yes. Saw that comparison picture last night. I fully expect water restrictions to go into effect sooner rather than later.

Due to the lack of rain and higher temps in SoCal I expect summer restrictions to be in place as soon as Spring.

I'm really surprised we haven't heard anything already. No rain in the forecast and I hear we have less than 60 days worth of water in some of the state's reservoirs.

and water is always an issue for farmers. This could be a disaster for produce costs/production this summer.

California drought emergency declared by Gov. Jerry Brown

It will also mean problems for some protected rivers and habitats when the Governor declares an official emergency which will allow us to tap these restricted sources.

(Which he did earlier today.)

Vaki: I see that. I was typing up my reply at the same time you posted.

Going to be a very bad time.

Ugh Vaki, that article sums up everything I was afraid of.

I bet we're gonna have to go back to the early 90s toilet code. Oh god I hated that so much.

if it's yellow, let it mellow

NO THANK YOU. I DO NOT WANT A HOUSE FULL OF PEE.

I remember putting the milk jugs int he toilet tank too, to reduce the flow. Brush your teeth with the water off, 5 minutes showers. Sigh

oh and the brown lawns and dirty cars

but really non of that worries me as much as how much food is going to cost, and the fire danger, and the environmental impact.

Yep. Oakland Hills already burned recently...don't want to see them go up again. LA's currently burning. And all our wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables...

I worry about the small farms that I buy my food from at the farmers market.

Do you not have desalination plants there ?

We have a few. But they're very costly, they use a ton of electricity, and we generally don't need them. We usually have abundant rainfall during the winters, and as you can see from the picture, we usually

have heavy snowfall in the mountains, which melts and feeds rivers. It works very nicely (which is why so much of America's food is grown in California).

2013 was the driest year in recorded history for California, and so far 2014 isn't getting any better. We can't suddenly magic a bunch of desalination plants into existence.

i was just curious, because ive seen them in spain and even we have a couple now, and we have loads of rain

We have a big project underway in Carlsbad. It's not complete. The first large-scale desalination plant in the US was one in Tampa, and it was kind of a total mess, so it slowed down big desalination plants.

ah ok

Desalination is a great alternative but since it costs more than our regular sources of water movement and processing they did nothing to promote or develop them here. This has to change.