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11 Trillion Gallons of Water Needed To End California Drought
mrflash818 points out a new study which found that California can recover from its lengthy drought with a mere 11 trillion gallons of water. The volume this water would occupy (roughly 42 cubic kilometers) is half again as large as the biggest water reservoir in the U.S. A team of JPL scientists worked this out through the use of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. From the article:
GRACE data reveal that, since 2011, the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins decreased in volume by four trillion gallons of water each year (15 cubic kilometers). That's more water than California's 38 million residents use each year for domestic and municipal purposes. About two-thirds of the loss is due to depletion of groundwater beneath California's Central Valley. ... New drought maps show groundwater levels across the U.S. Southwest are in the lowest two to 10 percent since 1949.
This problem has long been resolved. Nuclear desalination of seawater could allow the entire state to irrigate using the Pacific ocean, if they can rouse themselves out of their purple haze and think clearly. You can desalinate tons of seawater per minute and the only side effect is all the electricity you want. Of course the Ca. govt. shut down its only nuclear reactor. Some states are so stupid they just need to go away for good and California is one of them.