Wtf nbc? Water-Guzzling Pot Plants Draining Drought-Wracked California

[siftedunity]

Hello all,

There are quite a few growers that have little concern about the state of the rivers and streams just as long as they can grow their bud for sales its all about phuque everyone else.

They are running public service ads for illegal diversion. And I say good.

Just the other day, a 2500 plant grow was discovered on public land and next to a a Eel river tributary stream which was being diverted for the grow. Good.

I am down with growing buds but not at the expense of the environment.

Just sayin'

minds_I

I would imagine that's a rare case tbh. I doubt most grows endanger the enviroment

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

I use like 100 gallons a day for my entire grow by mid flower, but only like 25 a day early veg. So year round on average I use like 25,000 gallons max. Not much compared to an almond farmer. Not even .1 percent. The almond farms use 100 billion gallons a year!!!! All the pot farmers put together on the planet probably couldn't come close to that.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/californias-thirsty-almonds/Content?oid=3830095

 

[Calimed]

Big outdoor plants can easily soak up 10-20 gallons of water a day when the weather is good.

Definitely not down with illegal water diversion though.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Oh and all of kern county agriculture uses almost a trillion gallons a year.

 

[igrowone]

Big outdoor plants can easily soak up 10-20 gallons of water a day when the weather is good.

Definitely not down with illegal water diversion though.

i'd be curious just how big that would be
for indoor, i would think 6 gallons per day is close to off the charts
the watering rule for indoor i've seen is 1/4 the volume of the pot
so 6 gallons should be good for a 25 gallon container
but not every day

 

[armedoldhippy]

lets see here...a gallon of water weighs 8.35 lbs. so if a plant actually took up & used 10 gallons of water a day it would weigh...yeah, I know they lose water all day too, but that seems....excessive.

 

[rives]

But don't tell that to a typical LA water user as they wash their car in the Socal desert sun while running the sprinklers on the big gaudy ass lawn lol. No offense LA peeps

Actually, LA isn't really much of the problem anymore. It's interesting when you start reading about the average consumption of various areas - the city of Sacramento is one of the worst because most of the population doesn't have water meters. LA has an average per-person usage of 152 gpd, San Francisco is 98, Sacramento is 279, and fucking Palm Springs is 736.

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/...-drought-water-use-varies-widely-around-state

 

[Calimed]

When referencing 10-20 gallons a day for outdoor, these are 200-300 gallon pots with temperatures from 80-100F.

 

[jpt again]

To create jobs and save the earth...California needs to get serious about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination and stop Fracking. I saw that film Gasland a few years ago and a friend in Arkansas has a farmer friend with methane coming from a water faucet.

Fracking creates contaminated water. Los Angeles now has an ordinance against Fracking, hopefully the rest of the U.S. will figure that one out.

Blaming pot plants for the water shortage is simply more 'reefer madness' propaganda.

If you've ever had a swimming pool, I'd blame that first. Especially when turning the water on and forgetting it No matter what California does..it'll be expensive.

Having some patience helps, too! Just start doing a rain dance and praying for El Nino...http://www.abc15.com/news/national/un-warns-el-nino-could-return-in-2014 Last week we had some thunder and rain, in the Inland Empire

In the meantime, we can get our tambourines out and do a little rain dancing.

Last time we had a water threat, as we do now; Ole 'Arnie' said, "lets wait and see!" Well, I believe it snowed in June, that year. Stranger things can happen.

Palm Springs lies over a very large water resource with "Springs" all over. San Bernardino, Ca has a large basin of water below it, as well. The U.S. Postal office on S. "E" St, built in the '70's; The basement filled with water and had to have sump pumps. The building was abandoned in 1982 and demolished about 2 years ago! Just keep growing organically! jpt

 

[Jhhnn]

Palm Springs? Wells? Not exactly. they replenish their groundwater with Colorado river water, use it mostly for... golf courses, a vital necessity for the ultra wealthy.

http://www.dwa.org/Local-Water-System

 

[Bulldog420]

Don't forget the NSA uses a million gallons a day to cool their super computers storing everybody's information. But those pesky pot farmers!

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

So could a county shut down the NSA computer with a vote that it is a waste of much needed water? Lol

 

[norcal_sourD]

I feel no guilt other than on my wallet. Dollar store crystal geyser jugs.

Now, I've also heard it posited that bottled water is a large portion of the problem as well. Kinda rings true.

 

[jpt again]

Palm Springs? Wells? Not exactly. they replenish their groundwater with Colorado river water, use it mostly for... golf courses, a vital necessity for the ultra wealthy.

http://www.dwa.org/Local-Water-System

I don't think I'd quote the Dept Water Agency as an accurate resource for information; the more threat of drought and shortage the more money they can charge for it!

The truth is, it sits on water that is not being utilized...
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-28/news/mn-1573_1_palm-springs

It does look suspicious, but appearances can be deceiving. The truth is, Palm Springs--which gets just 5 inches of rain annually and sweats out 120-degree temperatures most summers--sits atop a vast sea of ground water, which has been carefully managed and now insulates the city from the effects of drought.

Back in the day (telling my age, now): we could go from one spring of water to another to play, for free. Now you have to join clubs and pay $$$$. Even the hills above it, Idyllwild have snow and water dripping down crevices to Palm Springs.

I've been in S. Calif. for 61 years and have seen the water being wasted and not utilized. I certainly have nothing to do with how, what and where they get their drinking water..I just know it is on a large water source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater

Yes, there are plenty of rich people in Palm Springs and most only a vacation home for the wealthy. More of a reason to figure out more propaganda to charge more for tap water. imho jpt

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^that aquifer will be gone soon if it is not already

 

[Bulldog420]

If you didn't already think the water shortage was a scam, here is evidence of it.

http://rt.com/news/165756-underground-ocean-discovered-water/

Wonder why the oceans are not rising and falling? Maybe because there is 3 times the worlds surface water, underground.

The governments of the world lie, lie, lie. Wonder what All Gore's dumb ass has to say about that?

 

[Jhhnn]

If you didn't already think the water shortage was a scam, here is evidence of it.

http://rt.com/news/165756-underground-ocean-discovered-water/

Wonder why the oceans are not rising and falling? Maybe because there is 3 times the worlds surface water, underground.

The governments of the world lie, lie, lie. Wonder what All Gore's dumb ass has to say about that?

It's not like water 700km (435 miles) under the earth's surface is an exploitable resource, given the depth & the fact that the temperature is ~1000-1500F.

It's not like Al Gore has anything to do with it, either.

 

[bentom187]

A different crop is to blame. This will hurt the local farmers whom will have to resort to selling their cows or euthanizing them( I don't know much about livestock farming but it is a business). This will result in a shortage of meat, driving the price up.

California drought: Why farmers are 'exporting water' to China

While historic winter storms have battered much of the US, California is suffering its worst drought on record. So why is America's most valuable farming state using billions of gallons of water to grow hay - specifically alfalfa - which is then shipped to China?

The reservoirs of California are just a fraction of capacity amid the worst drought in the state's history.

"This should be like Eden right now," farmer John Dofflemyer says, looking out over a brutally dry, brown valley as his remaining cows feed on the hay he's had to buy in to keep them healthy.

In the dried-up fields of California's Central Valley, farmers like Dofflemyer are selling their cattle. Others have to choose which crops get the scarce irrigation water and which will wither.

"These dry times, this drought, has a far-reaching impact well beyond California," he said as the cattle fell in line behind his small tractor following the single hay bale on the back.

"We have never seen anything like this before - it's new ground for everybody."
California is the biggest agricultural state in the US - half the nation's fruit and vegetables are grown here.

Farmers are calling for urgent help, people in cities are being told to conserve water and the governor is warning of record drought.

But at the other end of the state the water is flowing as the sprinklers are making it rain in at least one part of southern California.

The farmers are making hay while the year-round sun shines, and they are exporting cattle-feed to China.

The southern Imperial Valley, which borders Mexico, draws its water from the Colorado river along the blue liquid lifeline of the All American Canal.

It brings the desert alive with hundreds of hectares of lush green fields - much of it alfalfa hay, a water-hungry but nutritious animal feed which once propped up the dairy industry here, and is now doing a similar job in China.

"A hundred billion gallons of water per year is being exported in the form of alfalfa from California," argues Professor Robert Glennon from Arizona College of Law.

"It's a huge amount. It's enough for a year's supply for a million families - it's a lot of water, particularly when you're looking at the dreadful drought throughout the south-west."

Manuel Ramirez from K&M Press is an exporter in the Imperial Valley, and his barns are full of hay to be compressed, plastic-wrapped, packed directly into containers and driven straight to port where they are shipped to Asia and the Middle East.

"The last few years there has been an increase in exports to China. We started five years back and the demand for alfalfa hay has increased," he says.

"It's cost effective. We have abundance of water here which allows us to grow hay for the foreign market."

Cheap water rights and America's trade imbalance with China make this not just viable, but profitable.

"We have more imports than exports so a lot of the steamship lines are looking to take something back," Glennon says. "And hay is one of the products which they take back."

It's now cheaper to send alfalfa from LA to Beijing than it is to send it from the Imperial Valley to the Central Valley.

"We need to treat the resource as finite, which it is," he says. "Instead, most of us in the states, we think of water like the air, it's infinite and inexhaustible, when for all practical purposes it's finite and it's exhaustible."

He believes the whole "exporting water" argument is nonsense - that all agricultural exports contain water - and that there are few better uses for it.

"Is it more efficient to use water for a golf course for the movie stars?" Langrueber said.

"Or is it more efficient for farmers to use it to grow a crop and export it and create this mass economic engine that drives the country?"

Japan, Korea and the United Arab Emirates all buy Californian hay. The price is now so high that many local dairy farmers and cattle ranchers can't afford the cost when the rains fail and their usual supplies are insufficient.

But they have to buy what they can.

Cattle rancher John Dofflemyer certainly sees it as exporting water abroad - he resents the fact hay is sent overseas.

Hay trucks are a common sight heading north up the road from the Imperial Valley - despite the high prices, the cattle farmers have to buy what they can.

Even with recent rains in northern California there's still a critical shortage of water.

Drought is often an excuse for politicians to build dams or reduce environmental controls, but it's no long-term fix.

In those places awash with water - where global trade distorts the local market - decisions need to be made by those without something to gain.

That's where it gets even more complicated.

 

[Bulldog420]

It's not like water 700km (435 miles) under the earth's surface is an exploitable resource, given the depth & the fact that the temperature is ~1000-1500F.

It's not like Al Gore has anything to do with it, either.

Maybe you didn't read the story?

The story says the reason world oceans hasn't risen is because it's connected to a larger body of water that connects 700km under the earths surface.

Where Al Gore's dumb ass comes in is he said 7 years ago, that in 7 years the worlds oceans would rise and major city's would be under water.

That clear things up for you?

It's not like water 700km (435 miles) under the earth's surface is an exploitable resource, given the depth & the fact that the temperature is ~1000-1500F.

lol, water doesn't stay liquid at 1000+ temperatures. They found liquid water. lol, your funny.

 

[Bulldog420]

Also, don't forget Obama sold the right to pump out of Great Lakes to China.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/ar...a-as-half-the-u-s-faces-extreme-water-crisiss

Our leader is clueless, or an enemy.