California is facing a drought says the governor and the mayor of Los Angeles. OK we all understand that we have a serious problem. There has been no discussion about ways to obtain additional water.
Other nations located in arid climates have looked to desalination. There are functioning facilities throughout the middle east and Australia. The most successful of them is the Askilon facility in Israel. The cost of producing drinkable (potable) water is ½ cent per gallon. That is about the same cost as the water provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Happily there is a desalination facility planned in San Diego County. For some unknown reason this project has been ignored by both Los Angeles Mayor Villaragosa and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Poseidon Resources Group of Connecticut is about to build a facility in Carlsbad, California. The “project will provide San Diego County with a locally-controlled, drought-proof supply of high-quality water that meets or exceeds all state and federal drinking water standards.”
What I do not understand is the behavior of government in retaining the available water. There is the issue of water use on government property including the sides of freeways. Further there is the issue of broken fire hydrants that take weeks to repair. The biggest loss of water is in the Los Angeles River (really a giant storm drain system). There is no program in place to catch water from that river to add to our supply.
Until our government takes water conservation seriously the pubic won’t.
Coast Contact 
Just dropping by.Btw, you website have great content!
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Feeding Farmers to the Fish!
I took a drive this week from Sacramento to Los Angeles, and had an eye opening experience. Down the entire length of the 5 freeway, we saw not the green luscious fields of produce or green orchards laden with fruit, but dusty dead and dying orchards. Rows after row, acre after acre, miles after mile of them, perfectly formed, perfectly helpless….lifeless.
By way of explanation, these signs dotted the dusty dry roadside: “Congress Created Dust Bowl. Thank You Sacramento!”
My lawn is green. My kids have plenty of water to spray in the yard, yet California’s orchards aren’t getting a drop this year despite the best rainfall in three years and five reservoirs filled to over capacity.
There’s no doubt that we’re in a drought, but why the sudden drop in water availability only for farmers? Are the politicians in Sacramento more concerned about the plethora of city votes than the small handful of agricultural ones? We will all be paying for Sacramento’s blunder. The Central Valley provides up to 8% of the nation’s fresh produce.
Watching the staggering waste just made my heart ache. We had to pull over and take pictures. The contrast with past green was stark—it takes 30 years to build an orchard like this up to full production! Almonds, walnuts, citrus… Why do we have green lawns while these resources are left to die?
Dead and Dying–California’s Central Valley Dust Bowl
http://beetlebabee.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/dead-and-dying-californias-central-valley-dust-bowl/
Have you seen this? Hannity had a feature on the manmade drought: