Science and Technology : California needs 11 trillion gallons of water: NASA

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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2,000 acres



Farmer visited by Obama is now the face of California’s drought


FIREBAUGH, Calif. — It all started with a tweet.

In early February of last year, Joe Del Bosque heard President Barack Obama was planning to visit California’s Central Valley to see for himself evidence of the state’s devastating drought. What better place to see it, Del Bosque thought, than on his 2,000-acre farm here, west of Fresno, where he’d been forced to fallow nearly a third of his land because he didn’t have the water to sustain his crops.

President Barack Obama walks with California Gov. Jerry Brown, left, and Joe and Maria Del Bosque while touring the Del Bosque farm in 2014. (Photo: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)



https://www.yahoo.com/politics/farmer-visited-by-obama-is-now-the-face-of-125535895256.html


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[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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Why 96 million 'shadeballs' were just released into the LA Reservoir

On Monday, the last 20,000 of a total of 96 million 'shadeballs' were rolled into a reservoir in Los Angeles, NPR reports.

The black plastic balls are used as a cheaper alternative to tarps, which would normally be used to accomplish two main goals: 1. keep algae out, and 2. keep the water in.

The balls also help block the formation of cancer-causing agents called carcinogens, which can develop when sunlight reacts with certain chemicals in the water ...


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-96-million-shadeballs-were-180858214.html


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[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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Report: Groundwater pumping in California has land sinking


FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Vast areas of California's Central Valley are sinking faster than in the past as massive amounts of groundwater are pumped during the historic drought, state officials said Wednesday, citing new research by NASA scientists ...

http://news.yahoo.com/report-groundwater-pumping-california-land-sinking-182608459.html



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[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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California Is Finally Getting Rain - Now if It Could Just Hold on to It



Ground Truth
... California has never had rules governing groundwater use. Read that again: The state has never regulated how much water anyone pulls out of the ground. (How do you think a well works?) And because aquifers don’t conform to property lines, people have generally acted in their own self interest—slurp out as much water as possible before your neighbors take it.

“When you have a lot of straws in the milkshake, there’s really zero incentive to conserve groundwater,” says Tara Moran, researcher at Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West ...



http://www.wired.com/2015/11/california-is-finally-getting-rain-now-if-it-could-just-hold-on-to-it/

Storm clouds gather over the Port of Oakland as seen from Berkeley, California on November 9, 2015. NOAH BERGER/AP


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[Clyde C Coger Jr]

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Uranium Contamination: Danger in the Drinking Water



In a trailer park tucked among irrigated orchards that help make California’s San Joaquin Valley the richest farm region in the world, 16-year-old Giselle Alvarez, one of the few English-speakers in the community of farmworkers, puzzles over the notices posted on front doors: There’s a danger in their drinking water ...


https://www.yahoo.com/health/uranium-contamination-danger-in-the-drinking-122454211.html

Before treatment, Westport’s water tests up to four times state and federal limits. (Associated Press)


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