25 June 2007

Dry, very dry indeed

Los Angeles, rather thoughtlessly built in what is essentially desert, is not the ideal place for the second largest city in America. This is especially true given the Southern Californian penchant for green lawns, freshly washed automobiles and lots of golf courses. LA has just recorded its driest year since 1877 having had only 8.15 cm of rain. Most of the water for the city and its environs comes from hundreds of miles away but that is proving insufficient to meet demand as the Sierra Nevadas, whose snow melt provides must of the regions potable water, are getting less snow and the runoff is only about 20% of normal.

Emergency measures such as banning of lawn sprinkling and car washing are expected and will undoubtedly meet with great resistance from the middle class who will view them as infringements of their "rights". I would think that they had better get used to it.

In the meantime the Gropenator has declared a state of water emergency for King County where no additional rain is expected until September at the earliest.

No comments: