State of Emergency in Washington?

bigred1cav wrote:
You would be better off the read facts than identify yourself as a devotee of those anti government persons using the term Sheeple. Do you use Highways and Government Parks?

A Clean Water Crisis

The water you drink today has likely been around in one form or another since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago.

While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies.

Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.

Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/

Cummins12V98 wrote:
If we are so smart why are we not making fresh water from salt water?

I never said "FRESH WATER" when referring to that amount of water on earth.

Same thing happened in the 80's in the Pacific North West they declared a water shortage and had people water lawns and wash cars only on even days if their house number ended in a even number and same with odd numbers. It was a feel good thing that in reality became a way to increase the water rates. The reason is because people started using a lot less water trying to do the "RIGHT THING" . Then the utilities said they needed to increase rates to cover expenses because less water used meant less revenue and the "SHEEPLE" went along with it! Guess what, the emergency was declared to be over and the rates remained the same.

If there is not an emergency to deal with the politicians have nothing to run on.

What was your point but to throw out statistics that may or may not be true. There are HUGE underground fresh water reserves. Why don't you mention those? I have a well that brings water up from 320' below the surface. But I guess that does not fall into "easily accessible".

What does me using highways or parks have to do with anything? "SHEEPLE" are those that blindly believe anything Government or Environmental groups say or do without questioning anything. If you fit that group I feel sorry for you.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
If we are so smart why are we not making fresh water from salt water?

There are countries that do have desalination plants, like Saudi Arabia. And San Diego is completing a plant to supply their needs.

You would be better off the read facts than identify yourself as a devotee of those anti government persons using the term Sheeple. Do you use Highways and Government Parks?

A Clean Water Crisis

The water you drink today has likely been around in one form or another since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago.

While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies.

Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.

Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/

Cummins12V98 wrote:
If we are so smart why are we not making fresh water from salt water?

I never said "FRESH WATER" when referring to that amount of water on earth.

Same thing happened in the 80's in the Pacific North West they declared a water shortage and had people water lawns and wash cars only on even days if their house number ended in a even number and same with odd numbers. It was a feel good thing that in reality became a way to increase the water rates. The reason is because people started using a lot less water trying to do the "RIGHT THING" . Then the utilities said they needed to increase rates to cover expenses because less water used meant less revenue and the "SHEEPLE" went along with it! Guess what, the emergency was declared to be over and the rates remained the same.

If there is not an emergency to deal with the politicians have nothing to run on.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
If we are so smart why are we not making fresh water from salt water?

I never said "FRESH WATER" when referring to that amount of water on earth.

Same thing happened in the 80's in the Pacific North West they declared a water shortage and had people water lawns and wash cars only on even days if their house number ended in a even number and same with odd numbers. It was a feel good thing that in reality became a way to increase the water rates. The reason is because people started using a lot less water trying to do the "RIGHT THING" . Then the utilities said they needed to increase rates to cover expenses because less water used meant less revenue and the "SHEEPLE" went along with it! Guess what, the emergency was declared to be over and the rates remained the same.

If there is not an emergency to deal with the politicians have nothing to run on.

I like to keep an open mind about these things. Maybe you are correct and this is all a ruse. I certainly hope so, but the evidence I've seen (rain fall statistics, lower lake levels, lack of snowpack, falling reservoirs and aquifers, etc.) lead me to believe there is a serious water emergency in many of the western states and in particular Southern California and Las Vegas.

I've often wondered about desalinization so I looked into it and found that it is hugely expensive compared to draining fresh water down from the mountains. The current state of the art with regards to desalinization is Reverse Osmosis which forces salt water through semi-permeable membranes. It takes a huge amount of energy to create the high pressures necessary to make this work. Some of that pressure is recoverable so costs have gone down substantially. For cities and drinking water this IS economically worthwhile in many cases.

The problem is that it is 1) way too expensive for agriculture and industrial use, and 2) too late to solve the current crisis. Building an RO plant takes years from conception to licensing and testing. It would take politicians with real vision and conviction to build these plants today. Once the plants are built, water rates will go up dramatically. Then, of course, the drought could simply end based upon increased rain fall.

If we are so smart why are we not making fresh water from salt water?

I never said "FRESH WATER" when referring to that amount of water on earth.

Same thing happened in the 80's in the Pacific North West they declared a water shortage and had people water lawns and wash cars only on even days if their house number ended in a even number and same with odd numbers. It was a feel good thing that in reality became a way to increase the water rates. The reason is because people started using a lot less water trying to do the "RIGHT THING" . Then the utilities said they needed to increase rates to cover expenses because less water used meant less revenue and the "SHEEPLE" went along with it! Guess what, the emergency was declared to be over and the rates remained the same.

If there is not an emergency to deal with the politicians have nothing to run on.

I believe the main reason for Washington to officially declare a "State of Emergency" is for access to Federal Funds. W/O that declaration the state cant "apply" for Federal money to respond to the emergency.

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, where Lake Mead is at an all time low, the developers continue to get permits for further sprawl and development.

Deb and Ed M wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
There is exactly the same amount of water on this planed as there ever has been.

Not really. Hydraulic fracturing (oil well "fracking") takes freshwater completely out of the Water Cycle for eternity. The "flowback" water, contaminated with salt, oil, and chemicals, is pumped into disposal wells FAR below the water table, never to be part of the Water Cycle again. And each fracked well can use hundreds-of-thousands to MILLIONS of gallons of freshwater over the course of its productive life.

Other liquids/gasses can be used to frack - but of course, water is cheap. And my understanding is that precious freshwater IS being used for fracking in CA.

I don't necessarily have a problem with drilling/fracking - but wasting something as precious as freshwater HAS to stop.

Again, when we talk about water, we don't talk about gallons. Even "MILLIONS of gallons of freshwater over the course of its productive life" is nothing compared to the BILLIONS of gallons used in California every single day.

Did you know that California uses 38 Billion gallons of water per day? source

Nope, Fracking is not the cause of California's problems. Nor is it golf courses, lawns, bottled water or any other simplistic argument you can come up with. The problem is very complex and involves water rights, politics, state borders, population growth, geology, weather, economics, etc.

But ultimately it comes down to this, there is not enough precipitation in the right places to support current demand. There may never be.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
There is exactly the same amount of water on this planed as there ever has been.

Not really. Hydraulic fracturing (oil well "fracking") takes freshwater completely out of the Water Cycle for eternity. The "flowback" water, contaminated with salt, oil, and chemicals, is pumped into disposal wells FAR below the water table, never to be part of the Water Cycle again. And each fracked well can use hundreds-of-thousands to MILLIONS of gallons of freshwater over the course of its productive life.

Other liquids/gasses can be used to frack - but of course, water is cheap. And my understanding is that precious freshwater IS being used for fracking in CA.

I don't necessarily have a problem with drilling/fracking - but wasting something as precious as freshwater HAS to stop.

mlts22 wrote:


Yes, CA did see the drought coming. This has been in studies, maps and forecasts for decades. However, any political official saying that they need to start opening up desalination plants would be run out on a rail due to the NIMBY brigade.

Thank you for answering a question I've had. After all - California HAS water - it's just the wrong kind for drinking.