Agricultural water supply isn't tiered in some respects. They have three basic supplies. One - well water - which takes it from the aquifer. Two - historical first right water - which takes it before the rest use it. Three -state water - which pays a subsidized rate for water (and why you see all those signs on I5 in Cali) - where it's going from 1/2 the cost to 80 pct the cost currently.

Non-ag water supply is fairly similar, except most people don't have wells and pay the commercial city rate. Some places use tiered, many don't.

But they don't have as large up-end surcharges like we in the water areas like Seattle do. We charge two arms and two legs and your hair for excessive use, they charge a left foot or maybe a leg for excessive use.

Actually, though, bidding is artificially constrained by money supply, so that those with wealth have more assets to bid for water than those with less.

This means that you get swimming pools and grass lawns that the ecosystem can't support.

A better method is to cap the usage per capita and let people decide what they want with it. If they really want a pool, then make them pay a lot more for the extra water wasted. As in ten times as much.

Our Seattle water supply works this way. Even rich people pay a lot more per water use above a certain amount than someone at median water use.

External input energy has a cost that process energy doesn't.

Water ain't free, and Cali farmers think it should be.

There's your problem.

A lot of people have been migrating to Oregon from California, to escape the drought.

So I'm guessing you'll get just as much resistance from them as you will from Seattle.

Except we in Seattle have a fusion reactor and some wicked giant lasers.

Actually, our salmon and other fish use that. And so do our sailboats and super yachts that our billionaires own.

So, go steal it from some place that doesn't have fusion power and giant lasers, would you?

Yes, but there are different types of desalination plants. Modern tech has hybrid micropore with solar/wind assist for pumping, and uses the old technique of glass windows to collect clean water. Do a search for solar desalination in any reputable energy journal.

Good point. Desalination typically does produce a lot of "gunk".

Even ones using old fashioned multistage evaporation still has large quantities of residue left.

We could take that plastic-filled residue and dump it in the nearest Marianas Trench, thus providing food for the next invading aliens, or we could just give up and pretend we can't do something with it.

We've had those before, where certain galaxies distort the emissions quite a bit.

I'll wait for the follow up science before I "worry".

No, grids work by power flow, and if you've ever driven along I-5 where most of the canal infrastructure is colocated with, you'd know that the high power lines go along that route too.

Used to be a power engineer. Studying for PhD in C&EE with focus on power systems.

A lot of Cali energy comes from as far away as BC. Used to provide it myself and helped set up the intertie disconnects at the borders as part of the Y2K/wildfire/quake safety prep.

Replace power in one place and you push fewer electrons in another place, power loss drops as fewer electrons pushed from low demand high supply area to high demand low supply area.

I'm working on multi-system integration of solar wind hydro and other systems, and use of biofuel shaping. Which is another can of worms, of course.

Desal is a good coastal solution, which the maps show could help, but you still have to pump it up. Good use for solar/wind (variable supplies can run pumps fairly well, with stop systems, to resupply reservoirs).

But ... have to fix the water demand part of the equation first, and the loss of water/soil that feeds that cycle. There's your big problem.

Colors are really just spectral bands, UV and IR are just bands beyond human perception (caveat: not all humans, some can see a bit into the UV range).

In short, if you have things like SAD, increasing the spectra which penetrate in the morning (remember in the dawn the light goes through a large swath of atmosphere, not the small amount at noon) and adding those 1-2 hours before increases your internal body temperature in a manner similar to waking up due to daylight.

Yes, this works through eyelids (mostly transparent), so setting a clock to turn on high lumen lights (use a cheap timer) will wake you up and allow you to reset your body clock.

Actually, there are some easy fixes to use less water.

1. Stop subsidizing agricultural water use.

2. Plant mixed crops (alternate rows) and plant cover crops between tree rows. Bonus: more soil retention, more water retention, easier to control pests.

3. Plant barrier trees around fields. Birds on those eat pests, Trees reduce soil loss, and water loss.

We learned this all in the 1970s in British Columbia, just north of Seattle. Adapt.

Rain forests actually create their own rain and water. It's a known scientific fact.

The height of the trees creates clouds that seed themeselves to rain.

Chopping stuff down just causes massive wildfires and mudslides.

(hmm, that does sound like the coast of Southern California)

We were talking about you stealing water from Seattle. Rain cisterns are legal in Seattle.

Usage is the major problem. Here in Seattle we use 1/4th as much water per capita as wasteful Californians do.

One fourth.

We actually grow plants that are suited for our local environment instead of lawns, we put green roofs on our buildings to slow down water loss and clean up rainwater and retain it, we don't subsidize crop water like California does.

Adapt. We already did. And growing grass is not adapting.

Or you could just put solar panels on top of your water canals, which would cut their evaporation to 1/10th, and provide power for desalination.

But that would work.