As parts of our nation suffer horrific storms and incalculable flooding, those of us on the searingly warmed Western United States know what to expect when the massive wildfires are finally extinguished… until still warmer temperatures reignite our forests. We need water, we are hoping that somehow the disappearance of water-storing glaciers and mountain snow can be reversed, but we also know what happens when heavy rains, maybe any consistent measurable rain, hit vast tracts of burned-out forests.
As hydrologist Peter Gleick tells in his OpEd for the October 1st Los Angeles Times, “For those of us who work on California water challenges, the start of the new year isn’t Jan. 1; it’s Oct. 1, the official beginning of the state’s wet season. This is the time of year we start to look out over the Pacific for the storms we hope will bring life-giving precipitation, replenishing our rivers and streams, coating our mountains with snow, refilling our reservoirs and recharging our soils, forests, wetlands and groundwater.
“And while we hope for a good water year, we also hope for moderation in the face of ever-worsening climate change, for storms that don’t overwhelm our levees, flood our cities and towns, or wash away our farms and homes… And while we hope for a good water year, we also hope for moderation in the face of ever-worsening climate change, for storms that don’t overwhelm our levees, flood our cities and towns, or wash away our farms and homes.
“We’re looking ahead with no small amount of worry. The last two years have been bad: years of drought, heat, fire and ecological collapse. A repeat of the last two years would be catastrophic. Every drought is different, but with climate change upping the ante, the current drought has been one for the record books.
“We’ve seen rapidly disappearing snow that simply evaporated off the mountains rather than producing runoff, the death of native salmon when the temperatures in our rivers rose to lethal levels, parched farms, extreme fires that even now are sweeping through our dry forests, expanses of exposed mud at the bottom of our emptying reservoirs, and the nonstop overdraft of groundwater sucked up by stronger and stronger pumps from deeper and deeper wells, causing Central Valley communities on the front lines to lose access to safe and affordable drinking water.
“Will the next water year be wet or dry? We don’t know. We can only watch the weather patterns swirl and shift, the storms form, move and dissipate. But we can do far more than that to actively prepare California’s water system for whatever shapes up over the Pacific.” Though Western farmers are hopping mad at water restrictions that limit their access to water, the harsh reality is that we have allowed over-cultivation in areas where water resources are scarce, particularly crops – like nut trees – that suck up a disproportionate share of precious water.
But as we know from so many part experiences: if there is a big burn, we can expect a big litany of floods and landslides. It happens every time. Homeowners stock up on sandbags, municipalities try and clear out flood channels and sewer drainage, but we never seem able to prevent the massive damages that always follows. In California, traditionally, our limited “rainy season” is November through March. We need that rain, but… As I pointed on in numerous prior blogs, most recently in my The Burned Convention piece, we are going to need a massive new approach to managing forests and preparing for the obvious consequences of rising climate change damage… from heat, fire and water.
Meanwhile, searing summer heat has played hob with efforts to conserve water usage in the parched West. We are just running out of water resources. Reservoirs, lakes and streams are at some of the lowest levels in recorded history. Snowpack and glacial ice, as noted above, are quite literally vaporizing… even as the threat of mudslides persists. As other California communities actually have been able to reduce water consumption, Los Angeles actually increased water usage this summer by one percent. California, along with several other Western states, just may have to move from advisory to mandatory water restrictions.
“Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said Thursday [9/30] that bigger steps may be needed if the drought doesn’t ease this winter, and turning to statewide mandatory conservation measures will be an option… ‘We’re going to be watching very closely here in the coming ... months how that voluntary water conservation goes,’ Crowfoot said in a call with reporters. ‘We’ve achieved 16% water-use reduction since the last drought. So we know that Californians can step up. But the governor has been clear that we need to consider additional actions, and mandatory restrictions, you know, need to be on the table here as, if and when the drought worsens.’
“Californians in cities and towns across the state reduced water use by 1.8% overall in July as compared with the same month last year. State officials said they’ll be watching to see how the water conservation numbers look for August and subsequent months… Crowfoot said the state has been focusing on supporting cities and water agencies in pursuing ‘customized approaches’ to conservation based on their different drought situations, and has been scaling up California’s Save Our Water campaign to get the word out about the need to conserve.
“He and other state water officials spoke ahead of the Oct. 1 start of the new water year. California gets much of its rain and mountain snow between November and March, and the next several months will determine whether the state must cope with a third dry winter… ‘Heading into this winter, we’ll be watching, one, how Californians do on voluntary conservation toward that 15%,’ Crowfoot said. ‘There’s no set sort of trigger date for considering mandatory conservation, but we’ll be watching it closely.’” Los Angeles Times, October 1st. And maybe, just maybe, we need to stop calling this climate change phenomenon impacting the West a “drought.” It’s beginning to look permanent. We should call it “desertification.”
I’m Peter Dekom, and as older generations spent their lifetimes in careless and excess exploitation of resources and emitting greenhouse gasses, think of the legacy being left to the rising generations that are now saddled with the serious consequences for the rest of their lives.
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