Dry California

The California drought, now in its fourth year, just keeps getting worse.

The image below shows the decline of groundwater -- water stored below rivers and the state's land mass -- over the last 12 years.

NASA/JPL-Caltech University/University of California, Irvine

Each year since 2011, more groundwater has been lost than has been used by all 38 million residents in all California's cities.

California's central valley, a breadbasket for much of the nation's crops, uses most of the state's water, but it, too, has been affected by drought.  Cultivation of high-water crops like cotton has been abandoned, with scarce water devoted to high-value crops including almonds.  This has cost at least 17,000 jobs, as well as more than $2 billion in the state economy.  Still, the farmers have been pulling water out of wells just to keep in business.

NASA Earth Observatory

Decoding the map above is not difficult.  The red areas indicate declining amounts of ground water, and the very red areas, which cover almost all of California, indicate the areas of greatest water losses.  The Colorado River, which runs through dry country itself, provides water across seven Western states, and its own water levels are declining rapidly.

Previous hopes for a rainy season this fall have not come to fruition.  In fact, it would take three to five years of very heavy rainfall to return the state to what used to be called a normal situation.  Odds against that are not good.

When a government agency asked state residents recently what they could do to save water, the people came up with answers like turning off water between swallows while brushing their teeth.  Most homeowners face restrictions on watering their gardens, and car-washing now must be done using buckets, not running hoses.  The state for years has mandated the use of low-flow shower heads and toilets (flushing accounts for about 27 percent of household water usage), and even more efficient potties may be required soon.

Unfortunately, none of this is going to make a real dent in the situation.   Tomorrow I will discuss one idea.