http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20161103-California-Drought-Update.pdf
Two foci and an afterthought make up the bulk of the report this week. First, of course, is the weather, the climate and the drought. Some of what the climatologists are saying will surprise you.
The second topic is desalination, and we begin a fairly extensive coverage of it with a presentation to some engineers on the subject of infrastructure, in which this statement was made by the presenter Jason Ross:
“I just ran some very rough numbers. California has frequent and ongoing water crises; I just worked out some rough estimates: If all of the coastal counties in California provided all of their urban water needs by desalination, based on the price of the Sorek plant that was recently built in Israel a few years ago, the capital cost with the reasonable interest rate payback over 20 years, the capital cost would only be $20 cost per person for the coastal cities in California, to build enough desalination to provide all the urban water needs; including the power required, about 70 watts per capita for desalination, you’re talking about $100/person/year to have all of coastal California’s urban water needs satisfied by desalination! We can already do these things!”
The afterthought takes us back to the ongoing crime of the Water Board moving toward returning the San Joaquin and the Sacramento Rivers to a condition of “unimpaired flow.” This section is for those with strong stomachs.
MessageNow can we have a drought update? Rain totals, reservoir levels etc?