Analysis: Insufficient storage to blame for CA’s perpetual water shortages

Steven Greenhut points out in the OC Register that the Golden State’s ever-present water scarcity epidemic is not lamentably inevitable, as local pols speculate. Instead, by further developing and utilizing water-storage facilities (along with desalination), we can make the most of CA’s precious rainwater. Greenhut’s breakdown excerpted below.

Do California officials see the current, dire drought situation as an opportunity or a unfixable crisis?...

Nearly 50% of the state’s available water flows to the Pacific, 40% goes to farms and 10% goes to urban users. Residences use 5.7% of the state’s water, with half of that going to pools and landscaping. Conservation is a good idea during times of scarcity. But why are environmentalists and regulators fixated on squeezing more drops from those who use the least?

It’s almost as if they are more intent on punishing Californians for our lifestyles than funneling more water into our system to assure that everyone has the water that they need. Go figure. Despite the grueling drought — and it comes only a few years after the previous grueling drought — our state hasn’t noticeably shifted its priorities….

California needs to build appropriate water-storage facilities to capture more water during rainy years (and, yes, we’ll have rainy years again), improve water trading and pricing, and build recycling and desalination plants. We’re not going to do desalination now obviously, we’re not fixing the pricing situation and we’re not building water-storage facilities….

As U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Roseville, has said, “Droughts are nature’s fault and they are beyond our control.  Water shortages, on the other hand, are our fault.” Based on the commission’s decision, it’s sadly clear that California has made its choice to enter a stage of permanent rationing and endless crisis.

This article originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Read the whole thing here.

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