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To: Metacomet who wrote (148716)	3/15/2015 4:35:39 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

"It's hard to get too worked up about the "water crises" in the PNW" Not for me; I'm in the part of Calif. that is PNW, and I'm living it. My spring is gone, and the creek is about dry; should run thru mid-June. Hoping for some rain tonight, but the last 2 have fizzled. Wild grasses are heading up 2 months early. "there are gigantic sources of fresh water free for the taking," Those gigantic sources come from the snow pack, which isn't there. The Olympic Peninsula, on Wa's drought list, is a rain forest. Op-Ed California has about one year of water left. Will you ration now? HGiven the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California's winter was as well. As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We're not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we're losing the creek too. Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir... latimes.com

To: Metacomet who wrote (148716)	3/15/2015 6:02:07 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Went thru a similar discussion on another thread It's hard to get too worked up about the "water crises" in the PNW In OR and WA state, the western half of those states get rain; the eastern portions are in a rain shadow and get little rain. Many of the nation's crops come from the eastern portions of those states. They are a secondary 'breadbasket' to the huge breadbasket that is the San Joaquin Valley in CA. The farmers are heavily dependent on the irrigated water that comes from the snowpack that melt each spring and summer. When there is no snowpack, there is no water for farming. This effects not only the farmers but the American consumer as well. Secondly, the energy needs of CA, OR and WA state are interwoven. CA is dependent on getting electrical energy from the dams in the PNW during the summer when their consumption is highest. In winter, CA sends energy to OR and WA state when consumption is highest in those states. Without adequate snowpack, energy production from the PNW's dams will be reduced which in turn could create penergy roblems for CA. If you live outside of the West coast, I can understand why you might not get too worked up but for us here, its a big deal.