[pct-l] The Bad News????

[Georgi Heitman]

Reinhold, my friend...
you're being blindsided by your hiking sticks, or something....I think.....
As Jim/PITA sez, the snow level is still below average, and my view is that
every drop of water that falls and takes it's time melting or sinking into
the ground helps keep the threat of wildfires down somewhere.  And So Cal
burns every summer.  Every lake, stream or river that is at a normal or
close to normal depth provides a dipping source for helos and/or that
monster plane (from Canada?) to gather water to fight those wildfires, as
well as provide drinking water for hikers.  If we see no more snow up here
in Shasta Co. I can almost guarantee that places like Badger Flats will be
dry by the 4th of July and that some springs and ponds between here and the
border (OR) will be close to unusable by the time hikers get this far north.
So let the snow and rain fall...every drop is precious, where were you
during the drought of the 70's when north-staters were rationed to the point
that our landscaping and lawns died?  At the present time, our Sac. Valley
ranchers have been told that they will receive 0% of the water taken from
the Sac and American Rivers to use for irrigation in their fields.  It's all
scheduled to be sent south to keep So Cal up and running, and those Imperial
Valley ranchers crops growing.  Don't live in a desert area and wish for
less snow in your mountains...it's short-sighted in the long run.
I love dearly my So Cal friends...but I get a bit defensive when it comes to
water, and where a great deal of So Cal's water comes from.  During those
70's drought years, we saw T.V. shots of our southern neighbors washing
their cars and saying, 'what drought?'.  Our cars stayed filthy for 4 years,
we caught gray water from our showers to water our vegetable gardens, we
flushed our toilets with more gray water, our fishpond got drained and there
were no, as in NO fountains operating anywhere in the north state.  Our
water was rationed, we read our meters weekly to see that we were under
because we got fined if we were over our allotment.  And as I've said
before, even in good rainfall years, Sac Delta towns municipal drinking
water becomes undrinkable because of the amount of water being pumped to the
southland from the Sac. River upstream from those towns.  Less flow further
on downstream allows brackish water from San Francisco Bay to intrude
further upstream, invading drinking water supplies for more than one delta
town.  When these drinking water sources were first established for those
towns, there was no canal, ripping water off before it could go on
downstream and keep these sources fresh.  It's called F%@*ing with Mother
Nature.  And delta people pay.........
Sorry if I offend, but we've been fighting the Peripheral Canal
forever....so forgive me if I've angered anyone.  Snowpack, drought and the
way water's used are all subjects that (in my estimation) more southern
Californians should spend some time thinking about, and maybe, doing
something about as well.
IMHO....
FireFly