Water Water Nowhere

Update: Famiglietti disagrees with the implications of the "one year of water left" headline (see the precision of his quote in what follows--the one year refers to reservoirs), and other experts agree that California is not going to run out of water completely in the next few years.  However, in another followup story, PBS Newshour focused on the dire groundwater situation--with implications for the nation's food supply.  Meanwhile, the reliable NPR has a brief story on the CA drought bill.  And respected reporter Dan Walters asks the tough questions about the CA response and the future.

When it comes to stark headlines, this one is pretty high up there: California Has One Year of Water Left.  It was the result of an oped in the LA Times by Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab.  The gist:
"Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing. California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain."

Right on cue, Governor Jerry Brown announced a $1 billion package to address the ongoing drought, sent to the legislature today.  According to the official governor's office page, here's what it does: The legislation includes more than $1 billion for local drought relief and infrastructure projects to make the state's water infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather events. The package accelerates $128 million in expenditures from the Governor's budget to provide direct assistance to workers and communities impacted by drought and to implement the Water Action Plan. It also includes $272 million in Proposition 1 Water Bond funding for safe drinking water and water recycling and accelerates $660 million from the Proposition 1E for flood protection in urban and rural areas.

I have no expertise in this area, but it does sound to me as if even this proposal is still about staying in emergency mode, though maybe a little money could be set aside for some fearsome rain dances.  Again I can't evaluate it except in terms of its characteristically vague bureaucratic language, but there is something called a California water action plan, 

I'm not sure it adequately addresses either the long term or short term emergency, but if all this gets the state conversation into high gear, we may get down to brass tacks.  Some of the issues involved (and facts in contention) are suggested not only in this Newsweek article about the oped and what it means, but in the comments.

 It seems for instance that the issues of water use by agriculture and other industries need to be more forthrightly addressed, which will happen only if citizens form a countervailing power strong enough to force that to happen.  But if it can happen anywhere, it's California.

If taken literally, the warning of one year of water left is tantamount to previewing Armageddon in twelve month's time. Maybe the very idea of running out of water in a year will focus attention, though it could seem so over-the-top that people back away from it.  I know for instance that up here in the north country we've got more than a year's supply, though maybe not much more, after this year's non-winter.  In any case, the age of climate crisis consequences has definitely arrived in California.