When you’ve lived much of your
life in snow country, grossly swelling snow banks are no big deal. Certainly
nothing to worry about.
Last week, surrounded by snow
banks towering 12 to 14 feet high and growing, I began to worry.
I was visiting our daughter and
her family in California and accompanied them up to ski country for President’s
Day Weekend (some called it Not My President’s Day weekend). The snow appeared
at the 6,000-foot level and farther up we entered a world of white passageways cut
through towering mountains of snow.
I have never seen snow like that.
Driveways into chalets were tunnel-like with snow banks more than twice the
height of our car. Snow blocked the view from my bedroom window, located on the
second floor.
Throughout the village, tractor
snow blowers wheezed diesel exhaust as they chewed and spit streams of snow to keep
the passages clear.
On President’s Day Monday ski
families scampered to pack up their gear and get down the mountains in case the
highway closed. The forecast called for as much as another five feet to fall
over 24 hours.
That area, Sugar Bowl ski resort
near Truckee, California, gets an average of 500 inches of snow a year. That’s
roughly 42 feet, or 13 metres. By Feb. 20, the day we left, it had received
about 360 inches (30 feet) with much more expected.
Haliburton County gets an average
of roughly 280 centimetres (nine feet) of snow each year. We are close to that
this winter with about 250 centimetres up to the start of this week.
Walking the snow-drowned village was
scary. Street signs had disappeared beneath the snow. It was difficult to tell
directions and easy to become lost in the maze of snow passageways.
The deep snow was welcome news for
Californians. The state has just been through its most severe drought in modern
history. A drought state of emergency was declared by the governor in January
2014. Water use was restricted by 25 per cent and as much as 50 per cent in
some places.
The Sierra Nevada mountains supply
30 per cent of California’s water, so this year’s heavy snowfalls are being
cheered by more people than just the skiers. But there is another part of the
story, one that should cause everyone to pause the cheering and think about the
future.
When the mountain snowpack melts,
much of the water it produces will flow out to the Pacific Ocean, never to help
quench California’s thirst.
The state has not built any new
reservoir infrastructure in 35 years. This winter’s drought-ending rains have replenished existing
reservoirs, some of which are full and have begun dumping water.
The huge Lake Oroville reservoir
in northern California was drained partially when its dam threatened to give way and flood
populated areas. Two hundred thousand people were evacuated from the area but
were allowed to return when the dam was reinforced.
So California is throwing out
water while waiting for the next severe drought. And more droughts will occur. They
are a recurring feature of California’s climate, but appear to becoming more
severe.
Major droughts have occurred in 1929-1934, 1976-1977, 1987-1992, 2007-2009
and 2012-2016.
These dry periods hurt people, and
the economy. They suck huge sums of money out of government, change ecosystems
and wildlife patterns and are devastating to agriculture and the people who work
in food production.
More than one-third of the United
States’ vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruit and nuts are grown in
California. The state’s farm sales were $54 billion in 2014, a significant
industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people.
To keep that going, the state must
have water. And more reservoirs are needed to store that precious mountain
snowmelt and other water from being wasted.
After the weekend ski trip we
returned to the San Francisco Bay area and watched the rain wash down the
hillsides and pour into the ocean, causing flash flooding in some areas.
As I watched I wondered: If I
lived here would I want $30 billion spent on wall to hold back people seeking a
better life, or more infrastructure to better manage water, which is the source
of all life?
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