This is what I found out about my states drought crisis.

We are in yellow alert. That means the drought is extraordinary.

In the pamphlet, it also says the following (If need be you will get one in the mail)

"This isn't your father's or your grandfather's drought"

and

"Quite frankly, we don't know when the drought will be over"

Thus, say we were not in yellow alert, so say the drought continues (Now we are 3 years in)

If we go to orange, (I assume we are close to it in one way or shape)

Means mandatory water conservation. So they would install a device that would make it so that you not exceed your limit of water per however many unites (days, weeks, etc)

There's a lot more things in there too. Like.....Buy rain barrels for $85, (Not mandatory btw)

Also, there is a number where you can report entities that waste water unnecessarily. Anyways, there is way more but I don't want to ramble on and on.

What do you guys think? Do any of you live in Cali? Or any of the effected states?

I live in Cali, the drought is real.

My step grandmother's creek is completely dry and the trees around it look very sad. We also got tons of pot growers using gallons and gallons of water in warehouses that now I think we need to cut supply.

i read somewhere that in cali the governor's office had requested a voluntary 5% reduction in people's water usage statewide.

the people responded by INCREASING their usage by about 1%

good luck, california.

Yea California is going to be properly screwed if it's citizens don't wise up and start taking the drought more seriously. We've been in an exceptional drought in Kansas the last couple of years but because of the Jet Streams fortunate dip this summer we've actually started to push out of it. By years end our drought should be coming to an end. California's drought however will likely continue for years. Although to be fair there has been controversy over water in Cali for years, it's a continued fight.

And we've had non-normal rainfall this year. Nature is a fickle bitch.

It's been raining here just about every other day it seems like. It was pouring for like 5 hours straight just last night.

What ever the SNWA is doing, Cali should follow suit. Apparently, since 1991 they've had a goal to reduce water consumption in southern Nevada by 25% by 2010 and surpassed that goal in '04. Also, despite Las Vegas being one of the fastest growing cities during the past two decades, southern Nevada has reduced consumption of the Colorada river by 32 billion gal. from '02-'13.

Desert landscaping, can be ugly, but obviously conserves a ton of water.

Yea, I don't understand why people who move or live in a desert area feel the need to have green grass and lush trees. You live in a desert, don't waste precious water creating a non-natural environment. If you want lush greens that badly move north.

Actually if I moved or lived there I would probably go with desert landscaping for simplicity reasons. Grass means mowing, trees mean trimming and raking, but sand or dirt only means finding an efficient way of keeping it out of the house.

@outworld222: frankly too much infrastructure in this country is built around the idea of current conditions as opposed to being prepared for changes in the future. It's why climate change is going to be so destructive and costly.

I've read all the your comments and I say I agree. But I would just like to point out, that droughts like these can last....oh 50 to a 100 years? (Speaking in a historic chronological way)

I just don't think it would be inhabitable enough to live here anymore, unless we import water, or distillation .

You could be right, on the other hand the drought could very well be the thing that pushes new innovation due to a need for it. Perhaps someone will come up with a cost effective method for desalination of ocean water for instance or something else may be thought up to combat the drought. Capitalism is funny like that, it discourages innovation simply for the betterment of humanity yet encourages it when there is potential profit involved.

@outworld222:

Hey saw this just a moment ago, people already working on new desalinization techniques. Doesn't look like this guy is doing it in the name of California, but no reason why they can't use the idea if it ends up working.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/05/342469699/cheap-drinking-water-from-the-sun-aided-by-a-pop-of-pencil-shavings

I initially misread the title as referring to a "donut crisis" and was quite relieved when I realized that it mentioned only a "drought crisis".

Nothing serious, then. :-)

Phoenix Arizona stole all your water...