| This is a very real issue and has concerned me for years. I'm an environmental studies major and water is something I think we don't take seriously enough. But when I was homeless in California for nearly six years, it was during drought years for the first five. Towards the end of that, I recall similar photos going around of empty lakes and boats and dick's sitting in the mud or on dry lakes bottoms. Then the drought broke and the last year I was on the street was much wetter. These were deadly storms with record rainfall causing much flooding. I borrowed money and spent three nights in the cheapest dive I could find, not knowing how I would eat for the rest of the month but certain that being out in the storm would cost more and have devastating consequences. The lakes and reservoirs filled back up. Years worth of deficits were remedied in relatively short order. I do wish we would take water issues much more seriously. But I also wish we would remember that variation in rainfall is normal and reservoirs exist because of that and it's normal for them to rise and fall. If you are interested, Salt Dreams is an excellent read about water issues in the American Southwest and Southern California especially. Fresno County has an excellent track record of raising its water table in some years and a lot of water rights law and canal building tech was developed in that county hundred or more years ago. This book about the history of Fresno water development was an excellent read (at least if you are a hydrology nerd, I guess) and I highly recommend it: https://www.worldcat.org/title/water-for-a-thirsty-land-the-... |