In 2014, California state government began to take the Great Western Drought
seriously. The state legislature passed bills to authorize the sale of
over $7.0 billion in “water bonds”. That legislation aimed to add more
long-term water storage, clean up polluted groundwater and regulate
indiscriminate water mining. For the first time, California required
local and regional water officials to manage their ever-shrinking
supply of groundwater. Although the legislation may provide some relief a decade hence, we expect to see little relief from current water shortages.
About eighty percent of the developed water supply
in the state goes to the seemingly insatiable needs of California’s
agribusiness. Even so, the governor recently asked all Californians to
reduce water usage by at least twenty percent. During 2014, Northern California scored
better on water saving than Southern California. Did necessity or
indifference drive Southern Californians to use more water per capita
than their northern neighbors?
In Orange County, California, Lake Mission Viejo is a reservoir created
solely for the private recreation of its members. With a surface area
of 124 acres and an average depth of thirty feet, that “fake lake”
comprises 3,720 acre-feet of water. According to water management
standards in the U.S., a water supply of that size could support 3,720
suburban households for one year.
Rather
than devoting lake water to the needs of all Californians, the
association that owns Lake Mission Viejo dedicates the lake to the
exclusive water sports and scenic enjoyment of its members. Although the
Lake Mission Viejo Association is exploring ways to reduce water usage in and around the lake, currently they fill their lake with up to eighty-eight million gallons of drinking water each year.
In the 1960s, during the creation of Westlake Village, California, developers dammed up Lower Triunfo Canyon,
and then dubbed the seasonally dry arroyo "Westlake". Upon completion
of the planned community, the Westlake Lake Management Association (WMA) became responsible for dredging, maintaining and refilling the lake as necessary.
As
the ongoing water crisis in California intensified, WMA found that
traditional groundwater sources for its own “fake lake” were dry. In
order to keep Westlake full and its surrounding property values high,
WMA recently tapped potable (culinary) water supplies. With summer
evaporation rates of over 900 gallons per minute, seasonal inflow of
potable water at the lake is equal to a two-outlet fire hydrant fed by a
twelve-inch water main.
Similar to Lake Mission Viejo, there is limited public access to the shoreline at Westlake.
One can enjoy a sunny winter afternoon on the patio at Boccaccio’s
Restaurant, and then stroll along a promenade adjacent to the lake. In
keeping with the tranquil atmosphere of the place, all private
watercraft on Westlake are either electric boats or sailboats. From a
residential perspective, Westlake
is an idyllic setting. With the tightening of domestic water supplies
throughout California, residents and visitors alike should enjoy the
lake while they can.
In the second half of the twentieth century, development of new “fake
lakes” in the desert-like conditions of Southern California was still a
viable business option. Lake Mission Viejo and Westlake are prominent
examples of a Southern California trend that ended when developers
finished filling Lake Mission Viejo
with imported water in 1978. At both lakes, unscrupulous or ignorant
developers sold aspiring Southern California homeowners “lakefront
property” adjacent to potentially unsustainable bodies of water.
In
2014, many water wells ran dry throughout Southern and Central
California. Hardest hit were the poor and working class communities of
the San Joaquin Valley. Ironically, irrigation districts in the same
area consume almost half of the developed water supply in the state. In
that area, farmers cherish their nut tree crops, which are notorious
water wasters. There are credible estimates that it takes one gallon of
irrigation water to create a single almond. With 944,000 acres of nut
tree crops planted in Central California, just “a can a week” is all
that the Almond Board of California TV ads ask us to consume. If their
ads admitted that production of just one can of almonds requires
several hundred gallons of water, how many of us would buy a can each
week?
Many San Joaquin Valley farm workers and their families bathe with buckets
of cold water and rely on donated bottled water to survive. Meanwhile,
residents of Westlake Village and Lake Mission Viejo, ply their
exclusive lakes on electric boats, eating California almonds and
drinking Perrier.
It
is a free country and if you have the money, you can buy the resources
for your own pleasure. With luck and money, you can keep an
unsustainable lifestyle going long enough to sell your fake lakefront
property to the next true believer. If I owned lakefront property in
either community, I would sell my property and move away while the
lakes are full and the unsuspecting are still ready to purchase. After
all, every bubble must someday burst.
By James McGillis at 04:49 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link
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