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It is too politically expensive and difficult to build dams and reservoirs in California's eco-sensitive environment. There were more dams and reservoirs built

by NoPiece 12y ago

It is too politically expensive and difficult to build dams and reservoirs in California's eco-sensitive environment. There were more dams and reservoirs built in the 70s (18) than the 34 years since (11). Also, a lot of the easy/obvious sites have already been built. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_and_reservoirs_in_California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_and_reservoirs_in_...

thaumasiotes 12y ago
That doesn't say a lot by itself; it's not crazy to imagine that additional reservoirs become less worthwhile as your stock of existing reservoirs grows.
- NoPiece 12y ago
  The currently empty reservoirs show more are worthwhile. The population is growing much faster now than it was when more reservoirs were being built. California has grown ~40% (14.6 million) since 1980.
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    > The population is growing much faster now than it was when more reservoirs were being built. California has grown ~40% (14.6 million) since 1980. This at least makes sense on its face, though I was under the impression that the population wasn't using much of California's water consumption. > The currently empty reservoirs show more are worthwhile. This is total nonsense. By this argument, additional reservoirs would only stop being worthwhile if we never withdrew water at all. That's no better, and in fact much worse, than never building reservoirs in the first place.
    - NoPiece 12y ago
      This is total nonsense. By this argument, additional reservoirs would only stop being worthwhile if we never withdrew water at all. That's no better, and in fact much worse, than never building reservoirs in the first place. That's really not what I'm saying. Additional reservoirs would only stop being worthwhile if we never withdrew more than 100% of water. I.e., if reservoirs are down to 0% capacity, we should have had more reservoirs.
kderbe 12y ago
Your Wikipedia link says there are over 1,400 named dams in California (and presumably more unnamed ones). But the list you are reading from contains less than 250 of them, so you are probably under-counting. A thousand dams and reservoirs sounds to me like an awful lot already.
- NoPiece 12y ago
  There are 41 million acre feet of reservoir in California. The 10 largest reservoirs account for over half that, and the top 50 account for 90%. The unlisted reservoirs beyond the 250 in the table don;t account for much storage. The big 10 million plus acre feet reservoirs average 60 years old.

by NoPiece 12y ago

thaumasiotes 12y ago

That doesn't say a lot by itself; it's not crazy to imagine that additional reservoirs become less worthwhile as your stock of existing reservoirs grows.

NoPiece 12y ago
The currently empty reservoirs show more are worthwhile. The population is growing much faster now than it was when more reservoirs were being built. California has grown ~40% (14.6 million) since 1980.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  > The population is growing much faster now than it was when more reservoirs were being built. California has grown ~40% (14.6 million) since 1980. This at least makes sense on its face, though I was under the impression that the population wasn't using much of California's water consumption. > The currently empty reservoirs show more are worthwhile. This is total nonsense. By this argument, additional reservoirs would only stop being worthwhile if we never withdrew water at all. That's no better, and in fact much worse, than never building reservoirs in the first place.
  - NoPiece 12y ago
    This is total nonsense. By this argument, additional reservoirs would only stop being worthwhile if we never withdrew water at all. That's no better, and in fact much worse, than never building reservoirs in the first place. That's really not what I'm saying. Additional reservoirs would only stop being worthwhile if we never withdrew more than 100% of water. I.e., if reservoirs are down to 0% capacity, we should have had more reservoirs.

kderbe 12y ago

Your Wikipedia link says there are over 1,400 named dams in California (and presumably more unnamed ones). But the list you are reading from contains less than 250 of them, so you are probably under-counting. A thousand dams and reservoirs sounds to me like an awful lot already.

NoPiece 12y ago
There are 41 million acre feet of reservoir in California. The 10 largest reservoirs account for over half that, and the top 50 account for 90%. The unlisted reservoirs beyond the 250 in the table don;t account for much storage. The big 10 million plus acre feet reservoirs average 60 years old.