It was only a matter of time before the governor declared a water emergency for California. It seems that every administration over the last few decades has had to tangle with the issue of water or the lack thereof for this nation-state we live in.
As we struggle with how to deal with the problem—such as the unreliable seasonal rainfall patterns, the lack of a solid snow pack in the Sierras, the Sacramento River Delta and our northern California neighbor’s resistance to the issue of how much of “their water” should flow to southern California—our technology for developing new water supplies needs to become priority #1 to our State.
From an aerial view of our west coast, the obvious jumps to the forefront. Look at that magnificent coast line and the potential for converting salt to fresh water. If we proactively, as a State, look to strategically locate desalination facilities along our coastline to serve the largest coastal communities, thus releasing the demands on those cities from tapping their underground aquifers and relieving some of the enormous demands placed on the Colorado River, I believe the effort, as enormous as it may seem, would put the scarcity of available water to rest for years to come. Some of us remember the California aqueduct project and the leap of faith it took to build that endeavor, and who would have foretold how California’s growth would now render that effort insufficient to meet today’s needs.
California has the capability to bring some of the best minds together now to develop a long term strategy and plan to finance and build these facilities to serve our needs.
Some, of course, will point to the tremendous energy needed to desalinate water, but let’s not sell ourselves short. We’re from California, the world’s capital of invention and technology.
The future is now with the ever-present fact that we are compelled to look to other clean energy sources to break our oil narcotic addiction. We can look to hydrogen, nuclear, and solar, with the same persistence, determination and ingenuity that this State used to help put the first man on the moon. We can’t wait any longer, valuable time is being wasted.