California Water Going Down the Drain, in the Face of Severe 30% Water Restrictions (SanFranciscoChronicle)

Apr.14, 2009 in Water Crisis

(April 14, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)

Our state’s broken water delivery system – originally built more than 30 years ago to accommodate a state of 18 million people – now must supply this precious resource to more than 36 million people. By 2020, California’s population is expected to reach up to 48 million. The hub of the water system, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is in peril and increasingly vulnerable to natural disaster and ecosystem threats. Recent court decisions and new regulations have curtailed water deliveries to water contractors and water districts by 30 percent, imperiling millions of Californians who rely on the delta as a source of clean water.

Yet, despite the fact that the state is trying to allocate less water to more users, the state does not efficiently capture the precipitation we do receive. Water is literally going down the drain. In 2005, enough water to supply 13 million families for a year went out to sea and was lost because there was nowhere to store it.

(Original Article Here)

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