Quote:I'm pretty sure that the 10M foreigners in California using water aren't helping either.


 

I agree that desalinization should be a priority. It should be a priority in every arid area near seawater. Continual use of 'fossil' groundwater is not sustainable, and the Colorado river is sucked dry by the time it reaches Mexico.


 

The current problem is that NIMBYs prevented several California water storage projects in the last two decades. You reap what you sow.

Illegal immigrants hardly even count as a drop in the bucket (pun intended). The problems are the antiquated water rights laws, the existence of companies like Nestle that bottle water en masse from California, which has no water to give while much of the Midwest floods out every year, the NIMBYs you mentioned and the drought itself. I completely agree on desalinization, though. The sooner that's implemented on a large scale, the sooner California's water needs are alleviated, thus easing the pressure on the rivers and lakes and increasing water availability elsewhere.

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