Agree. California releases billions of gallons of fresh snow melt water...some of the best water on Earth, to protect endangered fish species.
That was great when we had excess fresh water. We flushed all our great water, then began to suck dry our neighboring states. Spent $Billions to import that water so as not to make the fish suffer.
Now our farmers can no longer water their crops. People are out of work, kids have no money for school, crime is increasing, the rich are fleeing and the poor of the world are rushing into that very generous state to obtain benefits far greater than their home country.
The population is growing and they are thirsty. Gotta plan to prioritize drinking and irrigation water ahead of endangered fish.
San Francisco has the best water there is. They tap Hetch Ketchy inside beautiful Yosemite National Park. That provides enough for those citizens and politicians, but nothing left for the farmers. Other areas could also be used as catch basins. Would be an expensive, but rational solution.
LA also has lots of fresh rainwater and snow melt, but when it rains heavy, or the snow melts rapidly they have not enough storage to catch all that free water. Most of it just gets funnled and run to the ocean. No fish are helped, it is just flushed.
If a river needs to be maintained, for environmental reasons, that water could also be collected before entering the ocean. Both fish and people would benefit...but flushed it is.
I feel that it would be a better tradeoff to provide enough water to be self sufficient. If water is left over to maintain endangered fish (snail darter) then that would be a good thing.
Many of our smaller cities have had their water cut off or severly restricted. Wells have been tapped, but running dry.
To me, more storage is the solution. Once we have enough capacity for our citizens and farmers, then any excess can be used to maintain streams to the ocean in drought years.
