Third in a series
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Re “Should Water Board Member Be an Environmentalist?”
Is water scarcity in America’s largest state cyclical?
Standing in the midst – but not mist — of yet another parched period in California, Stephen Murray, West Basin Water Board candidate, says droughts are an immutable dimension of state history.
“If you look at the centuries-old data about California, we see that 10- and 35-year droughts have occurred here,” Mr. Murray said, “and there is no change, necessarily, that is going to alleviate those.
“Even though we are in a wet century, it doesn’t eliminate the fact we have dry lake beds.
“Nobody really knows why this bridge has formed. Some correlation exists between this condition and man-made climate change.
“But the evidence is not necessarily convincing,” said Mr. Murray, competing for the West Basin seat formerly held by the late Ed Little. “(Climate change) seems cyclical itself.”
Returning to the shaky field of forecasting, Mr. Murray said that “there is no way to know how long this drought is going to last.
Not a Solution
“Even if the drought stops this coming winter, it is not going to alleviate our problems. We have to replenish our groundwater and the snowpack has to go back up there. We still would be under drought conditions even if it is wet.”
Mr. Murray sounded skeptical when asked whether Southern Californians have behaved in a self-regulating manner through the darkest days of the drought.
“The Metropolitan Water District has put forth an argument that because of the many conservation measures Southern Californians have supposedly instigated, that we are way ahead of the curve,” he said.
“To that extent, we don’t need to take the measures Northern California does. Having more reservoirs here, we are in better shape than they are, at least to survive the initial months of it.”
Not that anyone should shed tears for Northern Californians. “Depending on whether their communities are inland or on the coast,” Mr. Murray said, they have different needs for water, different ways to bring the water. The largest cities, like San Francisco, are pretty well off in the ways they get their water. Other places that are more spread out have separate issues.”
(To be continued)
