Originally Posted by
over4T
B.J., Some of the dams being removed are in locations that just don't work for water storage; i.e. sparce population, not conducive to water release that would do much good, habitat for many disappearing species such as certain foxes, wolves, bears, fish etc..etc. Some that never got built such as one near Auburn have been talked about since I moved to the area in 1985 but would displace historic sites such as where Sutter discovered gold in 1849, not to mention burying under 100s of feet of water one of the most scenic drives through canyons that you ever saw (also cutting off my 40 minute tow
to Placerville Speedway and turning it into 2 1/2 hours of big city traffic.) Another thing, even the largest dams have to release water some time. With the torrential rains the last few weeks such dams as Oroville, a few miles from Chico's Silver Dollar Speedway, famous about 5 years ago for starting to fail and causing evacuations of 200,000 people and $1 billion dollars of repair work, are currently releasing 15,000 gallons per second to head south through the mid state agricultural area and down to L.A., neither of which need the stuff right now. Folsom Dam is "only" releasing something like 8,000 GPS. Several others are doing it too.
BBBoy, My whole family feels as you do about Lake Tahoe. It's a short hour ride from our ranch to some of the clearest blue water on earth. My son and his wife even tied the knot on one of the piers there many years ago and they spend a lot of weekends up there, sun or snow, when he should be home in the shop helping the old man with the race cars. San Diego has had the desalinization plants down there for a couple of decades but it's just too dang expensive until you have no other options. That end of the state is pure desert once you get inland only a few miles. And you sure don't want to get water from the Tijuana River. Makes me gag like thinking about drinking the water right from the Mississippi just before it dumps into the Gulf. Wish I had the answers...or someone did.