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THE DOCTOR IS IN - I doubt I'm the only one who has serious doubts in this region of the world about the so-called Green Movement, in that it's both focused more on the Green of Money rather than the Green of the Environment, and also that it's grounded more in misanthropy than in the preservation of Planet Earth.
Despite it being drier than ever in March of 2022, Californians' use of water rose by 19% compared to two years prior, in contrast to Californians using less water in months prior.
We are quick to note that people need more water (and often do so to water their lawns and gardens), and that agriculture soaks up about half the water used in this state.
Hence utility bills go up...
...but is reservoir construction, and water desalination plant construction, going up?
After all, with all this rain coming down, one can't help but wonder how many times we have to repeat the question of "WHY ARE WE WASTING THIS WATER DRAINING INTO THE OCEAN WHEN WE'RE ALWAYS IN A DROUGHT?" before action is taken.
Certainly, a mega-reservoir in Colusa County in northern California is a good step forward, but there's enough water needs for southern California that when we get wet winters (like we're having right now), the ability to divert water from the Sierras or even the Colorado River is lost.
Again and again and again.
Dams to create reservoirs, or to enlarge reservoirs?
Well, you-know-who will always jump in and raise up environmental minutiae (virtually ALWAYS correctable) that will send California's human inhabitants straight to Dehydration-Hades.
Furthermore, desalination plants (which can be used during droughts) are considered still too relatively non-cost-effective for widespread construction in the Golden State.
Some good news is that the Huntington Beach desalination plant proposed during the first year of the Trump Administration is not going to be built...but a more cost-effective alternative in Doheny will be built.
So we're supposed to be happy that the environmentalists and regulators prefer the 5 million gallon/day Doheny plant, but rejected the Huntington Beach desalination plant that would have produced 50 million gallons/day.
5 versus 50 million gallons per day.
Maybe Doheny IS a better choice, but we still don't have a plant that appears we want to fix our water problem in a mathematically REAL way. If not Huntington Beach, WHERE can we safely and reasonably come up with 50 million gallons/day of desalinated water for Southern California?
Certainly, conservation and being more efficient in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors are all part of water management in California, but so is the following decades-old truism:
CALIFORNIA ALWAYS HAS WET SPELLS IN BETWEEN YEARS OF DRAUGHTS, AND WE'RE NOT READY TO CAPTURE THE WATER WHEN IT ARRIVES TO ACCOMMODATE THE YEARS WHEN IT DOESN'T!!!
Even the Midwest has years when their major rivers flow over into surrounding cities and counties. If we don't want to build oil pipelines, then how about water pipelines?
MUST we waste our water into the ocean? MUST we choose a path of less desalination than we could and should otherwise do? MUST we do everything we can to make utility bills go higher and higher so that only the rich have access to 21st-Century standards of water?
Having water go into the groundtable, even directed into the ground of both rural and urban regions of our state, is a good thing, but must we let most of the rainwater we're now getting go into the ocean?
Apparently, we must.
But that's what happens when you have a society run by government policies focused on the goals of, and run by, misanthropes.
Right now, we're not so much acting like we love Planet Earth so much as we just hate People.
With the exception of the wealthy, for whom this just isn't a problem now, is it?
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father to a wonderful wife and two cherished children. He was termed out of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) twice after two 9-year- stints as a Board member and is also a Board member of the Westside Village Homeowners Association. He previously co-chaired the MVCC Outreach, Planning, and Transportation/Infrastructure Committees for 10 years. He was previously co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee, the grassroots Friends of the Green Line (which focused on a Green Line/LAX connection), and the nonprofit Transit Coalition His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)