Water.....

[SumJongGuy]

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

William ("D-Fens"), like Ted, had some legit concerns but expressed them in a poor manner.

[Not DJSapp]

Attachment 461801

I can think of 3 people I know who need this shirt. That's awesome

[SumJongGuy]

On the bright side, short of any major Desalination breakthroughs, the Saudis will run out of water before California does.

[LongShortLong]

Better be prepared to pay out billions and billions for the 5th amendment takings.

Water law in the west arose out of the same fundamental condition that we're struggling with now-- that there is not enough water for everyone. So it would be very challenging to develop an entirely new system. I think it would be much easier (though FAR from easy) to impose constraints on how water is used and sold within the existing legal system.

Does seem it would take a while to build support for amendment. The current system is unreasonable though, and I think the law tends to be reasonable, though it may take its sweet time getting there. A fundamental shortage of water does not imply one user should get it all. Nor does it imply that person should be one with a claim made by a long dead person in a far different society.

What if society unrecognizes or limits the right instead of taking it? E.g. Many places have decided to limit the right to dump various things on land, or in the water, or in the air. Did we have to pay off corporations when we told them they could no longer dump chemicals and other shit in the rivers?

There's also the beneficial use provision. Can we decide a use such as draining the Colorado for agriculture is not beneficial?

[Toadman]

Well this is depressing.

https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/09...d-way-too-bad/

One day, the elderly Millennials will explain what trout fishing was to their grandkids. Then show them images of rivers and streams that ran year around, instead of one month of the year.

[bodywhomper]

I can think of 3 people I know who need this shirt. That's awesome

Don’t wear it in Tulare Co!

There are a few varieties.

Got one for a CA water expert that I know.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1474890..._also_bought-1

[mcski]

I can think of 3 people I know who need this shirt. That's awesome

Oh ya. I’d love to send that to an ex that’s now married to a big time water rights lawyer 🤣

[Meconium]

[skaredshtles]

https://www.sltrib.com/news/business...nity-surfacing

[J. Barron DeJong]

https://www.sltrib.com/news/business...nity-surfacing

In their defense, cable parks are pretty fuckin’ fun.

[MakersTeleMark]

https://coloradosun.com/2023/06/22/s...olorado-river/

[Bunion 2020]

I don't know which of those last 3 pisses me off more.

[Woolly the Mammoth]

The Utah one definitely pisses me off the most, I hope all of those fuckers die in a fire. Or maybe they'll decide to make a homemade submarine and take the whole neighborhood on a tour of the bottom of their manmade lake and it will implode. I would be totally fine with that too.

Collectively, the three stories represent the absolute idiocy of western water law.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

I think the last one only shows that you need some idolatrous belief in a fairy tale and/or a billionaire benefactor to win cases in the current supreme court.

[MakersTeleMark]

Here's some happier news: https://coloradosun.com/2023/06/22/j...olorado-river/

[Bunion 2020]

Wobbly.

A 2016 study demonstrated that climate-driven changes in water mass distribution can cause Earth’s poles to drift. But the activities examined in that study didn’t perfectly explain the observed polar motion.

With observational data spanning 17 years, Seo and his colleagues used a computer model to simulate which hydrological sources significantly affected Earth’s tilt. To Seo’s surprise, modeled polar drift only matched the observations when groundwater pumping was included.

“We have a lot of dams, and there are a lot of reservoirs on land, so I originally thought that should be very important,” said Seo, “but actually it’s not. After including the groundwater effect, I finally could explain all [of the] observations.”

The shift in Earth’s tilt is far too small to impact weather or seasons, Seo said. However, the team of scientists discovered that polar drift can be used to estimate the effect of groundwater pumping on sea level rise.

When water is sucked from the ground to irrigate crops and meet global freshwater demands, it eventually travels through rivers and other pathways into the world’s oceans. From 1993 to 2010, the researchers found, groundwater pumping shifted enough mass to contribute to 0.24 inches in global sea level rise.

“Groundwater pumping is one of the few management decisions that can be made about how to slow the rate of sea level rise,” said Famiglietti. “We are really having an impact on this planet, and we really need to be better stewards of Earth’s resources.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/scien...et-earth-tilt/

[SumJongGuy]

Wobbly.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/scien...et-earth-tilt/

Humans pump so much groundwater that Earth’s axis has shifted, study finds

So now what? Anyone believe Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, CALIFORNIA, etc give a fuck?

[bodywhomper]

That’s ^^^ wild, but it makes sense. With the $$$, some of that can be reversed. There are opportunities to increase GW aquifer recharge and GW aquifers can be a better storage solution compared to surface reservoirs, especially because of reduced evaporation.

Speaking of GW: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/2...er-california/

[PB]

There is that pesky issue of undesirable dissolved solids, however.

[bodywhomper]

There is that pesky issue of undesirable dissolved solids, however.

Maybe I’m ignorant. Isn’t this an issue of treatment where it’s an issue? No single solution for everybody.

I listened to the recent NYT article yesterday about the likely issue of many CA dams not being able to provide flood protection during an “arc storm 2.0” event (or a flood event near an arc storm). It also discussed mathematical probability of the event occurring (something like 50% likely in the next 40 years) and some geologic data (mud off Santa Barbara coast) indicating frequency of past arc storms (less than every 150 years. A little disconcerting and very interesting.

[PB]

Depends on the contaminant and available tech. Chromium was the issue in my previous life - naturally occurring in our mid-level aquifer and no practical way to remove/reduce it.

[Bunion 2020]

So no shit, there I m at a job site today. 24 million dollar home at 9000' at the Billionaires club. Super tells me the ARC will not approve rainwater collection systems. The builder has already had a system designed and stubbed in. I ask why the sudden change.

Harms the aquifer was what they were told, takes away from the recharge. What kind of shit is that, we are talking about 2 cisterns holding 10,000 gallons. And most rainwater runs down the very steep mountain these houses are built upon to the headwaters of the Gallatin, not into an ideal recharge area where it can slowly infiltrate. Then someone pointed out that the operator of the resort is happy to provide water to be trucked to the very same cistern to fill it up. At a cost.

[bodywhomper]

That is kinda fucked.

Depends on the contaminant and available tech. Chromium was the issue in my previous life - naturally occurring in our mid-level aquifer and no practical way to remove/reduce it.

Yeah. No single solution. Aquifer recharge can definitely help in some places. I don’t think I’ve seen a wholistic analysis comparing new surface water reservoir versus aquifer recharge.

[Bunion 2020]

OTOH maybe it will cut back on the silly landscape plans I see.