California Drought

[ultrarunner]

The rain has been hard at times and the plant life seems to be enjoying it...

Would have kept the front lawn on life support... some of the neighbors did and the results are obvious.

Kind of hard to keep the lawn using 80 gallons a day for home and garden.

On a side note... my brother had a bad day on the farm...

Several years ago he contracted to have the land sounded for water and signed a drill contract for a well... the estimates were 30 to 40 gpm... got a $6,000 dry hole today 230' as the rain keeps coming... his neighbor did the same down 350' about a 1/4 mile away and no water either... there is water in the area and nearby creek is raging and even took out the county road...

I thought he was kidding when he said the driller came up dry today and surprised the driller was even out there as August was scheduled...

Total is out about 10k with permits, soundings, staging and drilling...

 

[dragoneggs]

Yes I love being on a private well. My neighbor and I share. I have all the water I want for cheap... just cost of electricity for pump. That said I don't waste it but it is a peace of mind and I don't mind watering my surroundings all I want. 180ft deep and very clean, clear, great tasting water. A little manganese I think causing a rarely used toilet to develop mineral streaks but nothing a wipe down can't take care of. One of the joys of much of western Washington I suppose. No droughts here

 

[California]

I wrote of a storm going through last night and knocking down trees...

The morning after

And

The latest rains brought the Northern California precipitation to 209 percent of its average for this time of year, according to the state Department of Water Resources. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is 63 percent above average.

 

[houstonscott]

I wrote of a storm going through last night and knocking down trees... The morning after And

That doesn't change fact that the water is owned by agricultural industries and people, and it's not drinking water unless they sell their surplus. Situation has not changed, except AG types will sell their over needed water this year, which means problem will be ignored. HS.

 

[NoTrespassing]

100% of California is out of exceptional drought (worst category) and only about 2% is in extreme drought. So far it's been an amazing recovery.

United States Drought Monitor > Home > State Drought Monitor

 

[bcp]

How much of the rain is replenishing underground water? Are the water tables in dry areas rising?

Bruce

 

[dickfoster]

How much of the rain is replenishing underground water? Are the water tables in dry areas rising?

Bruce

I heard something about ground water levels being up about 10' locally and usually they only get up about 2' over the course of a normal winter. It takes a while to soak and filter down to the low levels of a well but it gets there eventually.

 

[California]

Dunno about the macro data but the micro perspective here is: walking around in the soggy orchard, I keep falling into gopher caverns - roughly a half cubic foot - that collapse when I step on them. Many more than I suspected. I've never seen this before.

And there are little springs running out of the gopher holes that are on downslopes. There must be a lot of drowned gophers out there somewhere.

This morning looks similar to this photo from a couple of years ago.

Summer photo of area where water is now flowing out of the ground.

 

[California]

Finally!

... river flows though the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been so powerful that the massive pumps that ship north-state water to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley have roared at full throttle for weeks. The federal and state pumping stations near Tracy delivered more water in January than in any month in the last 12 years

With more rain and snow in the forecast, the pumps could stay at capacity for the next week or two. But pump operators probably will have to dial back because they're starting to run out of space in key reservoirs south of the Delta [halfway to Los Angeles].

Read more here: Delta pumps at full throttle as California ships massive amounts of water north to south | The Sacramento Bee

Lots more details in that article, a couple of vids, and of course comments from all :laughing: perspectives.

 

[beowulf]

An update: We received 3 1/4 inches more rain in past two days, which brings our total for the "rain-calculation-year (from 7-1) to a bit over 30 inches. We have water forcefully spouting out of gopher holes - about 4 inches high - so maybe we won't have a gopher problem this year. More rain is coming but I sure would like a break for a couple of weeks though.

 

[houstonscott]

Well, that's great, gives you some time to build your desalination plants. Get hot....

 

[RedNeckGeek]

It's been a really wet fall and winter here, too. Almost 32" from July1 of last year, about 3" since 2/6. I haven't seen any gopher hole geysers, but I sure would like to! :laughing:

Big difference from the past few years with sunshine almost every day in January and February. I'm happy for the rain because I'm starting to catch up on inside jobs that have been taking a back seat to garage and yard work. Not that I'll ever get caught up on everything, but at least it's a start.

Looks like we'll get a break in the rain starting Saturday, but we'll be wet again by Wednesday. Guess we take what we can get, huh?

 

[lexluther]

Yesterday our area got 7 inches in about 5 hours...this is a 100 ft stretch and a 20 ft bridge under water, flowing like a river given the beaver tunnels under the road I expected too damaged to be a lot worse.

 

[California]

That extreme rain is getting spooky.

Oroville Dam (one of two primary flood control structures that protects Northern California) is nearing the top and is dumping water so fast it eroded a huge hole in the spillway. Videos show chunks of concrete flying. For now water is diverted through the powerhouse and alternate drains to control damage while the reservoir continues to fill.

From what I'm reading this doesn't endanger the dam itself, it is limited to damaging the engineered concrete and can't do too much damage to the bedrock the spillway was built on.

A search on 'Oroville Dam Spillway' will bring up latest updates and video.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Water resource guy on the Ca. news last night said California is draining more water in that last week to the Ocean than the entire state would use in a year. YET, these Ca. Pigs still want to regulate us to death.

This governor can't spend enough money on these illegals and he is raking in in by the BILLIONS and spending on Illegals by the BILLIONS, why we all suffer under HUGE taxes. Texas here I come.

They spend Millions on a train to nowhere but refuse to build reservoirs to hols all the water we're losing here every day, plus the snow pack is going to melt and that waterfall head out to sea, while the State refuses to allow water to go to farmers in the heartland. Hundreds of farms have shut down because the state won't let them drill or let them tap into the aqueducts. A time smelt fish is more important than growing our own food. They would rather all our food come from Mexico, where it contaminated with human waste, or DTD.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I remember years ago I tested my well and has water at 24 ft. Then 10 years later it dropped to 150 ft.

 

[ultrarunner]

The drought restrictions will not be lifted against the wishes of all the water agencies and 50 counties with flooding.

Reservoirs are full and dumping.

The politicians say this is too good an opportunity to make rationing/restrictions mandatory...

 

[k0ua]

The drought restrictions will not be lifted against the wishes of all the water agencies and 50 counties with flooding.

Reservoirs are full and dumping.

The politicians say this is too good an opportunity to make rationing/restrictions mandatory...

Most of your politicians should be taken out and.......

 

[ultrarunner]

It is amazing in that I have never experienced California Politics as it stands now...

My local representative is purposing a $75 fee added to all property deeds to fund emmigrant legal defense and housing...

Cities all around are jumping on the sanctuary movement and pushing for California to be a sanctuary State...

Then again... Washington is reveling in wining the challenge to the 7 country 90 day travel moretoreum...

Right now water is everywhere and roads are closed due to slides... plenty of water related issues.

 

[houstonscott]

Looks like the Orville dam has failed. Anyone watching this.... Water has migrated around dam completely and is draining the lake 3/4 of the way below the emergency spillway. Just time now. If main spillway can't drain lake quickly enough and there's not much chance of that now, there's going to be a catastrophe.