The Ruin of California

In the course of our discussion of geoengineering, one of our little group raised the suggestion of a tidal dam across the Golden Gate. That led one of the others to mention that the San Francisco Bay's ecology has been so compromised already, that there might be little objection to further tampering by knowledgeable environmentalists. As if in response, there was an interesting short article in the September 26 issue of The Economist.

One needs to look at not only San Francisco Bay, but the entire Delta - the system of waterways, islands, pools, and banks formed from the confluence of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers near Sacramento. This system drains into San Francisco Bay, which is part of the same large ecosystem. The Delta is referred to as the largest estuary on the West Coast. (That raises a question: Is Puget Sound considered an estuary? There is no one big river that flows into it, as far as I know.)

Now then, the insatiable appetite for water of Southern California has led to the construction of two huge aqueducts, one state-run and one federal, carrying water pumped out of the Delta into the Central Valley and down to Los Angeles. This has created massive environmental problems, killing off local species and their breeding areas, and opening the system up to invasive species. So, we have The Economist telling us that the Bay Area's ecology is severely damaged, and that the cause of this is the diversion of water from the Delta to the south.

And is someone doing anything about this? Well, there were five water bills before the California legislature this year, but none of them was even put to a vote. Meanwhile, the drought continues. I see an on-going story here. (For an account of an earlier episode, see the movie Chinatown, directed by the reviled Roman Polanski.)