Is water the new oil

[Cosmic_Charlie]

You got it right, “To. Many people”. I don’t see it ending well, but I do see there are too many people on this earth and the problem is only getting worse.

I believe they are currently working overtime on that issue. Ugly business......

[dannyd]

make you a deal. We will take one back for every one you sent us after the civil war ended. I live in a small town tourist area. In the summer id bet my house percentage wise we have as many southerners up here escaping the heat then you do northerner's down there in the winter escaping the cold. You tell your people to stay out of my town and to stop putting tent communes on our pristine beaches and ill do the same. Last year with covid youd think they would have stayed home but NOPE i think the word got out that numbers were real low here and it was the only safe place to vacation. Our tourist numbers tripled from the year before which was already a record year. My niece owns a resort and she said that people coming last year put in so many future reservations that she doesnt have an opening for the next 2 years and neither do any of the other resorts. Camp grounds. Good luck with that. There packed every day.

People find any 2 track road and pull there campers into the woods somewhere, even may sleeping in there cars. They cut the trees even on private land for firewood and leave there trash and campsites a total mess. Some even were buying tents because they couldnt get a room or cabin and pitching them in the woods and when they were dont just leaving them, sleeping bags and everything else. Three times last year i had to chase off motor homes that pulled off the road in MY DRIVEWAY to spend the night. The woods i hunt was littered with them. I picked up 4 trash bags full of soda and beer cans off the beach in two weeks last year. Sorry but im sure theres good people down your way but theres also some real trash! I will make you one rock solid deal. You stay in FL and ill stay in MI. Ive been there and never felt the need to return. Way to HOT way to HUMID and WAY TO MANY PEOPLE!! At least we have peaceful winters. The lightweights go running when the temps drop and the snow falls.

You will never see me up there, but are those true Southerners or just people from up North going back up North.

[dannyd]

You got it right, “To. Many people”. I don’t see it ending well, but I do see there are too many people on this earth and the problem is only getting worse.

There is a fix coming for that; history will call it the Third World War.

[Gator 45/70]

40.41 inches of rain so far this year.

[David2011]

I have mixed opinions about water rights. First off having to pay for bottled water that’s been drawn from aquifers at almost no cost is a sin. The net profit generated from bottled water should be limited to no more than 15% over total cost.

That is an excellent example of Fascism in its pure form; government telling private business how it can operate. No, thank you!

Around the turn of the century I lived in Bakersfield, CA. My water bill was $20/month regardless of the quantity used. Bakersfield is in a desert.

More recently I lived in southeast New Mexico where water is very scarce. There are thousands of acres of farm land growing corn, cotton, alfalfa, sorghum, peppers and pecans. There’s more farm land that’s irrigated to graze cattle. The irrigation is done with pivot irrigation systems that are 1/8 mile long and pivot from one end to water most of a quarter section each, consuming 300 or 400 gallons of water per minute depending on how they’re jetted. That water is all from the Ogalala aquifer that is replenished in South Dakota. A single pivot irrigation system can require as many as seven water wells to supply it.

A friend was buying a house that he had been renting in the middle of farm land just across the state line into Texas. The day before closing the pivot irrigation drew the water table below the depth of his well. The house was no longer habitable.

It is ludicrous to allow that kind of water consumption in a desert that has no surface water. The pecan orchards were made possible by University of New Mexico at Las Cruces research to develop pecan trees that would grow in NM. Each mature tree needs 200 gallons of water per day.

Water consumption on that scale is not sustainable.

[cwtebay]

That is an excellent example of Fascism in its pure form; government telling private business how it can operate. No, thank you!

Around the turn of the century I lived in Bakersfield, CA. My water bill was $20/month regardless of the quantity used. Bakersfield is in a desert.

More recently I lived in southeast New Mexico where water is very scarce. There are thousands of acres of farm land growing corn, cotton, alfalfa, sorghum, peppers and pecans. There’s more farm land that’s irrigated to graze cattle. The irrigation is done with pivot irrigation systems that are 1/8 mile long and pivot from one end to water most of a quarter section each, consuming 300 or 400 gallons of water per minute depending on how they’re jetted. That water is all from the Ogalala aquifer that is replenished in South Dakota. A single pivot irrigation system can require as many as seven water wells to supply it.

A friend was buying a house that he had been renting in the middle of farm land just across the state line into Texas. The day before closing the pivot irrigation drew the water table below the depth of his well. The house was no longer habitable.

It is ludicrous to allow that kind of water consumption in a desert that has no surface water. The pecan orchards were made possible by University of New Mexico at Las Cruces research to develop pecan trees that would grow in NM. Each mature tree needs 200 gallons of water per day.

Water consumption on that scale is not sustainable.

While I agree with most of what you are saying - the Ogallala aquifer statement is likely not 100% fact. That particular aquifer is VERY highly regulated - to the point that you are TOLD to shut off your irrigation if levels become low or you use more than your allocation. If you are non compliant - your well is closed - by pouring concrete into the well head.
I also agree that I question the reasoning behind growing such things as tree nuts in a desert!!!!

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[Cowhide]

Some time ago California leased or sold a lot of water rites to the Almond growers, because the money was just to good. Now the state is and has been having water problems but the Almond growers still have the steady supply of water per the contract. It was a 99 year deal and all of us will be dead before that contract expires. Short sighted politicians is and has been the seed of a lot of problems here in the USA and else where.

[Ural Driver]

.................... Short sighted politicians is and has been the seed of a lot of problems here in the USA and else where.

Ya think ?

[WRideout]

Is it to costly to use ocean water like they do on carriers ? I would think by now there must be means to convert it. I know they spent millions if not billions to remove oil and sludge from the ocean.

Just thinking out loud, Mike

When I lived in Santa Barbara County, CA, it was not so much a water availability problem as a distribution problem. SoCal gets a large amount of water from the Colorado River, but there are rules about who can get it, and how it can be used. So the citizens of Santa Barbara (which has a high proportion of millionaires) decided that they would just build their own gas-fired seawater desalination plant. It's about the most expensive water you can get, but the grass never has to turn brown.

Wayne

[David2011]

While I agree with most of what you are saying - the Ogallala aquifer statement is likely not 100% fact. That particular aquifer is VERY highly regulated - to the point that you are TOLD to shut off your irrigation if levels become low or you use more than your allocation. If you are non compliant - your well is closed - by pouring concrete into the well head.
I also agree that I question the reasoning behind growing such things as tree nuts in a desert!!!!

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I’m just going by personal experience and the fact that my well drew from the Ogalala. I don’t know what happened to the surrounding wells where my friends lived. Without water they couldn’t stay. They canceled the contract on the house and moved to another place on the New Mexico side of the state line.

[MT Gianni]

You got it right, “To. Many people”. I don’t see it ending well, but I do see there are too many people on this earth and the problem is only getting worse.

We had a great opportunity with Covid but they introduced social distancing.

[GregLaROCHE]

I watched a report not long ago, about how multi million dollar farming companies are coming to the southwest. They drill extremely deep wells, that are too expensive for local farmers to drill. The water table drops and the local farmers, who had been farming for generations, are forced to leave, because of the lack of water. Of course the big companies buy up their farms cheap!

[perotter]

Sitting next to Lake Superior, these drought problems seem far away. Superior has enough water in it to cover South, Central and North America with two feet! The Lake does fluctuate, having been low enough recently to antagonize shipping tonnage. We got an inch and a quarter of rain Sunday but Southern Minnesota has drought conditions. The Mississippi is at historic lows. But flooding has been more prevalent in the recent past in the Midwest than drought.

When the golf courses turn brown in Phoenix and Southern California they will have a problem.

I wouldn't call it a drought yet in southeast MN. I've been all over that part of the state over the last 2 weeks.

While I have seen a bit of stressed corn, the fields all around it have been in good shape. That says more about a farmers individual farming practices than anything. You know, they gambled that there will be plenty of rain and went short on the fertilizer. Or they bit off more than they could chew and got it in late. The earlier planted stuff had time to get a better root system, FWIW. The water levels of ponds and swamps I'm familiar with that sometimes dry up are still in good shape. As of last Saturday the Mississippi back waters looked normal.

Some places got as much as 3" last Friday and more on Sunday. But it's patchy like it always is during a dry spell and some more rain would be welcome. I'm old, but still willing to ride motorcycle in the rain.

[Bmi48219]

That is an excellent example of Fascism in its pure form; government telling private business how it can operate. No, thank you!
Water consumption on that scale is not sustainable.

You’ve obviously unaware the bottled water producers suck billions of gallons daily out of aquifers that the surrounding communities depend on for drinking, bathing, irrigation and life in general. When the municipal wells dry up the municipality does the same. The negative effects of the bottled water industry on rural life are well documented in published articles, books and film series.
I don’t think ‘fascism’ is the correct term:
“fascism [ˈfaSHˌizəm] NOUN : an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.”
Fresh water is a finite resource and the most critical of resources to life on this planet. It isn’t fascism when the government controls the export of uranium 235. Allowing private industry to exhaust critical natural resources for profit gives private industry control of the population and the government.

[beechbum444]

sitting here in miami....The everglades are full of water and all this water/ dam/ waterlochs etc equipment....I get emails and text messages from my apartment complex on how theres a water shortage and how we should conserve it...............SCAMMMM

[gbrown]

We live in one of those places that could send water to other areas. Annual rainfall is around 50 inches. Sometimes more, sometimes less. In Harvey, 2017, a location near me registered over 60 inches of rain. We never flooded, local drainage district has done an excellent amazing job. SIL and daughter lost their house and everything in that. Wish we could figure out how to send our excess to those that need it.