We Need Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jTXsx2mymE

Wow that's cool that you don't need a pump to get the water to the surface.  How deep is the well?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rU-KVObNEd4

We're all water 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9i-6Zpb1FGA

You think the oil wars are bad, wait until we start the fighting over water 

How much water should existing residents conserve so as developers might be able to exercise their "water rights" to profit on future development?

The question is when will nestle own all underground water rights?

2 wells here not including senior water rights, and I'll be putting those wells on solar and also installing a 10k gal rainwater catchment system in the next year or two as well.

I also built a fire truck out of my flatbed and can put 600 gallons on a spot 150' away from the truck in under 5 minutes

Admittedly one can't plan for everything; but if you live in the west and your future living plans revolve around city water you fucked up.

water is life.

Good luck Westies.

Water's good. Cool clear water is better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqmTBhgAus

We're in the thick of it here in Utah, especially with our regressive politicians. I've mentioned it here before how much of our water, in the second driest state in the nation, goes to growing alfalfa, much of which gets exported to China. Out idiot governor tries to minimize that. And it looks like the Lake Powell Pipeline pipe dream is going up in smoke. They wanted to pump Lake Powell water to St George for their homes and golf courses. 

Affecting me? Well, besides not watering our lawn much (brown is "in" in SLC) the river flows are lower. San Juan, Green, Colorado. River running season with decent flows used to be into September, but that's getting shorter. May have a trip in late Sept or October, and wondering about levels. Dragging boats over sand bars is a drag, especially with a self-bailer with a inflated floor that hangs lower.  But I looked yesterday and there's enough water flowing - for now.  

Great Salt Lake is drying up, turning the bottom into dry land that has chemicals and all sorts of nasty shit in it. Ever hear of an arsenic dust warning? That's new for SLC. More crazy shit on the way. 

Utah has never treated water as the precious resource it is. But there's some massive wake up calls happening. I remember going to the city council in the early 90's to push for increases in water rates. To help with their reluctance, I put a 32 oz. Big Gulp cup on the lectern, and told how I could buy 1500 gallons of clean drinking water from the city for that same dollar. I was trying to show the council that our water was way more important that carbonated sugar water that thousands of people buy every day without thinking twice. At the time, it was 46 cents for 748 gallons, and the price went DOWN if you used more. 100 cubic feet, or a tank 5 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet. 46 cents. $2.30 for 4500 gallons, and then the price went down. Some of the biggest offenders are the momo's with their numerous lush green lawn church grounds.  

I mentioned this guy on another thread the other day Jonathan Thompson. Here's his blog from today. And Zak Podmore is great too, from the SL Tribune. Zak's writing a book about Lake Powell. 

https://www.landdesk.org/p/colorado-river-crisis-continues?r=ek6sp&s=w    https://twitter.com/Land_Desk    https://twitter.com/zak_podmore

jammed together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyKOf1A1QQM

this one's HOT

Hard to feel sorry for all the ignorant people who decided living in a desert was a good idea. 99% of the people in this country have no clue what the word conservation means.  Gotta jack those water rates up Sky High then people will pay attention.

^ that works, for sure, especially for people with large grass lawns etc.

One thing I can't figure out is with all of the advanced pipeline technology, why haven't we started piping down water from the vast water supplies to our north to supplement our low flowing watersheds?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxxHrP7feBY

Hitchhiked there to see the GD from the SFV and got a ride right away from 2 guys from NY who were going to see Eddie Money. 

> Ever hear of an arsenic dust warning?

Yeah, I did recently, but what I didn't know until much more recently is that arsenic poisons slowly, and stealthily. I started reading a novel yesterday that's titled When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, and read this passage about Napoleon's imprisonment by the British on the island of St. Helena, and the arsenic in the emerald green paint in his residence there.

The toxins in the paint adoring his chambers may explain the high levels of arsenic detected in samples of his hair analysed two centuries after his death, a possible cause of the cancer that ate a hole in his stomach the size of a tennis ball. In the Emperor's final weeks, the illness devastated his body with the same ruthlessness with which his soldiers had laid waste to Europe; his skin took on a cadaverous tone, his eyes lost their brilliance and sank into their sockets, his wispy beard was dotted with scraps of food left behind after his fits of vomiting. His arms shed their musculature, and small scabs covered his legs, as though, all of a sudden, they recollected every tiny cut or scratch they had borne through the course of his life. But Napoleon was not the lone sufferer of his exile on the island; the host of servants imprisoned with him at Longwood left numerous records of their constant diarrhoea and stomach aches, the painful swelling of their limbs, and a thirst no liquid could quench. Several died with symptoms similar to those of the man they had served, but this did not prevent the doctors, gardeners, and other members of the staff from fighting over the dead emperor's sheets, unmindful of the bloodstains, streaks of shit and blotches of urine that marred them, and of their almost certain contamination with the substance that had slowly poisoned him.

East of here, in the central valley, which is technically a desert, they are growing tons of rice to ship to china. Rice paddies in the desert during massive drought conditions. Yeah, that makes sense.....

Xeriscaping.

Here in California, there are a number of conflicting issues that I doubt will ever be resolved (and will lead us that much quicker into a critical water crisis).

- Building more housing is big on the agenda of both the state and cities, except there isn't even enough water for the current population.  In my area, the water districts are all tapped, yet there are high density apartments and condos being built where small commercial buildings used to stand, and the city of Santa Cruz has started on their plan to build high density housing up and down the main roads (Ocean st, Front St, Mission st) with no plans whatsoever to increase water supply/storage even though we have a number of old, ugly quarries with year round creeks running through them that could more than double our current supply with a simple dam or two.

- Agriculture and livestock farming.  Why is it OK for insanely vast amounts of land and water to be used to grow drugs/alcohol?  I only ever hear people ranting about almonds using too much water, but never drugs/booze. Of course there's also the huge tax revenue generated from beer, wine and weed, so none of those fat cat politicians are ever going to be motivated to do anything. Same with livestock farming.  They could tax it all to the point that it's cheaper to from places where there's ample water and let the steak eaters, drinkers and smokers pay a few bucks more to get their supply.

But what's going to happen is that the giant industries, who take the lion's share of the State's water, will be allowed to go on doing business as usual (while maybe even getting subsidies) while residents, who are already struggling, will be taxed and fined up the ass for their personal water use.

And fuck Nestle and put the politicians they own behind bars.

Meanwhile, in "Broomy":

https://www.outtherecolorado.com/news/colorado-town-sees-fourth-of-avera...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cWnubJ9CEw

Nice Mike. Never saw that version. Was getting ready to post the other. Great visuals brings it home!!!

 >>>>>why haven't we started piping down water from the vast water supplies to our north to supplement our low flowing watersheds?

Not until you pry my shut-off valve from my cold wet fingers.

That's why.

Mitt Romney is wanting $10 million to fund a study of bring Pacific Ocean water to Utah. Pump it up 4200 feet and across two states. 

It passed the Senate, but not the House yet. 

"Authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carry out a program to monitor and assess the water availability and conditions of saline lakes in the Great Basin, including the Great Salt Lake, in order to help inform management and conservation activities for these ecosystems. The Corps will coordinate with relevant federal and state agencies, tribes, local governments, and nonprofits to implement the program. The bill authorizes $10,000,000 for this program.

Authorizing a feasibility study on addressing drought conditions in the Great Salt Lake, which may include an identification of any potential technologies—including pipelines, coastal desalination plants, and canal reinforcement—capable of redirecting water sources and necessary permitting to redirect water sources across state borders."

Anything to save 'the promised land'. In the end, just another money-hungry study and any such pipeline would cost much more than that and be many years in the making as well. I think the Mayans and others were fairly spot-on with their Y2K assessment/forecasts but we all expected an immediate computer-related melt-down. Instead we are seeing a slowly increasing tilt towards global mayhem across climates and societies. For example, things comparably fairly stead & stable 1978-2000 in comparison to the last 22 years and it's only been getting worse. At any rate, I thought Utah's plan was simply to pray it all away? Again/still, at least Nevada got real some years ago and did some actual budgeting and planning with a large-scale infrastructure project (ie: 3rd straw into the deepest part of Lake Mead alongside much smarter water reclamation efforts. Those fkn sinners do more than gamble drink.

meanwhile the water pipes in LA are a 100 yrs old and rupture all the time...

hall's vice points are valid...i mean how many fucking breweries do we really need?

they better get some more desal plants stat...even with the issues they have...

this should have been a high level crisis 20 or more years ago.

water flows where cash grows? million dollar conservative ranchers belly aching about not getting subsidized water...

waste water reclamation needs to accelerate.

the shit in south africa, cape town and all has been gnarly. i don't see any americans giving up their freedom of using as much fucking water as they can or can afford to.

> Nice Mike. Never saw that version.

Slick, it's a well-researched piece of fiction, so some of it is speculative, but those speculations are well-grounded in historical facts. I'll also add that it's the most interesting work of fiction I've read in quite some time. It's moves remind me a lot of Sebald's The Rings of Saturn, but at the same time, it's its own thing altogether.

I was talking about the "Cool Water" video. I was gonna post the Sons of The Pioneers from 1947.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDo-KqUjpA

Scroll down this thread to see satellite images of Powell and Mead and lakes in California too. Scary!   https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1560014632281972736

Everything is stuck off-kilter and worsening, from Western U.S. to CT/NE, France/UK, etc. Gonna be a long, messy slog....but, yea, Coffee Rules! Beer and Weed are not helping - in their ways & means of production anyway.

> I was talking about the "Cool Water" video. 

Whoops. I thought you were referring to the arsenic thing. Nevermind.

> My entire yard is hard as a fucking piece of adobe brick

Ras, running a roto-tiller over it would help to loosen it up.

From the comments section of  Slickrock  link:  https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1560014632281972736

>>>Politicians simply don’t want to stop the status quo. They can do it. They can stop the wasteful water crops. They can stop foreign investors from buying farmland here and shipping it home. They can institute rationing. All the blather….those in charge simply don’t want to act.

^This! and people do realize that water, even though it is an exceptionally simple formula, H2O, cannot be made in a lab. There is no synthetic water. Doesn't exist in quantities to even help a family of four for one day.  What is property worth when you can't cook, rinse, wash, shower, or launder?  

Maybe living in a van down by the river is where we're headed. It'll be crowded, too.

^^...as said river dries up too

> I was talking about the "Cool Water" video. <

mikeedwardsetc: <<Whoops. I thought you were referring to the arsenic thing. Nevermind.>>

I see 'Cool Water' and I immediately think of this, looks like a trip (acid, not transcendental) ;-)

https://youtu.be/ch7XgS4xFs8

>>>Maybe living in a van down by the river is where we're headed.

Why do I have Chris Farley running through my head now?  LOL  

Factories in China are "on pause" due to seriously low levels in rivers and reservoirs. Wild times for sure.

Ras, I have a dirt lawn that's comprised of granitic soils with almost no loam. It's truly like concrete.

Soils back east tend to be high in loam and clay, which can be broken up through tilling. If it's as bad as you say, there's probably a landscaper in your area who offers that kind of service.

I can't speak for the rest of the West but in CA it is just insane policies from the 1800's that are causing problems. 80% of consumed surface water in CA goes to Agriculture - no one disputes that. The other 20% goes to residents for lawns, pools, showers, flushing etc. Now we need food right, and CA is one of the most productive places to grow in the world. But here is the rub. 40% of CA Agriculture dollars come from international export including almost 100% of that rice that gets grown around my house. It is very popular in Japan. 

But we need the Ag economy right I mean what do we get back for somewhere around 40% of the consumed surface water going to an international export crop. Less than 2% of California's GDP. Not the US GDP just CA. As I said just a fucking insane business model in 2022 to support a few wealthy land owners. 

2022 is not the hottest year in the last 200 years. It is the coolest year we will have for the next 200.

>>>>t is just insane policies from the 1800's that are causing problems

Bingo. Welcome to 2022. 

The 1866 and 1872 Mining Acts and the 1866 Revised Statute 2477 have messed with Utah and public lands for years. Oh yeah, the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, also. 

Revised Statute 2477 was enacted by the United States Congress in 1866 to encourage the settlement of the Western United States by the development of a system of highways. Its entire text is one sentence: "the right-of-way for the construction of highways across public lands not otherwise reserved for public purposes is hereby granted." 66% of Utah is federal public public lands.

RS 2477 was supposed to be mitigated by FLPMA in 1976. Wilderness is supposed to be roadless, so anti-wilderness people try to exploit this as much as possible. Enviros sometimes counter by making the roads the boundaries of the wilderness areas, IF the areas are big enough.  

Part of Taylor Grazing Act - (a)In order that the Secretary of the Interior may have the benefit of the fullest information and advice concerning physical, economic, and other local conditions in the several grazing districts, there shall be an advisory board of local stockmen in each such district, the members of which shall be known as grazing district advisers.

Those boards tend to disdain interference from enviro groups. LOL

Too much faith-related PTSD in them ranks and across Utahnistan in general.

 "These Mormons Have Found a New Faith — in Magic Mushrooms"

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/psychedelics-mormo...

^Aplologies. Wrong thread. 

Today's Democracy Now says that China is cloud seeding.  In France, three of their rivers are so low they've allowed an exemption to environmental laws, so the nuclear plants can discharge hot water into what is left of the rivers.

The past two generations ignored the warnings, and it's exponential from hereon.  Very sad, esp. because it was avoidable.

Greed Sucks.

The past two generations ignored the warnings>>>>>>>>>>Oh it that is what you want to believe

I live in Republican/Trump land, I hear this shit 3x min a week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/dozens-of-sunken-wwii-ships-resurfa...

As Europe continues to experience a record heat wave that one top scientist said could signal its worst drought in 500 years, receding water levels along the continent's massive Danube River have exposed around two dozen sunken ships that belonged to the German army during World War II,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxxHrP7feBY

Here's a story from Zak Podmore on the Lake Powell situation.     https://twitter.com/zak_podmore/status/1564286488883236864

The same day the SL Trib Editorial Board discusses "Glen Canyon National Park" in lieu of Lake Powell. https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2022/08/28/say-good-bye-lake-po...

And one of our great local columnists weighed in as well.  https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2022/08/28/lake-powell-is-doomed-robert/

Sense a trend? 

Just replace "food" with "water" in this Sam Kinison bit:

https://youtu.be/P0q4o58pKwA

This is a major factor, liken to the bottom half a vehicle's gas tank going a lot quicker than the top half.

> We are now in a Severe drought.

I've been living in SoCal 25 years now, and most of those years have been servere of extreme drought years. We need an El Niño winter really bad.

Cover shot for the story. Click on the links about for cool pics and videos. 

I wonder what Edward Abbey would have to say about the current situation in the American Southwest.

>>>We need an El Niño winter really bad.

Yeah but the next one is probably going to be pretty bad. Going to go from drought to Mega Flood and Sacramento is not going to do well since we are only slightly better off than New Orleans. At least I didn't buy the house with the giant levy in the back yard. 

https://twitter.com/Weather_West/status/1558178649152507905

As for the dam Mike, Abbey might say "Well, I guess we didn't need that pre-cision earthquake after all. Mother Nature fixed it for us." 

Seldom Seen, the character 

and the real man, Ken Sleight, a great human. http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/NPS/GlenCanyonNRA/KenSleightArti...

Ken had one of the greatest collections of archived materials on his property that burned in a June, 2021 fire. So sad. Devastating doesn't describe it. 

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2021/06/ken-sleight-monkey-wrench-gang...

"For decades Sleight kept careful records of his experiences as a desert rat environmentalist at his ranch outside of Moab. Much of that ranch burned earlier this month in the Pack Creek Fire. Sleight had a hut that he used as a workshop, office, and archive, in which he kept boxes upon boxes of correspondence with his fellow rabble rousers, documents from his conservation battles, even participant lists from his days as a backcountry river guide. He considered himself an amateur historian and hoped to compile a book and eventually donate the material to a university for preservation. But now, it’s gone."

> Going to go from drought to Mega Flood

That's our beloved Golden State for you, Nino. We're an extremity given to extremes.

> But now, it’s gone.

That's truly unfortunate, Slick, but at least Sleight was commemorated in an R. Crumb drawing. That, by itself, is an impressive legacy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-future-of-the-america...

Good ideas, but perhaps a bit late...as is the norm for humans.