How's Your Drought Doing Today?

        Or, Where is your next drink of water coming from?  The dreaded "D" word is becoming the daily demon across all media, especially here in California.   Have you looked at  Tahoe's lake level this week?  Well, you should, it's lower.   The 52 feeder creels and rivers are running a little low.  Not much flow for the month of May.   The dam still is releasing 3 gates full, but that will soon stop.   Then the Truckee River wars will heat up again, as down stream customers start to calculate needs/wants for the next year.  Oh, and then there's fire season.   Tahoma will have to watch the lake: some politician will make headlines when he suggests that the lake could be a source of water for those Central Valley Big Ag customers(Almond growers, grape growers, cotton growers, etc.)   Sound farfetched?   Nothing is sacred in Coastal California where Big Ag accounts for the largest sector of the state's economy.   Recent information has highlighted the various water projects that send water all over the state, from north to south, generally.   Articles note the big water sources:  the Sacramento River, the San Joaquin River, the Sierra snow pack, and the Colorado River.  All, including some water from the northern coast ranges, contribute to the allocation of the resource to where it's needed most- where it isn't.   The Old Hippie Governor, Jerry Brown, thought 2 tunnels under the Delta would make people happy.  Wrong.  It was an obvious tilt to Big Ag.  Now, Gov. Gruesom wants a single, $8 billion  tunnel instead of 2.   Good Luck with that, Gavin.  The Gov showed up in Mendocino county to declare a drought in Sonoma County and Mendocino county.   Publicity stunt, sure.   But he wants to highlight his efforts to put locals on notice: use less or we'll be knocking on your door-the Water Police.   Oh, and fire season is here already.

    Have you prepared your home defenses?  Do you have defensible space around the house?  Can you afford to hire some drought crooks who want nothing more than access to your wallet?   Look out for scammers: they're everywhere these days.   Cut a tree down?  $1500 dollars, please.  You want it chipped and hauled?  Add another thou.   It seems nobody knows what the market will bear, much less how much things cost.   Keep your eye on the stimulus check.  And remember, those workers also got a check.