By David Nabhan
Recent storms dumping massive amounts of rainwater on California remind that in the average year some 200 million acre-feet falls on California every year. In a state struggling with drought now for the last two decades—and its effect in Mendocino County sufficient to merit articles from the Washington Post to the Guardian in London—it’s inexcusable that 80% of that rainwater is allowed to make its way to the Pacific Ocean where it’s lost. That certainly need not be the case, since even ancient peoples throughout history, from Nazca in the Peruvian desert to Petra in Jordan, have been adept enough to accomplish the basics, capturing their life-giving precipitation rather than permit it to be wasted.
California, the epicenter of uber-advanced technology, is hardly setting the standard for intelligent water management, failing even in comparison to Roman civil engineers of two thousand years ago. Entire Roman cities were built aqueducts, cisterns and other hydraulic infrastructure sufficient to provide fountains, baths and farm irrigation from rain. A recent study by the Pacific Institute estimated that if Southern California and the Greater Northern California Bay Area shook off the stupor and did something about the drought they’re always talking about a potential 420,000 acre-feet of salvaged water could be the result.
Yet California’s media, elected officials, politicos, movers and shakers—and its forever complaining and finger-pointing activists—seem more content to revel in flooding and water shortages than do anything about either. California’s leaders actually appear to view the state’s water problems as just another advantage in their unceasing program of reining in the citizenry by draconian water restrictions and burying them under further red tape and ordinances. And as for the eco-extremists, there can be nothing more satisfying than a drought or the recent storms, either way, since whatever catastrophe occurs, in their view of course, must be California’s comeuppance for daring to attempt to go about its business without genuflecting to the culture of doom they are so wont to peddle.
California is not doomed though, the drought will end, the storms will cease. Yet the state does need to act. Aquifer recharging, catchment basins, rooftop rainwater capture and more should be the watchword rather than repeating climate slogans while watching torrents of water being squandered. The laws also could be relaxed to favor residents pitching in too. Rooftop catchment, for example, is legal for pools, watering yards, and other non-potable uses, but in most California counties the permit to do so costs hundreds of dollars. It ought to be free, obviously, and a tax incentive offered to urge homeowners in that direction.
Then there is the other great water source at California’s disposal, the Pacific Ocean. Desalination plants are being constructed at a remarkable pace all over the world; there are some 18,000 now in operation. Over 60% of both Israel’s and Saudi Arabia’s water comes from the sea, while three dozen other countries elicit substantial quantities of potable water from the sea through reverse osmosis desalination.
The world’s first commercial desalination plant was in California, built at Coalinga in 1965. It might be expected therefore that the Golden State should be a leader in this regard, but not so. The same activism likely to turn thumbs down on solutions to problems has a bone to pick with using the ocean to slake California’s thirst. In 2022, after decades of attempting to bring to fruition a desalination plant at Huntington Beach, the California Coastal Commission finally refused to grant the permit. Environmentalists were concerned that the project would discharge briny water back into an ocean comprised of—salt water.
And that, as well as any bizarre snippet of fact, says much about where the foundation of many of California’s problems lie.
David Nabhan writes science columns for Newsmax (Shaking Up Science ) and The Times of Israel (Tectonic Shifts ).
