Essence of Life

My thanks go to Comstock’s Magazine, especially Rich Ehisen and team for their diligent and balanced reporting on California’s water predicament.  Anybody interested in what is going on should get up to speed by reading the following articles:

http://www.comstocksmag.com/Articles/Dam-Compromise.aspx

http://www.comstocksmag.com/Articles/0909_SR_Water--Hydrating-the-System.aspx

http://www.comstocksmag.com/Articles/1009_F_SR_Water--Spending-Water-Like-Money.aspx

http://www.comstocksmag.com/Articles/1109_SR_water--Peripheral-Vision.aspx

http://www.comstocksmag.com/Articles/1209_SR_Water--What-s-to-Fallow.aspx

Nature’s interconnectivity is hopefully by now common knowledge, and given all the great engineering achievements that controlled California’s water through its history and helped shape its present existence it is not surprising to see that those twentieth century engineering marvels have devolved into lessons on exactly what not to do in order to sustain Nature’s inherent balance. 

The word “OOPS” seems to be the resounding echo bouncing off the parched lands across the state; it is the clarion call of crisis, to be heeded by all hands on deck.  And so politicians, engineers, scientists, environmentalists, lawyers, farmers, fishermen, developers, boaters, swimmers, and anybody that likes to take a nice long shower, or water their garden, or wash their car on a hot summer day are peering over the edge of the riverbanks with shrugged shoulders as if to say,  “sorry little fishies, maybe we got a bit carried away”. 

It seems the California Legislature’s recent passage of sweeping water legislation last November was an act of good faith by all, the result of real efforts, with the potential for real results, cynicism aside.  For legislation summary, go here:

www.cenews.com/news-california_finally_passes_water_legislation-726.html

As with anything to do with politics, the legislation is getting slammed, as it should.  It may hold a lot of empty promises, filled with good intentions, but with no substance. 

The new laws affect both the Sacramento-San Jaoquin River Delta and the rest of the state.  While the laws do not fund much in the way of specific projects, they herald in a new framework for water resource planning and ecosystem protection.  They give the State Water Resources Control Board more reach and also restructure Delta governance with the creation of the Delta Stewardship Council.

The laws call for increased accountability of water resource availability and usage.  In simple terms, the Legislature’s goal is to get every water user to lay their cards on the table and show how much water they are using and what they are using it for.  An example is the call to establish a comprehensive statewide groundwater monitoring program.  Once the water is accounted for, then future legislation will kick in the next phase, making the citizens pay for their use.  How they will achieve this is anybody’s guess at this point because the legislation does not establish procedures for monitoring or enforcement.

In the meantime the legislation includes a significant effort to stress conservation.  All you men should be finding a bush to pee on rather than wasting that flush down the toilet. 

And then there is the proposal to use $11.1 billion (BB) of state funds for a variety of purposes, not only in the Delta, but throughout the state.  Funding for water storage ($3 BB), Delta restoration including levee improvements ($2.55 BB), restoration projects in 21 watersheds other than the Delta ($1.7 BB), regional water management ($1.4 BB), water recycling and conservation ($1.25 BB), groundwater cleanup ($1 BB), and drought relief and wastewater treatment improvements ($455 million) is provided.  The funds to support these investments will be placed before California voters in a bond measure for an up or down vote on November 2, 2010.  Whoa, not exactly great timing, considering our current economic position.

What does all this mean?  It seems we are in a situation where everybody stands to lose a great deal, everybody.  No water, no nada. 

This legislation does not solve our problems, it merely outlines a framework for which our water problems can be identified, quantified, and perceived in analytical and measurable terms so that sustainable solutions may be developed and implemented some time in the future.

As a member of the civil engineering and earth sciences community I welcome the new legislation with skepticism.  It seems strange that we should come to a point where the legislative goal is to identify and quantify every last drop of water for it to be sold off as a commodity like everything else.  The idea forces me to remember Chief Seattle, or the Zen monk meditating next to the waterfall, a vision of man as a thread within the fabric of nature; and then to visualize bar codes on raindrops, scientists playing dueling calculators on mountain peaks between the California/Nevada state line appropriating each drifting atmospheric water molecule to its respective state allotment, a thought I have not run across in my science fiction reading, nevertheless it appears we may be heading in this direction.  Welcome to the 21st century.