California is a desert. It has green lawns and golf courses because of irrigation. At the time (post WWII), the greening of California was heralded as a tribute to mans ability to conquer anything with modern technology.
After the initial spurt of water collection and distribution networks being built (dams/viaducts/etc), there was a more cheap water available than was being used. So...what did Californias do with that surplus? they designed and built as though there would
always be more water than they would ever need. The population grew, the cities expanded, and then...whever someone pointed out that it would be "wise" to restrict water use to a sustainable level...they were squelched. "Let the next administration deal with that"
I saw beautiful "Xeriscape" landscaping in Las Vegas, Phoenix, St george...much more than just gravel and cactus. I saw golf courses withe grass on only the tee, and also the green (next to the hole). That means the golfers have to walk through grounds that look like wild and dry scrub-brush. It can be done. All done with drip irrigation at the stem (under cloth and gravel).
And farming? it is true that growing crops need water more than the population needs golf courses, but even farmers are guilty. Its cheaper to install a "center pivot" irrigation system that pulls from the aquifer and sprays water into the air over the crops. The problem is that; this type of system suffers from a LOT of evaporation losses. All of the methods that feed water at the ground level are more cumbersome, labor intensive, and expensive.
And also, just what crops should California grow? If water is low one year, almond and walnut trees
still have to be watered, or they die. Corn and soybeans (on the other hand) could be delayed a year until reservoirs are back to normal. Nestle is taking water from California and running it through a filter and putting it in plastic bottles...why don't they get water from Washington or Canada? Billions of acre-feet worth of water just flow out to the ocean there, but Nestle just pumps it out of Californias ground...in the middle of a drought. (political donations to key power-brokers?).
If there are a lot of rains this fall, it will just be a band-aid on a broken arm. The top of the white rock on the top left of this pic is where the water level is supposed to be. Also, the lower the water level is at hoover dam, the more coal they have to burn at the Page/AZ reservation to make up for the lack of hydro-electric...
