California’s water supplies in trouble as climate change worsens dry spells
Good article.  Don&#x27;t know about some of the assumptions being made.  For example:<p>&gt; Statewide, California averages about 2 feet of precipitation per year<p>And then...<p>&gt; California is about 100 million acres in area, so at 2 feet per year, its annual precipitation averages about 200 million acre-feet.<p>You can&#x27;t apply the average to the entire population like this.  This isn&#x27;t how statistics work.<p>I don&#x27;t think California has a drought problem any more than the Sahara desert has a drought problem.  What I mean by this is that this is the climate here.  This is how it behaves.  Another way to put it is:  If you are in drought conditions for an extended period of time, well, that&#x27;s far more likely to be the new normal rather than an aberration, hence the comparison to the Sahara.<p>From my perspective the problem has multiple variables.  The elephant in the room is agriculture.  The author correctly points out utilization but fails to identify it as a problem:<p>&gt; About 80% of that goes for agriculture and 20% for urban uses.<p>Going back to the Sahara, imagine insisting on using 80% of some water supply to grow crops in the desert.  Crazy, right?  Well?<p>One of the other issues I see is what I call the &quot;ridiculous cult of the green lawn&quot;.  Seriously.  I can&#x27;t even imagine how good drinking water is absolutely wasted every day on grass in front of homes.  In my neighborhood the storm drain has a nearly constant stream of water going into it.  All of that water comes from homes watering their front lawns up the hill.  To me this is the very definition of insanity.<p>We have restrictions on flow rate for such things as showerheads (which I think is ridiculous) while people can dump tens of gallons of good clean water on their lawns (this is why I think showerhead flow restrictions are stupid).<p>Furthermore, I&#x27;ll bet water utilization could be cut in half --if not more-- if we adopted a sensible water recycling program at the homes.  Water from showers and sinks ought to be collected for irrigation.  There&#x27;s nothing wrong with this water, and yet we throw it away, every day.  This would require a change in building codes and suitable technology (not rocket science!) as well, as perhaps, subsidies.  If homeowners got a 30% tax credit --as they did for solar-- as well as a reduction in the cost of water when installing a suitable recycling system we could see adoption.  Not the easiest to implement due to having to mess with pluming within the home, yet not absolutely impossible.  Create an economic incentive and entrepreneurs will figure out how to do it.<p>In short:<p><pre><code>  - Should we really be farming in the desert?
  - Should we really be wasting potable water on grass in front of every home?
  - Could we implement a sensible recycled water program for irrigation?
</code></pre>
I don&#x27;t know the answers to these questions.  I have my opinions, but that&#x27;s worth as much as the paper this is not written on.