Why the California drought will be worse than everyone thinks

[Journeyman]

3. Love it -- people blithely propose we'll get "diversions from Canada, and Washington and Oregon"...

as though such a possibility were as simple as turning a spigot on.

The California State Water Project -- largest in the nation, and one of the marvels of the world -- was first proposed in 1919. Depending on how you mark it, construction took some 10 to 20 years to complete the first phase. It moves millions of acre feet of water some 700 miles and lifts it -- lifts it -- over 1900 feet. It remains a work in progress, and even today we continue to debate how or even if it should be expanded.

And now people speak of diverting water from a different state, indeed from a neighboring country, and moving it to fill the needs of corporate California agriculture.

Google the "North American Water and Power Alliance" to learn how completely ridiculous this idea has been for some 3/4 of a century. And remember, energy is incredibly more expensive today than it was when these ideas were first broached, and the general public's concern about the impact large scale construction will have on the environment is magnitudes more refined.

We were all taught in school a simple scientific "truism" that water seeks its own level and flows downhill. But the reality is, water flows uphill, towards power and money. However, we're beginning to run short on both, so fulfilling all our fantasies seems an increasingly distant dream.