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Arizona has 360 sunny days. Arizona isn't the real problem, because they sell a ton of water and power to california, and that has already been cut back due to
by downrightmike 5y ago
Arizona has 360 sunny days. Arizona isn't the real problem, because they sell a ton of water and power to california, and that has already been cut back due to severe drought. Farming may not be viable in California, if the rockies don't build up snow pack anymore. All CA will be is droughts and severe floods because the snow just melts immediately. Its second largest city is the largest city in th eworld running off of ground water and some smaller towns have a few hundred years in the aquifers.
- hedora 5y agoArizona just happens to be upstream from California. That doesn't imply Phoenix or Scottsdale are sustainable. Scottsdale's population is 268,000, and they use 63.2 million gallons per day. That's 235 gallons per day per person. Californians average 85 gallons per day. Arizonans average about 100 gallons. Anyway, the snowpack is increasingly a thing of the past, and so is the Colorado river. I'm guessing Phoenix and or Scottsdale will be mostly abandoned in the next few decades. California cities can at least desalinate. References for the water usage stats: http://scottsdaleaz.gov/Water http://scottsdaleaz.gov/Water https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/scottsdale-az-population https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/scottsdale-az-po... https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3611 https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3611
- Gibbon1 5y agoI tried looking up Los Angeles total water usage. Saw a historic table that had number around 500,000 to 600,000 acre feet per year. Fairly steady since 1970. That's about 180 billion gallons a year. Divide by days per year and LA's population you get 123 gallons a day. But that includes industrial. Either way guesstimating the cost of desalinization, I think it'd be about $170/per person a year. Call it $500/year per household. Water bill $40/month. Steep but not impossible.
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- JohnHaugeland 5y agoThere's more to a city's water use than civilian use, and there's a lot more to California than LA There's no need to guesstimate. San Diego desalinates. They're almost the cheapest in the country, at about five times your estimate cost
- downrightmike 5y agoDesalination isn't the greatest, even the Saudi bought unlimited water usage right in Arizona to grow alfalfa and ship it back home. https://gulfif.org/arizona-arabia-alfalfa-lessons-from-the-gulf-for-a-southwestern-water-crisis/ https://gulfif.org/arizona-arabia-alfalfa-lessons-from-the-g...
- JohnHaugeland 5y agoThat's because they can't build nuclear reactors. We can.
- downrightmike 5y agoThey still have to dump the concentrate into the ocean responsibly.
- JohnHaugeland 5y agoI mean, they don't, though It's a large nuclear heat source. You can just boil it down to sea salt, then sell it or put it into a cave