This is a good listen too.
California's epic snowpack is melting. Here's what to expect
May 5, 2023
NPR
The waters from a long-dry lake, resurrected by epic rains earlier this year, already lap at the levee of this Central Valley town of 22,000 people. A hundred square miles of crops are drowning around it…
#cawx #caweather #TulareLake #snowpack #snowmelt #thebigmelt #flood #extremeweather #sierranevada #sierrafoothills #centralvalley #agriculture #water #sequoia
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/05/1173069933/snowpack-california-2023-flooding-what-to-expect
@peeppeepcircus must have misunderstood. big lake next to thirsty fields ...
@pennyphilosophy for context, those inappropriate thirsty fields were there in the bottom of the dry lake basin because they had over-engineered water usage & sucked the lake dry. And this year those same farmers/descendants illegally broke flood levees to save those fields from flooding, only temporarily, which in turn flooded out nearby communities, ruined neighborhoods, destroyed peoples homes.
It’s not that water isn’t being used. It’s how selfishly & how that lake was drained to begin with
@pennyphilosophy otherwise every drop of that water is “used” by big ag with #water rights sucking the land dry for inappropriate high water usage needy agriculture like almonds & pistachios that get exported every year for high profit. A nuisance practice that caused subsidence sinking the parched ground, people not having water to drink in our last drought that only ended this year. Mark Arax has done some great articles (and books) about #TulareLake & #CentralValley.
@pennyphilosophy I mean, having our largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi back is not a waste. Having our wetlands back is not a waste. Refilling our aquifers is not a waste.