Join Rethinking High School at The Farmory in Columbia on Wednesday and Saturday from 11am to 5pm. Learn about alternatives to bring your children through the 21st century in California.
-Shawn
Last year we, amidst the ongoing drought, we experienced explosions coming from the rock at Twain Harte Lake as it gradually cracked like the layers of an onion. This video from BBC2 explains what happened, and how the drought itself was to blame.
When the rock broke, and the lake had to be emptied, we lost over 46 million gallons of water. That’s a lot of water even when you’re not in the middle of the worst drought on record. This equates to roughly 20,664 gallons of water lost per resident of Twain Harte.
The rock/dam was repaired in May, but the ongoing drought could continue the exfoliation that caused the damage in the first place. Outside of removing the rock completely, there’s no guarantee that this can be avoided.
Twain Harte residents have been under water restrictions for several years, with mandatory reduction in water usage of 50% by THCSD (the water resource management department for residents of Twain Harte). Meanwhile, the lake was given 70% of their volume in May directly out of what little remained of our drinking water by TUD (the county source for water, which required only 30% water use reduction). 70% of their volume is roughly 14,600 gallons of water per resident. Under our current reduction requirements, residents use about 100 gallons per day. The lake, then, used roughly 4.8 months worth of water for each resident in Twain Harte by filling up “only” 70% of their capacity.
The garden is suffering, the trees are suffering and the deer are suffering, as the rain teases us once again. I wonder if I did a rain dance if that would help? Maybe some of the Mi Wuk can help us out?
Geiger-Müller radiation detector.
The good news is the air is starting to clear, in Twain Harte anyway. Visibility still sucks but the humidity is a certain relief. I just wish it would rain.
If it does actually rain, please protect your skin. I don’t know why no one is talking about acid rain, but the rain is not clean, not only does it have fine particulates of aluminium, it has the potential of having high amounts of radiation. Get your Geiger counter dusted off, and check around the area where you live.
Radiation levels are huge on the beaches, but then it gets up in the rain and travels long distances. Radiation levels are up all over the country. You can’t see, smell or taste radiation but it causes cancers, tumors, leukemia and other potentially lethal diseases.
We got a little sprinkling, nothing to write home to mom about. Maybe we will get more tonight?
