Re: water

I think about the water situation quite a bit actually. That is one of the reasons I am after that ranch.

Our local water situation has been dire for a while. They were saying 30 years ago that we need to cap the growth here because this is a desert and we do not have the water to support growth. But our idiotic politicians ignored the obvious and allowed for uncontrolled growth here. We started seeing our first signs of problems about 20 years ago in a suburb called Windsor Park. I was looking for a house at the time and I told the realtor that I don't mind a fixer upper because I will likely tear the place apart anyway and redo it the way I like. So the realtor called me and told me that there was a large house for sale for $10,000 and it was a fixer upper. It was beyond a fixer upper!!!! There were massive cracks in the ground like the area had just been hit by a large quake. And the house was literally at a 45 degree tilt!!! The whole area was actually sinking in the ground. Groundwater supports the rock here. So as they took out most of the groundwater the rock lost its support and the ground started caving in. The whole area was condemned shortly afterward. Our City Hall and at least one of the large hotels are also sinking in to the ground. And even if we got more rain it will not help. It would take hundreds to thousands of years to replace that water even if we did not take another drop of that water. Our soil is loaded with a concrete hard clay called caliche. This prevents the majority of the water from sinking in to the ground. Instead it pools on the surface causing flooding even with minor rains.

Our lake is also down over 100 feet due to the uncontrolled growth here. Up to a couple of years ago, with the housing crash we were the fastest growing city in the US averaging 7,000 people a month moving in. This went on for over 10 years so you can imagine the water demand. Not just with the individual use, but also from the building. They were destroying old buildings right and left and building all sorts of new mega resorts. All that washing down the dust and mixing of concrete for buildings and parking garages takes up MASSIVE amounts of water. And of course all these new resorts and housing complexes have to have their water features including lakes, which are supposed to be illegal. But as we all know money talks. One great result from the bad economy is that it stopped growth here. Prior to the stoppage of massive building projects here they were projecting our lake, our primary water source, will be dry by 2016 at the latest and 2012 at the earliest. I think the 2012 estimate was more likely being that the average depth of the lake is only 400 feet, the lake is down over 100 feet, and the lake was created by a dam filling sloped canyons with water. Being that the walls are sloped the water level drop faster and faster as the water goes down even if the same annual water is taken out.

They are having fits here because people are out of work with the building projects on hold but if they had a ounce of common sense they would know that when we run out of water that there are going to be a lot less jobs. This city will become a ghost town. To me the politicians are like people playing with mercury then after they get brain damage realizing that they should not have done that!

They are also altering the ecology around here. Last time I went down to the hot springs the water was down to a trickle and most of the pools were dry. Many animals and plants rely on that water, and need the higher water table to maintain them.

To try and stall the problem they now want to steal water from the East-central part of the state with a pipeline. This is like what happened in California's Owen's Valley. The valley used to be a major crop producer and was lush and wet. Then they built the LA aqua duct and took all the water turning Owen's Valley in to a desert. The politicians who knew where the aqua duct was going bought up land in the path they approved then sold the land back to the government at inflated prices. I would not be surprised if the same thing happens here. Right now there is a number of lawsuits, some from other states that share that water and the Native Americans who have claims on that water that is stalling the pipeline.

What really irks me over the entire issue is that keep lying about the water issue being from a drought, and not excessive population growth. They claim we are in a drought and the State where our water originates from is in a drought but the place where they want to steal the water from sits smack dab in the middle and supposedly is not in a drought. What is wring with that picture? Even if they build the pipeline this will just give them an excuse to build more and they will eventually strip out that water source and we will be right back where we are now.

If I did not have family here I would have never bought a home here because again when we run out of water this will be a ghost town. The ranch though has plenty of water so I hope to be out of here soon.