Water - real truth

[314joey]

Curious, what's the water situation for real out West, every time we've looked in the Vegas area the lack of water concerned me, not only the drinking water, but the lake water for boating, now whose going to tell me the truth, I would appreciate it, thanks.

[2manymustangs]

Isn't SoCal arid desert???

Without the pipes/reserviors/aqueduct would it would be the SoCal as we know it today???

[Stainless]

Curious, what's the water situation for real out West, every time we've looked in the Vegas area the lack of water concerned me, not only the drinking water, but the lake water for boating, now whose going to tell me the truth, I would appreciate it, thanks.

I don't have any statistics to quote but it seems we're constantly in a drought according to news. My locale largely relies on ground water with some canal'ed here all the way from Lake Havasu. Most people lifestyle accordingly I.E. small percentage of people have large lawns etc.
That said, I don't have much fear of running out of water. Now Cali is in another story but I would leave that to one of them to explain. I hear Mateo's water bill is more than all my utilities combined monthly. 😱


CH3NO2

[Bobbytheboozer]

I heard monthly water bills in one of the towns by me is easily $300 a month. And that's on the low end.

[Ziggy]

People keep moving here from other regions, we keep building houses but not more water storage.
HOA's will no longer be able to say no to drought resistant landscape. A shit ton of water used is for irrigation. Most people have nice green lawns.
Pictures of Mead being 60-100 feet low are real, so are the ones of Powell. Yet those two still hold enough for us to survive for years to come.
.
Fact of the matter really is we've had very dry winters the past decade and not gotten the rain we normally expect. Reserves are lower than normal but not bone dry by any means. One really good winter could bring it back. Historically the dry decades have been followed by very wet years. My intuition is telling me we might see a wet one this year. Hope I'm right.

[riverrunner1984]

I heard that all the water here in CA is evaporating due to Global Warming??? Lol

[Kenny D]

We just built a home in Florida....where we are at, we get about 50 inches of rain a year. Where we are from in So Ca........ So Ca average rain is 14 inches a year ,we have had about 4 inches in the last year.The worst drought in my life time.The water in Ca is about a dollar for a unit, which is about 750 gallons.Our water rates in Florida start at 2.50 for a unit which is about a 1000 gallons for the first 5000 gallons and it goes up from there....It may be about the only thing that is more expensive in Florida.....but it makes no sense.

[314joey]

$300 a month, WOW, the two of us use a little over 5,000 gals a month, the price per unit goes up anything over 5K, ours is around $100 a month.

It's not just the domestic water I was always concerned about, it was if I could boat when I wanted to due to the low lake levels, I know Mead is down a ton, you can see it when we fly in, looks like 70-80' or so, but you can see where they've moved the boat docks and ramps.

It's eventually going to have to hit the fan, Cali can't keep taking water from other states when they don;t have any either, doesn't sound like any good solutions either.

[Paul65K]

Joey,

If you were to move here you would be a Havasu Boater.......we can tell :D........Havasu water levels stay fine, as we are fed from Mead and need to have no more than a 2-3' difference to keep our little dam producing the electricity that is clearly needed.

Even if you moved to Vegas cuz we know you love it there all the cool folks boat on Havasu so you'd likely be making the 2 hour drive for some "Real Boating"...............which brings us back to why you won't be leaving FL cuz right now you just go out your back door :D

Looks like you guys will be relegated to 3 or 4 trips a year to Vegas for some serious fun and do your boating in the Atlantic :thumb:


PS............if we would just stop sending some large percentage of the water in the Colorado river to Mexico (by treaty) we'd have plenty of water for the western states............but that would be a political statement and I just won't do that here :hilarious:

[tchb]

Over half the water used is for landscaping. This is change very slowly as the price of water trends upwards.

I think a lot of water is also used in Orange County with all those showers with multiple shower heads.

[314joey]

Joey,

If you were to move here you would be a Havasu Boater.......we can tell :D........Havasu water levels stay fine, as we are fed from Mead and need to have no more than a 2-3' difference to keep our little dam producing the electricity that is clearly needed.

Even if you moved to Vegas cuz we know you love it there all the cool folks boat on Havasu so you'd likely be making the 2 hour drive for some "Real Boating"...............which brings us back to why you won't be leaving FL cuz right now you just go out your back door :D

Looks like you guys will be relegated to 3 or 4 trips a year to Vegas for some serious fun and do your boating in the Atlantic :thumb:


PS............if we would just stop sending some large percentage of the water in the Colorado river to Mexico (by treaty) we'd have plenty of water for the western states............but that would be a political statement and I just won't do that here :hilarious:

Paul, I'm a real estate guy, that's what I did for a living before the 2008 crash, lucky I sold my company in 2006, no, I'm not that smart, just got lucky and sold at the right time, anyway, I know there's a great deals in the Vegas area and have been half ass looking, you are correct we would boat on Havasu, but if there's not going to be water to boat or my domestic water bill is $300 a month I'll think twice about it, that's what is prompting the inquiry.................btw, thanks everybody.

And I agree, the gubment is a mess and you don't want to get me going, hotboat would put both of us on double secret probation.

[Slacker]

Here in Havasu our water bill averages $68 a month, which includes sewer and trash pick-up. It's just the wife and I and we don't have a pool and don't over irrigate, it seem's like a lot of people over irrigate and then complain about their water bill. From what I'm told they cannot drop Havasu more then 6-7 feet because of the water intakes for S. Cal are surface intakes. So Havasu would be the last to dry up in the chain on the Colo. river. Why people have lawns in the southwest is .................. Now it's time to fill the coolers and get on the Lake!

[Sharp shooter]

I live in southern Cal about 15 minutes from Mateo and my water bill is under $100 a month. The local construction sites still waste tons of water keeping the dust down (by law) so what does that say....

[314joey]

Here in Havasu our water bill averages $68 a month, which includes sewer and trash pick-up. It's just the wife and I and we don't have a pool and don't over irrigate, it seem's like a lot of people over irrigate and then complain about their water bill. From what I'm told they cannot drop Havasu more then 6-7 feet because of the water intakes for S. Cal are surface intakes. So Havasu would be the last to dry up in the chain on the Colo. river. Why people have lawns in the southwest is .................. Now it's time to fill the coolers and get on the Lake!

Seems out West a rock garden would be the best plan, why further aggravate a bad situation.


I live in southern Cal about 15 minutes from Mateo and my water bill is under $100 a month. The local construction sites still waste tons of water keeping the dust down (by law) so what does that say....

Old saying, "do as I say, not as I do"

[Ziggy]

Here in Havasu our water bill averages $68 a month, which includes sewer and trash pick-up. It's just the wife and I and we don't have a pool and don't over irrigate, it seem's like a lot of people over irrigate and then complain about their water bill. From what I'm told they cannot drop Havasu more then 6-7 feet because of the water intakes for S. Cal are surface intakes. So Havasu would be the last to dry up in the chain on the Colo. river. Why people have lawns in the southwest is .................. Now it's time to fill the coolers and get on the Lake!
Recently I read that Mead and Powell are designated reservoirs and its why their levels fluctuate so dramatically. Mohave and Havasu have different designations and have systems that require levels to be maintained to operate. Havasu seemed to be quite full all summer long.

[Stainless]

Havasu seemed to be quite full all summer long.

That's bc of the very efficient beer recycling program they operate in the channel. 😝


CH3NO2

[314joey]

That's bc of the very efficient beer recycling program they operate in the channel. ��


CH3NO2

I know that system well, "beer in............beer out" you never really buy a beer, you only rent it.......................lol

[Ziggy]

I know that system well, "beer in............beer out" you never really buy a beer, you only rent it.......................lol

It's like laundering money :D:D

[C-2]

The situation is so serious now, that HM no longer needs floaties :hilarious:

Anyways, been following the water wars for years, ever since I had to locate and interview Floyd Dominy, the old guy in the first video. His arch nemesis was David Brower from the Sierra Club. Both of them went at it until they died (Dominy just a few years back). Dominy got me hooked, his passion about water was addictive.

Anyhow, there is an excellent PBS special and book named Cadillac Desert. Find it if you can, a great read and great documentary. Too bad Marc Reisner died before his predictions came to fruition.

YT has a cool series, from the dam collapse at Magic Mountain, to stripping the Bishop area via Owens Lake/Los Angeles Aqueduct, lots of good history nuggets in there.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbebOhnCjA

[314joey]

I watched the whole thing.....................WOW, I've got to find the rest of them, very interesting.................................maybe I should stay right here where I can almost look out my back door at the Gulf of Mexico.

[HB Vic]

Water is so expensive here I take dry showers and wash my car with hand sanitizer :D

[Stainless]

Water is so expensive here I take dry showers and wash my car with hand sanitizer :D

Fireball's cheaper than H20 in Cali


CH3NO2

[HB Vic]

Fireball's cheaper than H20 in Cali


CH3NO2

That's why I don't drink water, can't afford it. Fireball is a economical replacement :D

[314joey]

I don't need water for grass lawn, rocks are great, but I need water so they can make beer.

[HypNautic]

Our water bill stays around $80-90. We have desert landscaping in the front and about 1100 sqft of grass in the backyard. 5 people in the house.
Last article I read said Vegas would run out of water no less than 7 years after Mead could not pump out water to Ca.

[314joey]

I can't believe the amount of water that's pumped out West, don't they know the place is a desert.

[HolyMoly]

I can't believe the amount of water that's pumped out West, don't they know the place is a desert.

The residential use of water is very small compared to agriculture. People can get all the drought friendly plants they want, but even if all residential cut their usage in half, it wouldn't make much difference.

True, CA is arid/desert. But, the central valley is some of the best farming land in the world. At one time, it was not a desert and the central valley wash very lush, and is why it is so fertile. Agriculture is CA's largest industry by far.

As far as water to boat on, the Big Blue is always an option. But, the rest of the water ways are threatened more by regulatory limitations to boating, than the actual lack of water to boat on.

Also, you will hear things like "No body contact" and people seem to think that is required for drinking water resevoirs to keep it clean. It has NOTHING to do with keeping the water clean, but they don't mind you thinking that it does....makes it sound like you couldn't win a legal fight. But the reality, "No body contact" has to do with insurance and liability. An example I like to give is Irvine lake (where they often have a v-drive regatta) and everyone is told "No body contact". But, there is a waterski and wake board club that operates at that lake....wtf? OH...they have their own insurance.

Also, the water districts are having major failures of pipes that are 100+ years old, and they have now had a loss of water thru breakage that is equivalent to what the residential sector uses in a year (In Los Angeles).

Desalination is the future. We won't run out of water in CA.

I don't have a water bill...I'm on a well. And, I'm in no danger of my well drying up because a new reservoir (Diamond Valley - one of So Cal's largest reservoirs) is perking into my aquifer. There is a natural spring right next to my house, and the park down the street constantly has problems with ground water accumulating. I have neighbors a couple miles away whose wells did dry up, and there was a lawsuit against the water district as it is a direct result of the reservoir pulling from their aquifer, so they have a water station that the residents get free water at.