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Does this account for the massively depleted aquifers thoughout the state?
by c_r_w 8y ago
Does this account for the massively depleted aquifers thoughout the state?
- givinguflac 8y agoHaving recently visited a few, I’m thinking no.
- theandrewbailey 8y agoHow does one visit an aquifer? A shaft?
- TomK32 8y agoYou are a Dwarf Fortress player? I don't think anyone else "visits" aquifiers.
- jayess 8y ago> “The reservoirs are full, lakes are full, the streams are flowing, there’s tons of snow,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “All the drought is officially gone.” https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rain-california-drought-conditions-20190314-story.html https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rain-california... EDIT: Sorry, you're referring to aquifers, not reservoirs.
- babyslothzoo 8y agoAquifers are not manmade reservoirs, lakes, or streams
- c_r_w 8y agoYep. I personally know folks with a small ranch outside of Sacramento who had to dig down 90 feet to find water for their well. Hard to imagine that being replenished by a few rainy seasons.
- 0xffff2 8y agoEven in places where water is more plentiful that's not a particularly deep well.
- c_r_w 8y agoHmm maybe it was deeper. I remember being shocked at the time, but my memory of the scale may be significantly off. It was discussed in the context of "there is barely any water in this aquifer these days."
- 0xffff2 8y agoMaybe it was 900 feet? That would be more in the range of "shockingly deep, but quite possibly necessary in California".
- benj111 8y agoThis quote gets me thinking about how snow is treated in this system. It isn't like water in a stream because it stays where it is. It isn't like a reservoir or aquifer because the water isn't trivially dispatchable. I suppose it depends where the snow is, some could be 'permanent', some seasonal melt, some gone by next week. So really we should be differentiating the different types of snow?
- gwbas1c 8y ago
- nathanaldensr 8y agoMy understanding of aquifers is that many of them take many years to fully replenish depending on their size and the makeup of the substrate. I remember a few years ago during the severe droughts there was much worry over aquifer depletion and land subsidence[1]. The primary concern was that certain soil types would compact permanently then no longer be able to hold water ever again. I doubt one season of heavy rainfall and snow melts solves that issue. [1]: https://ca.water.usgs.gov/land_subsidence/ https://ca.water.usgs.gov/land_subsidence/
- jxcl 8y agoMany years being on the scale of tens to thousands of years. Cody did a great video on his channel showing confined aquifers, how they work, and why they recharge so slowly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF4iCgxsZX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF4iCgxsZX4
- dragonwriter 8y ago> Does this account for the massively depleted aquifers thoughout the state? By definition, no. Though being drought free is enabling some parts of the state to actively pump water into aquifers beyond natural recovery, so they aren't unrelated.
- joe-collins 8y agoThank you for voicing this question. I think there's an excess of celebration for one wet year, when the long-term damages of drought are far from healed.