SOME CALIFORNIA WELLS RUN DRY AMID DROUGHT

That's what happens when a human engineered water system loses its source of H2O.

SOME CALIFORNIA WELLS RUN DRY AMID DROUGHT
hosted.ap.org...

EAST PORTERVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- Hundreds of domestic wells in California's drought-parched Central Valley farming region have run dry, leaving many residents to rely on donated bottles of drinking water to get by.

Girl Scouts have set up collection points while local charities are searching for money to install tanks next to homes. Officials truck in water for families in greatest need and put a large tank in front of the local firehouse for residents to fill up with water for bathing and flushing toilets.

About 290 families in East Porterville - a poor, largely Hispanic town of about 7,000 residents nestled against the Sierra Nevada foothills - have said their shallow wells are depleted. Officials say the rest of Tulare County has many more empty wells, but nobody has a precise count."

The lack of snow in the mountains last winter will most likely repeat this year.

Bone-dry California unlikely to get relief this winter
www.usatoday.com...

The likelihood of a wet winter for parched California took a hit Thursday as federal forecasters say that only a "weak" El Nino is predicted for later this year.

"There is a "60-65% chance of an El Nino," said Climate Prediction Center (CPC) deputy director Mike Halpert when reached by phone on Thursday.

"A majority of models ...favor a weak El Nino," noted an online forecast from the CPC. "At this time, the consensus of forecasters expects El Nino to emerge during September-October and to peak at weak strength during the late fall and early winter."

Halpert added that there's still a 1 in 3 chance that it won't develop at all.

Geeesh, how bad will this 'disaster' get? They knew about the issue last year and the first help the people get are the Girl Scouts.

Hey i know where the waters going ... ask the almond farmers.....a reply to: TerrorAlertRed

I went gulp and then I discovered that Porterville is along the Sierra Foothills at slightly higher elevation than the floor of the central valley.

Porterville, lying along the foothills of the Sierras at an elevation of 455 feet, is located on State Highway 65, 165 miles north of Los Angeles, 171 miles east of the Pacific Coast.

East Porterville, elevation

I would expect those wells to run dry first. And that just shows how dry we are here. Recently a cloud passed over Silicon Valley. They said it would and, "maybe rain a bit"… not. It just tucked tail and drifted on by.

a reply to: TerrorAlertRed

Southern Ca that wastes water not on growing food but swimming pools at least canceled their proposed...

Los Angeles city officials have pulled the plug on plans to temporarily transform a downtown street into a giant water slide because of drought.

abcnews.go.com...

We are in the Northern Ca and I am worried about our well water we are much more careful in the use who knows what the future holds, we need to all stop wasting.

originally posted by: Char-Lee
a reply to: TerrorAlertRed

Southern Ca that wastes water not on growing food but swimming pools at least canceled their proposed...

Los Angeles city officials have pulled the plug on plans to temporarily transform a downtown street into a giant water slide because of drought.

abcnews.go.com...

We are in the Northern Ca and I am worried about our well water we are much more careful in the use who knows what the future holds, we need to all stop wasting.

Lawns take up more water then the swimming pools. I worry that I'm not seeing more brown lawns - people don't know - don't care - and don't think it's their problem until the tap doesn't work.

a reply to: FyreByrd
Good article here.
www.scientificamerican.com...

My sister in Sacramento sent me a picture of her garden all fried brown :-(

originally posted by: Char-Lee
a reply to: TerrorAlertRed

Southern Ca that wastes water not on growing food but swimming pools at least canceled their proposed...

Los Angeles city officials have pulled the plug on plans to temporarily transform a downtown street into a giant water slide because of drought.

abcnews.go.com...

We are in the Northern Ca and I am worried about our well water we are much more careful in the use who knows what the future holds, we need to all stop wasting.

Swimming pools are normally filled using quarry water or rock water. It's freshwater, but not reservoir water either. Owner calls up the company and a water tanker will come along and supply the water, no need for tap water.

a reply to: ATF1886

Those almond farmers didn't just move there ya know...

Just a reminder...

Jan. 2013


Jan. 2014

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: Char-Lee
a reply to: TerrorAlertRed

Southern Ca that wastes water not on growing food but swimming pools at least canceled their proposed...

Los Angeles city officials have pulled the plug on plans to temporarily transform a downtown street into a giant water slide because of drought.

abcnews.go.com...

We are in the Northern Ca and I am worried about our well water we are much more careful in the use who knows what the future holds, we need to all stop wasting.

Swimming pools are normally filled using quarry water or rock water. It's freshwater, but not reservoir water either. Owner calls up the company and a water tanker will come along and supply the water, no need for tap water.

Evaporation, the pool has to be continuously filled.

originally posted by: Char-Lee

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: Char-Lee
a reply to: TerrorAlertRed

Southern Ca that wastes water not on growing food but swimming pools at least canceled their proposed...

Los Angeles city officials have pulled the plug on plans to temporarily transform a downtown street into a giant water slide because of drought.

abcnews.go.com...

We are in the Northern Ca and I am worried about our well water we are much more careful in the use who knows what the future holds, we need to all stop wasting.

Swimming pools are normally filled using quarry water or rock water. It's freshwater, but not reservoir water either. Owner calls up the company and a water tanker will come along and supply the water, no need for tap water.

Evaporation, the pool has to be continuously filled.

As do lawns. Pools can be covered to minimize loss but lawns cannot, sprinklers actually aereate water into the atmosphere, plus evaporation before the water soaks in. A lot more water lost to lawns.....

Good luck to everyone who has to chug pool water and/or suck the juice from their lush lawns when the taps run dry! I'm in so.cal and people don't realize how deadly serious this can get really quickly.
a reply to: FyreByrd


h

I recently ran into someone who lives in the affected area. The well ran dry where he lives and also at a house he owns. The wells are on or near the now dry riverbed, so normally they would still be able to pull up groundwater.

He said that all the wells running dry in the area are drilled to only 30 feet or less, but have never run dry before, some drilled generations ago. He has talked to a well drilling company, but they are no longer taking payments for their services, only an upfront cost of $5000, and there is a year-long waiting list. So even if you walked in with cash, all you would be able to do is be put on a waiting list to have your well drilled deeper a year from now.

Some of the houses with dry wells have neighbors whose wells are deeper. But as the water table lowers, more wells will run dry.

The bottom line, there’s just a trickle of water coming off the Sierras, where it is normally stored as snow from the winter and melts off to fill the rivers and charge the groundwater.

The individual dry wells are in a rural area of Porterville. The urban area is hooked up to the city system; city and smaller water districts have deep wells.

Without water, even in America, you can’t flush a toilet, let alone bathe or turn a handle to get a glass of water. The residents in rural Porterville have no city system to hook up to; they will have to wait till the groundwater rises.

As Joni Mitchell sang in "Big Yellow Taxi" during the 1970s (another time California suffered a severe drought as now)

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've
got till it's gone?