California is not in a drought, wastes water

“California is not in a drought, wastes water,” Monterey Herald – Nov. 4, 2022

California has been setting the record for wasting precious rainfall. For four decades the state with one party rule has not built one major water storage project, while population has doubled. Result: California lets 76% of its precipitation flow into the Pacific with no beneficial use for people. That is more than double the national average of water wastage. The governor alibis this waste by saying we are in a drought; in fact, our rainfall over the last four decades has been rather average. We are not in a drought; we are in a self inflicted scarcity caused by the absence of sensible water infrastructure. The ultimate irony is that California is actually responsible for much of the sea level rise of the last 40 years, by failure to capture our groundwater and riverine resource to stay on the land.

— Dr. C. Michael Hogan, Monterey