Rain, finally

Well we are finally getting some rain, on Monday the 15th. my San Diego neighborhood received two inches with more in the forecast over the next 3 days. Then a few dry days over the weekend and then another storm next week. This rain is sorely needed we, indeed the entire state of California, were getting close to water rationing. We may still not be out of the drought, what is needed is a very wet season and another next winter.

Now get this, one of the local TV weather reporters said that "The good thing about this storm is that it is bringing snow to the local ski resorts." Excuse me! That the ski resorts are getting natural snow pack is a nice thing, but the good thing about this storm is that the Sierra Nevada Mountains are getting a snow pack so that we can have drinking water next summer. Let us set our priorities, without water in the reservoirs even the ski resorts can not make artificial snow.

Climate - San Diego has a Mediterranean climate. We do not live in a desert as some, well a lot, of people say. We get twice as much rain as a desert and there is one climate zone between us and a true desert. Now that does not mean that we can waste water or take it for granted, we still must treat it as a precious and scarce resource. Most all of our drinking water is brought in via aqueducts from a considerable distance. We get some drinking water from local watersheds a little bit of from wells, but neither provide enough for almost 3 million residents.

Irrigation - Because of our Mediterranean climate we must irrigate non-native, and non-Mediterranean, plants during the usual dry parts of the year. However, when we have rain we can let Mother Nature take care of things and save the water. Furthermore virtually every local news outlet made announcements that we should turn off automatically controlled sprinklers, those on timer. Did it work? Well the people who are concerned about water conservation were turning off their sprinklers during rainy periods long before it became a media fad. Others did either did not pay attention to the weather forecast or just don't care. Take a look at the photo to the right, the day before we had two inches of rain, it showered and on off all night, but in the morning the sprinklers came on.

Now what is interesting is the plants that they were watering were Natal Plum carissa macrocarpa, a native of the Mediterranean climate region of South Africa. This shrub came from a climate zone similar to San Diego's, it is essentially a native plant that needs little to no irrigation during the summer months and none during the winter. Did you get that? During an extended rainy period they were watering a drought tolerant plant!

Are the Czars out tonight? - The mayor has been calling for voluntary water conservation, he doesn't want regulations. Personally I don't think that it has worked, the people he needs to reach with that message either are not listening or they don't care. Furthermore, the City of San Diego can be some of the worst offenders, and many a city owned property has broken or misaimed sprinklers. Not to mention our aging water mains which frequently break spewing millions of gallons of water down the drain at the least and sometimes creating sinkholes that destroy property or flood downhill homes.

San Diego needs a Water Czar, someone who will be a leader in the fight to save water, to help keep it from being wasted. Someone who will coordinate water saving programs, educate and instruct water consumers, but someone with authority to deal with water wasters and if legal measures are needed so be it. How about instead of just a news segment about turning off the automatic water sprinklers that they make such an announcement during a football game? That way they will reach people who only watch the TV news to get the sports scores. We need more public service announcements during prime time TV, maybe local sports celebrities can do the spots.

I understand that San Diego, like most cities, is in a financial crisis. However, money needs to be spent on infrastructure and water supply in particular, our lives depend on it. We have several hundred miles of aging water mains that break on a regular basis.

Desalinization - San Diego is on the Pacific Coast, the largest body of water in the World, so why are aren't we using it for drinking water? Yeah, I know, the Pacific Ocean is comprised of salt water and drinking that will kill you. However, that doesn't mean that we can't remove the salt from the water by using a desalinization plant. Why not, it is done in other US cities and in countries. Power, is one factor, removing the salt from a large quantity of water consumes a lot of energy. Now there is an answer to that problem, combine the desalination plant with a electrical generating plant and make use of waste heat from the power plant. Listen this is a win-win situation, as with water we also bring in most of our electricity from far away.

Now Don't Run Off - A lot of rainwater in San Diego simply goes into the storm drains, or down the canyons, and eventually to the sea. In fact I would think that almost all of our rainwater is not saved. My neighbor catches some of it in a rain barrel. Now there is a concern with having such a rain barrel containing water around the house, West Nile Virus. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing pools of water and the bug can carry the West Nile Virus. The virus has made its appearance here in San Diego County and from what I understand it is serious illness. I am not concerned about my neighbor's rain barrel after the rain has ended he uses it to wash off the leaves and stuff the storm had deposited on his sidewalks.

There are a few things you can do to keep mosquito larva from hatching in standing water. Chemicals of course, but that brings on more problems. The natural thing to do is put mosquito eating fish in the standing water, they feed on the larva. You can can get these little minnows free from the County Office of Vector Control and at many plant nurseries.

Getting back to rainwater runoff. Some scientists tell us that if an average house in San Diego could catch and save rainwater falling on the roof then it would supply a year's worth of water for a family of 3 or 4. I believe it having watched how fast my neighbor's rain barrel fills up. Of course that water would have to be stored in a cistern or something and that would require some redesign of our homes and businesses. I suppose we could have neighborhood storage underneath the street or someplace. Also it would have be treated or otherwise certified as potable. Even if we were not going to drink the captured rainwater it could certainly be used for irrigation or industrial uses.

Toilet to Tap - Currently most sewage water is treated and then dumped into the ocean. Some of it is recovered and used for irrigation and industrial use, but it is not certified nor is it completely safe for human consumption. A few years ago a plan was proposed to treat sewage water and eventually put it back into the drinking water supply. However, the idiots in the media dubbed the plan "Toilet to Tap" and resulting mental image in the minds of consumers killed the project. Well people if you get treated water from a river then it has already been down the toilet, probably a few times. This plan was to treat sewage and then run it through several reservoirs in a process that would take a number of years before being put back into the water mains. This would be perfectly drinkable water.

Email me: