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For California, drought/water shortage is primarily and agricultural problem, but has been externalized to urban areas and consumers - urban uses are 10%, while

For California, drought/water shortage is primarily and agricultural problem, but has been externalized to urban areas and consumers - urban uses are 10%, while 40% goes to agricultural uses[1]. “Environmental” is 50%, but it’s a bit of an odd measure - per the report [1] it’s for rivers and maintaining habitats. I’d pref to exclude that from the available total. That would make agriculture 80% and urban uses 20%. When you consider many water inefficient agricultural uses, there’s quite a bit of water for consumers that is being sent elsewhere. CA has also consistently failed with other source developments, e.g. desalination, so I’d argue it’s less a fact of life here and more a question of the will to improve. [1] https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2019/06_June/June2019_Item_12_Attach_2_PPICFactSheets.pdf https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2019/...

bcrosby95 3y ago
To highlight this, the imperial valley alone draws about 2.5 million acre-feet of water from the Colorado. That's enough water for about 40 million residents. Nothing vital grows there.
- sologoub 3y ago
  Looked up imperial valley agriculture statistics, according to the imperial county farm bureau 500k acres are farmable, of which nearly half are alfalfa and bermuda grass (aka lawn grass).[1] Would be interesting if someone knowledgeable in this area could comment on water consumption of these vs impact to other food chains, as well as alternatives such as growing it elsewhere and transporting to where livestock that eats it is. [1]https://www.icfb.net/imperial-valley-agriculture https://www.icfb.net/imperial-valley-agriculture
toast0 3y ago
> For California, drought/water shortage is primarily and agricultural problem, but has been externalized to urban areas and consumers - urban uses are 10%, while 40% goes to agricultural uses. Yes, agricultural dominates usage, but southern california with no agriculture would still have to transfer water from elsewhere (colorado river, sacramento delta etc) in order to sustain the population.
- sologoub 3y ago
  This source from LATimes in 2019 seems to think it’s doable (not cheap) and doesn’t event include desalination, just recycling and capturing rainwater: https://archive.ph/l0To2 https://archive.ph/l0To2 Personally, I’d want desalination in the mix for resiliency/diversification.

bcrosby95 3y ago

To highlight this, the imperial valley alone draws about 2.5 million acre-feet of water from the Colorado. That's enough water for about 40 million residents. Nothing vital grows there.

sologoub 3y ago
Looked up imperial valley agriculture statistics, according to the imperial county farm bureau 500k acres are farmable, of which nearly half are alfalfa and bermuda grass (aka lawn grass).[1] Would be interesting if someone knowledgeable in this area could comment on water consumption of these vs impact to other food chains, as well as alternatives such as growing it elsewhere and transporting to where livestock that eats it is. [1]https://www.icfb.net/imperial-valley-agriculture https://www.icfb.net/imperial-valley-agriculture

toast0 3y ago

> For California, drought/water shortage is primarily and agricultural problem, but has been externalized to urban areas and consumers - urban uses are 10%, while 40% goes to agricultural uses. Yes, agricultural dominates usage, but southern california with no agriculture would still have to transfer water from elsewhere (colorado river, sacramento delta etc) in order to sustain the population.

sologoub 3y ago
This source from LATimes in 2019 seems to think it’s doable (not cheap) and doesn’t event include desalination, just recycling and capturing rainwater: https://archive.ph/l0To2 https://archive.ph/l0To2 Personally, I’d want desalination in the mix for resiliency/diversification.