Thousands of California farmers cut off from river water as drought intensifies . . .

[Journeyman]

California regulators moved to cut off thousands of farmers from their main irrigation supplies Tuesday, voting to ban them from pulling water from the state’s main rivers and streams as the drought worsens.

The State Water Resources Control Board, following hours of debate and comment, voted 5-0 to issue “emergency curtailment” orders covering the rivers of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed — essentially the entire Central Valley.

It’s the most dramatic step taken to date by state regulators since the drought was officially declared in most of California’s counties — and surpasses any of the moves made during the previous drought.

“This is a terrible situation that we’re all in,” said board member Sean Maguire.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/water-and-drought/article253221993.html

And we're not even half a summer since the drought was declared. This act surpasses what was mandated after more than six years of drought last time, including the four driest years in California history (2011-2014).

(emphasis added)

[Nixie]

1. Farmers can't have water?

Yikes, I’m speechless.

[roamer65]

2. Produce prices are gonna go through the roof.

But if there is no water, no choice but to cut allotments.

[canetoad]

3. A question out of sheer curiosity...

Im in Australia and as you know, we have frequent droughts. Water is conserved by increasingly severe restrictions on what you can use it for - ie the first things to go are car washing and lawn watering.

Do you have a similar system in the US? What's the trigger and do people generally comply? TIA

[Victor_c3]

6. I suspect much of that depends on states and regional differences

I know they curtail different activities in the northeastern part of the US, but about 3,000 miles away in California, I’m not sure.

My whole life I’ve heard about the constant issues with droughts and over-irrigation in that part of the country. Somehow and for some reason we insist on ignoring nature and keep it going. At some point this has got to be unsustainable. I know it’s devastating to our food supply, but this is a problem largely created by our own hubris.

[hunter]

4. I've been out there and its bad.

I don't know what the "more dams" people are thinking.

Building more dams does not increase rain or snowfall.

Lake Powell and Lake Mead capture ALL the upstream water on the Colorado River and both are only 1/3 full.

Things wouldn't be any different in California if we had dams that captured all the water flowing into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The consequences of global warming are becoming more obvious every day.

[Champp]

5. ...and Republicans keep on lying about climate change...

Evil, tragic Republican lies. Great damage. Great sorrow.

[Champp]

7. Dangerous, tragic G.O.P. lies

Deplorable.

[Klaralven]

8. July 2021 ENSO update: La Nia Watch

As things stand with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), neutral conditions are currently present in the tropical Pacific and favored to last through the North American summer and into the fall. But forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center have issued a La Niña Watch, which means they see La Niña likely emerging (~55%) during the September-November period and lasting through winter.

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/july-2021-enso-update-la-ni%C3%B1a-watch

La Niña causes mostly the opposite effects of El Niño: above-average precipitation across the northern Midwest, the northern Rockies, Northern California, and the Pacific Northwest's southern and eastern regions. Meanwhile, precipitation in the southwestern and southeastern states, as well as Southern California, is below average.[19] This also allows for the development of many stronger-than-average hurricanes in the Atlantic and fewer in the Pacific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ni%C3%B1a#North_America

It could be another dry winter in the Southwest, although there have been La Nina which have had wetter conditions there.