[bsder]

> I'm wondering why california isn't investing in more desalination for SoCal, especially for LA.

Because California has plenty of water for residents. What California doesn't have is plenty of water for agribusiness.

And the agribusinesses do NOT want people paying close attention as all the valid solutions to water problems are basically "shut down agribusinesses in arid areas".

[notepad0x90]

people are always trying to conserve water, and droughts have been a plague for the past few decades. Even if the agriculture is taking up all the water, it doesn't change how water scarcity is a a very real part of socal life. You don't have to shutdown agriculture elsewhere, and it is a vital part of california's economy, that's just a lazy solution. I can get behind getting the agriculture industry to finance partly the desalination plants so they can free up the fresh water via the aqueduct.

In the unlikely event california becomes independent, water rights will be a big deal too, those natural water sources won't be so reliable without nevada's cooperation.

[bsder]

> You don't have to shutdown agriculture elsewhere, and it is a vital part of california's economy, that's just a lazy solution.

Agribusiness is under 2% of the California economy and an even smaller employer. You could wipe it completely out and the state would barely notice.

And nobody is saying to wipe out actual food production. Mostly people want to stomp on things like growing and exporting alfalfa (which is effectively exporting water for all intents and purposes).

> droughts have been a plague for the past few decades

Droughts have been a plague forever. Quoting Steinbeck from East of Eden:

“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

[khuey]

> In the unlikely event california becomes independent, water rights will be a big deal too

This is all hypothetical of course but the logical eastern border of an independent state centered in what's now California would be near Denver for precisely this reason.