water.

There is an attempt round here to stop the water run off from new estates by building soak away ponds, but I am still not too happy about it, and think there could be flooding 'downstream', although the only streams are winterbournes further down the valley.

Ploughing across slopes does a lot to do the same as his catchement ponds, but with tractors, that is too dangerous. With horses and oxen, it was usual and resulted in the lynchets or field systems we have round us.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sun May 10, 15 5:37 pm    Post subject: Recycled Drinking Water Reply with quote
    

Conservation with what some people term a yuck factor - toilet to tap.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/science/recycled-drinking-water-getting-past-the-yuck-factor.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon May 11, 15 6:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Think the idea of putting the water from treated waste back into the aquifers is a good one. Not only does it make it seem 'cleaner' but it picks up the minerals so is better for people to drink.

Tavascarow



Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 15 1:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of California Drinking Water!!!! Yes twenty seven million American gallons of water for five hundred & twenty four dollars.
We live in an upside down world where Americans have been arrested for protesting because they need a fifty dollar permit first (I kid you not). & a multinational like Nestle rob the country of the very essence of life from a state that's suffering it's worst ever recorded drought.
There are times when I can't believe how crazy the world has become.

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