(With expanded coverage of all the Western States)
by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20230420-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
The Feature this week centers on launch today of the SpaceX Starship/Superheavy combination launch system. While the launch was successful, the rocket blew up a minute or two after the launch. But, as Elon Musk said, “Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”
Before the report on today’s launch you can read the article by my colleague Mike Carr on the importance of the rocket for both space exploration and the real physical economy. “The Space Program: The Future Is In the Stars; and the Driver of Real Physical Economy on Earth.”
Even before the great Apollo Project to put the first man on the Moon initiated by President John Kenndey, the space program was a driver for creating new productive technologies and giving the population of the U.S. the necessary sense of optimism for the future that is needed once again today.
“The whole world is anxiously awaiting the first test launch of the SpaceX Starship/Superheavy combination launch system. It could take place as early as today, Monday, April 17, 2023. This test will mark the dawning of a new age of human space industrialization and colonization, the importance of which can only be compared to the 1903 launch of the Wright Flyer, the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the 1961 launch of Yuri Gagarin, or the 1969 launch of Apollo 11.
“Whether the first vehicle successfully completes its test plan, or blows up upon initial engine ignition, we already know that the world will never be the same. The test program will rapidly move forward until a preliminary successful design is achieved–a Model T of space transportation. And SpaceX will not stop there, nor will NASA, nor any of a new breed of companies which have been applying new methods for rapid prototyping, testing, proving, and producing both evolutionary and radically new designs for everything related to developing what John F. Kennedy had called the New Frontier.”
The Rest of the report
The first item after the U.S. Drought Monitor map is, “For the First Time in Years, Both Major Projects Will Deliver 100% of the Water Requested by Water Agencies.” For the past almost 30 years, the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project have allocated the full amount requested by water agencies in much less than one-half of those years. And many years it was as low as 5%. The last time 100% of requested amounts was actually delivered was in 2006.
This drought is over for California, and now we have floods, some flooding that may last for months or even a few years. The groundwater resource that provides 40% of the water used in the state (and up to 60% during droughts) still is at crisis levels.
We await the decision by the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation on how they will act, by May 20, in ensuring that the crisis on the Colorado River does not become a catastrophe. That is the day expected when they will announce the decision on how the seven states of the basin will reduce their withdraws from the river by two to four million acre feet annually.
