| Over the last 30 years California has repeatedly experienced drought conditions. The longest was the 1986-93 drought, which any of us who lived here or grew up then remember clearly, from dead lawns and 3-minute showers; one of the worst was in 1976-77, when Marin County had to run a hose across the Richmond Bridge to get water from East Bay MUD and SoCal pools went dry, to the delight of skateboarders.
But these are a drop in the bucket compared to megadroughts that hit this state several centuries ago. As Mike Davis recounts in his crucial environmental history of Southern California, Ecology of Fear, researchers have discovered a 200-year period of drought hit the state around the 1200s, and suspect many more exist in the historical climate record. (This is the same drought believed to have forced the dispersal of the Anasazi culture in Arizona.)
Climate change in California is expected to produce a hotter and drier climate, with a reduced snowpack. Precipitation in the Sierra is expected to fall as rain more often than snow, forcing significant shifts in how water is stored.
But the problem isn't just that the Sierra will see less snow and more rain, but that it will see less water, period. And the problem isn't limited to the Sierra - as anyone who's been to the Southwest recently knows, the whole region is suffering from reduced rainfall. Some experts suggest we may be on the verge of a 90 year drought in the US Southwest, and that Lakes Powell and Mead may never return to their previous levels.
Faced with the prospect of prolonged drought, it seems foolish for California to assume it can solve its problem merely through added storage - why build more storage for less rain?
Further, as Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, of Restore the Delta, notes at the California Progress Report, the dams and especially the Peripheral Canal will likely only cause further damage to the Delta, and Arnold's water spending priorities do absolutely nothing to address the critical need to repair obsolete and vulnerable Delta levees.
No, the solution to our worsening water woes is not to assume that we can just add storage and continue our usual ways. As with energy consumption, reduction in demand - conservation - is THE vital piece of the puzzle.
Friends of the River, a statewide water advocacy group, points out that the state's own water assessment plan shows that conservation can eliminate the "need" for these new dams.
Some might argue that Californians are too wedded to regular carwashes and hosing down their sidewalks and taking 20 minute showers to actually reduce their water usage. But this is not so. Here in Monterey County we have successfully met water conservation goals. Californians rose to the occasion during the drought of the late '80s and early '90s, as they had during the '76-'77 drought. Explain to Californians the truth of the matter, that we are facing reduced supply and may be facing it for some time to come, and they will act.
Right now California, like the rest of the country, stands at a tipping point. We now agree that climate change is real. We know it is happening and we have a pretty clear idea of what its consequences will be. And we know what we can do to help us survive it without catastrophic disruption. Californians have shown that they can conserve. Will Sacramento fully embrace that ethic, or will Arnold's "party on, dudes" attitude prevail? |
