Tuesday, September 23, 2008

One Year Ago Today: Honey Lake

One year ago today (yesterday, actually, because my internet connection went down in the middle of this post), there was water in Honey Lake. See that light brown, barely reflective stuff way out there? That's water, not a playa.

A couple days ago, driving through the same valley, there appeared to be only minimal, if any, water. In fact, all I noticed was a dark brown area where the now-dry lake bed was damp or muddy. No pictures, though. Maybe there was some water way out on the east side of the lake. I'll have to check on this again - I can't find an online water level site for the lake.

Northern Nevada (Reno) is stealing importing some of northern California's water, although reports say this *shouldn't* affect the groundwater in the Honey Lake Valley. It's called the Fish Springs Ranch Water Project.

L.A. should desalinate, thus easing much southern pressure on northern water. I don't know what it would do for Reno, though. Maybe L.A. could sell water north, thereby making a little money for themselves!

2 comments:

Eric said...

Water rights are tangled web, for sure. I think I read somewhere that Las Vegas actually bought LA a desalinization plant, so they could nab more water.

Still, there is a silver lining; lots more modern playa systems to study.

Chris M said...

Oh well, there goes the very short-term truce in the water conflict between the states in that area after the Truckee River agreement a month ago.