Dvl To Close April 15

[WRB]

I know this is a western regional issue, however some members may have planned vacations to fish Diamond Valley lake in SoCal as it is one of the top bass lakes.

The lake is closing to private boats due to low water conditions, the rental boats will be available for awhile and shore fishing is allowed until further notice.

Drought conditions in SoCal are severe, this will be the 4 th year, water supply is getting to be a major problem.

Tom

[georgeyew]

I am sorry to hear that. I hope that the lakes recover in time. I know that it will take years for the water to be replaced. I want to see the lakes back to their original glory.

[Hyrule Bass]

all them native americans out west and they cant do a proper rain dance? i mean my tribe has a dancer perform a rain dance at our pow-wow every year in NC and 8 or 9 out of 10 times, it rains that weekend...

[WRB]

all them native americans out west and they cant do a proper rain dance? i mean my tribe has a dancer perform a rain dance at our pow-wow every year in NC and 8 or 9 out of 10 times, it rains that weekend...

They are too busy running casino's, maybe we can hit them up for a loan and buy some water.

Tom

[RSM789]

How about a pipeline from the Mississippi over the Rockies to the West Coast?  When they get start to get the spring floods, just open the valves & send the excess water to us.

 

Or we could rent about 10,000 barges and cart the excess snow from the Northeast over, although it may melt by the time it gets here... 

[gulfcaptain]

How about a pipeline from the Mississippi over the Rockies to the West Coast?  When they get start to get the spring floods, just open the valves & send the excess water to us.

 

Or we could rent about 10,000 barges and cart the excess snow from the Northeast over, although it may melt by the time it gets here... 

The state would never okay the Mississippi water, not with all the silver and grass carp that live in them.  I'm more in favor of De-salination plants and pumping that water into our lakes for storage, but then it would make the ocean too salty.  Just ask the enviormentalists, they will tell you.  

[WRB]

SoCal,ost 1/3rd of our water supply because of the Delta Smelt endangered species act, it's a political issue.

Tom

[Lund Explorer]

What happened to you California guys bragging up those nice warm winter months? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should I mention that the Great Lakes are nearing record high levels?

[iceintheveins]

Was down in LA in January and it was nearly 80 degrees, warm even for there during the winter. The drought in Colorado is bad but in California it is unbelievable. Time for overtime prayers and rain dances or California might take a major hit as one of the best bass fishing states in the nation.

[iceintheveins]

SoCal,ost 1/3rd of our water supply because of the Delta Smelt endangered species act, it's a political issue.

Tom

 

Yep. 

[Slade House]

SoCal,ost 1/3rd of our water supply because of the Delta Smelt endangered species act, it's a political issue.

Tom

Don't forget about the endangered southern steelheead trout and the coho salmon, its insane how much water has gone straight out the ocean for pulse flows.  nobody is talking about that are they ?

[WRB]

2009 the Castias dam added a fish ladder for steelhead runs up Coyote creek into the lake, so the fish could continue upstream, cost 6 million $$$. The problem is no native steelhead use the Ventura river system for decades. The lake must be near full pool for access into Coyote creek where it enters the lake.

The Robles diversion dam on the Ventura River deverts water via a canal into Casitas, another fish ladder was added in 2009 and no water from the Ventura River has been diverted since that time and water flow for the phantom steelhead must be maintained.

This is how a few zealots can impact everyone when they manage to convince the voters to pass bonds like this "save the steelhead" project.

Tom

[fisherrw]

It's really a shame. I was at cachuma a week ago and it took me like 20 min to walk down the the water!

[SDbassin]

I can't wait to move out of CA, everything is political with the supermajority libs, I have no representation in my own state. I'm not the only one who feels that way, or ill move to the state of Jefferson if that ever goes through, but its still dry up there!

[F14A-B]

Just listened to a 30 min program on California and the major draught issues. On NPR, Only a 19% snowpack this year. They talk about crop restructure, personal responsibility of wasteful useage, but nothing about desalinization at all.. Doesn't seem viable maybe? Not sure, however other countries have done it successfully..

[Dogmatic]

Too late for "rain dances" and Cali doesn't need rain, it needs snow. Desalination is coming in the future, but is costly and creates by products that have to be dealt with. The waste of water isn't the smelt or salmon, but ridiculous agricultural growing practices.

[iceintheveins]

Remember, almost 80% of all water consumed in California and here in the west is for irrigation. Municipal use is just spit in the bucket, although every little bit adds up. It would require less processing in a desalinization plant to render the water usable for crops than it would for municipal consumption. It's the only thing that will work unfortunately. The state already dries up the massive Colorado River, which has over twice the volume of the Sacramento River, for irrigation use in Imperial Valley. The valley uses 20,000 cfs alone for irrigation.

 

But this drought is partly man caused, no doubt, because environmentalists control the state and most Western States period. They mandate insane flows in river for endangered fish that can never recover anyway. And they won't let new dams and reservoirs be constructed either.

[iceintheveins]

Too late for "rain dances" and Cali doesn't need rain, it needs snow. Desalination is coming in the future, but is costly and creates by products that have to be dealt with. The waste of water isn't the smelt or salmon, but ridiculous agricultural growing practices.

 

We are in trouble too in Colorado in that regard. We were at about 60% of average for our snowpack until early march when a pair of BIG snowstorms bumped it up to about 85%. But a very warm, dry march depleted all that progress we made and we are down to 60% again. California, well, it got almost no snow in some areas. Colorado needs about 7 - 9 years of well above average snow to return to normal, and California probably twice that. Another drought year and we are all SCREWED!

[RSM789]

...California ... The state already dries up the massive Colorado River...

 

When I read that, I knew you were from Colorado without even reading the info under your avatar

 

That claim, popular in parts of Colorado, is an exaggeration.  Colorado, with just over 5 million people, gets nearly the same amount of water from the river as do the 4 main Southern California counties (Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino &San Diego) even though those California areas have twice the population.  Colorado & California combined get about half the water, with Arizona getting about 20%, Utah about 12% and the remaining used by Wyoming, New Mexico & Nevada.

[iceintheveins]

When I read that, I knew you were from Colorado without even reading the info under your avatar

 

That claim, popular in parts of Colorado, is an exaggeration.  Colorado, with just over 5 million people, gets nearly the same amount of water from the river as do the 4 main Southern California counties (Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino &San Diego) even though those California areas have twice the population.  Colorado & California combined get about half the water, with Arizona getting about 20%, Utah about 12% and the remaining used by Wyoming, New Mexico & Nevada.

 

The vast majority of the water used in California from the Colorado is diverted into the All American Canal, which has a flow of up to 26,000 cfs and a normal flow of over 15,000 cfs, greater than the normal discharge of the Sacramento River. The Palo Verde Valley upstream uses about 3000 cfs as well. The Colorado River aqueduct carries about 2000 cfs to Los Angeles and San Diego.

 

You are correct about Colorado using a lot of water, but it's far less than California. Much of the water allotted to other states goes unused, so California uses it. Most of the volume of the Colorado comes into the river from Utah and New Mexico, as the river leaves Colorado with only 1/4 of it's total flow.

[Dogmatic]

The vast majority of the water used in California from the Colorado is diverted into the All American Canal, which has a flow of up to 26,000 cfs and a normal flow of over 15,000 cfs, greater than the normal discharge of the Sacramento River. The Palo Verde Valley upstream uses about 3000 cfs as well. The California aqueduct carries about 2000 cfs to Los Angeles and San Diego.

You are correct about Colorado using a lot of water, but it's far less than California. Much of the water allotted to other states goes unused, so California uses it. Most of the volume of the Colorado comes into the river from Utah and New Mexico, as the river leaves Colorado with only 1/4 of it's total flow.

I'll lived in CO for nearly two decades, and it sucks being under drought restriction, watching our grass go brown, golf courses turning to dust bowls, reservoirs drying up, then going to Phoenix, Vegas,or SoCal, and seeing green lawns, massive "water features" and lush courses. Let's face it, much of the west is high desert plain, and was a poor choice for the massive farming that takes place there, and the water system we use to irrigate those crops. Just the evaporation alone, just mind boggling!

[iceintheveins]

I'll lived in CO for nearly two decades, and it sucks being under drought restriction, watching our grass go brown, golf courses turning to dust bowls, reservoirs drying up, then going to Phoenix, Vegas,or SoCal, and seeing green lawns, massive "water features" and lush courses. Let's face it, much of the west is high desert plain, and was a poor choice for the massive farming that takes place there, and the water system we use to irrigate those crops. Just the evaporation alone, just mind boggling!

 

We get about 8 - 10 inches of precip. in a normal year here in Western Colorado. Southern Cali is not much more than that along the coast, and WAY less than that once you cross the mountains into the Mojave. Lucky to see 2" per year in some of those areas.

[iceintheveins]

There just isn't enough water to go around. The Southwest's largest river is the Colorado, which is more than twice the volume of the Sacramento River, about 15 times that of the Rio Grande, but only 1/4 that of the Columbia and 1/5 that of the Mississippi. It's already tapped out and most years does not make the ocean after the lower 90 miles downstream of Yuma are dried up. So unless we build new reservoirs AND desalinization plants, we are SCREWED here in the west for water.

[RSM789]

There just isn't enough water to go around... So unless we build new reservoirs AND desalinization plants, we are SCREWED here in the west for water.

 

Agreed.  While I contend that California takes too much blame for usage of the existing water, I conversely would argue that California doesn't receive enough blame for not solving the problem.  Special interest groups in the state have blocked (or at least created hardships to create) new reservoirs & desalinization plants.  California has the ability to not only solve its water shortage issues, but also help out neighboring landlocked states.  To not do that is not only selfish, it is destructive.

 

This is not a political forum, however one only needs to look at the politics of California over the past 40 years to illuminate the reason for its failed water policies.  Governor Brown made nearly the same speech about cutting back on water back in his first term 30 years ago that he made last week and very little has been done in the interim.

[iceintheveins]

Agreed.  While I contend that California takes too much blame for usage of the existing water, I conversely would argue that California doesn't receive enough blame for not solving the problem.  Special interest groups in the state have blocked (or at least created hardships to create) new reservoirs & desalinization plants.  California has the ability to not only solve its water shortage issues, but also help out neighboring landlocked states.  To not do that is not only selfish, it is destructive.

 

This is not a political forum, however one only needs to look at the politics of California over the past 40 years to illuminate the reason for its failed water policies.  Governor Brown made nearly the same speech about cutting back on water back in his first term 30 years ago that he made last week and very little has been done in the interim.

 

Yeah you're right on the money.