Building More Hydroretainers = Long Term Drought Relief

As the Golden State enters its fourth year of drought conditions, a $1 billion emergency drought relief plan has been disclosed by the Guv and the Legislature. The proposal includes funding for safe drinking water, water conservation projects and food for farm workers and others hurting because of the four-year drought’s impact on the economy.

In other words, basically nada for construction of dams and reservoirs; the most logical solution to long term (and future) droughts. More than half the money - $660 million - is dedicated to flood control projects that will do nothing to mitigate the drought.

IMHO: This relief is a bandage for a much bigger problem … the lack of above ground water storage facilities in California. We would be better prepared for future droughts if we started now on building storage, desalination, recycling, and other water projects to increase supply.

Since last year, more than $870 million has been pledged to support drought relief. Last month, the Federales promised $20 million in emergency funding for the Central Valley Project, a massive conveyance system that delivers water to many of the state’s farmers… and to the citizens of Southern California by taking water from Northern California.

Factoid: A large state- or federally-funded reservoir hasn’t been built in California in over 35 years.

The last huge reservoir built in California was New Melones, on the Stanislaus River in Calaveras County. Since the Army Corps of Engineers cut the ribbon on it in 1979, California has grown by more than 15 million people, the equivalent of adding everyone now living in Washington, Oregon and Nevada to Cali’s population.

Experts say the dearth of water retention construction is due to a confluence of factors, when in fact, it is almost universally due to environmental laws and stonewalling by environmental and nature groups. Harsh judgement? Perhaps. True? Absolutely.

The 10 largest reservoirs in California, linchpins of the water system for millions of people and the nation’s largest farm economy, were all built between 1927 and 1979. For example, Shasta Lake was finished in 1945, while Oroville - the tallest dam in the United States - was started under Gov. Pat Brown’s building boom in 1961 and finished in 1968.

And what do we get? The Guv asking Californians to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent with the potential for mandatory rationing (and stiff fines for scofflaws) of the state’s dwindling water resources. That’s not to say conservation isn’t a part of drought relief… but much like the old economic maxim: if demand is exceeding supply, what do you do? You increase the supply… yeah, I know, way too simple.