Brilliant Thoughts
WATER WISDOM (Continued from page 5)
of the community, and (2) Protect and preserve the extensive landscaping and “garden” atmosphere of Montecito.
by Ashleigh Brilliant
Is Montecito Vulnerable to Future Droughts?
Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000. Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com
Worriers and Warriors
I
t isn’t often that I make my Psychiatrist laugh – but he did, when, telling him about the events of a recent day, I said, “I was so busy, I forgot to take my anxiety pill.” Yes, I do actually take (in small doses) a pill that is supposed to have a calming effect, and does seem to help at certain times. But it is also true that, the more activities I have to keep me busy, the less need I seem to have for any artificial chemical soothing. But what is this “anxiety” anyway? Isn’t it what, in the good old pre-psychobabble days, we used to call “worry”? I don’t know any songs about anxiety – but we all know the century-old ditty about packing up your troubles in your old kit bag, with its heartening refrain, “What’s the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile!”
over-wrought by the years-long siege that he quarrels with the best fighter he has, Achilles, who consequently withdraws for an extended period, and goes off and sulks in his tent. But different warriors have different ways of coping with their neuroses. Some write poems, as if to justify the madness in which they are engaged. Back in the 1640s, Richard Lovelace apologized to his sweetheart, Lucasta, for leaving her, to go off and fight in the current war, saying: I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honor more.
Today, the phrase “No worries!” has become so common in Australian speech that it’s been called that country’s “national motto.” But isn’t it natural to have worries, especially about things which may be important to us, but which we can’t control? In the unlikely event that you are running short of things to worry about, you can always replenish your supply just by turning on the news. In fact, the news media seem to consider it their principal job to keep our anxieties stoked. And of course, a chief source of concern is all the conflicts going on in the world. But, except for the names and places, this is hardly news. In fact, there has rarely been any time in history when organized killing of some kind wasn’t going on somewhere. You might therefore think that the people who find themselves most closely involved in such unpleasantness are particularly good candidates for anxiety – and you’d be right. When it comes to armed forces, those in the lowest ranks, especially in wartime, may not be happy about their chances of being killed or maimed, but, apart from that, all they have to do is follow orders. It’s the ones responsible for giving the orders who are more properly plagued with anxiety. We can go back as far as Homer’s Iliad to see Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks against Troy, who is apparently so
I’m also not sure why Napoleon is so often depicted with his right hand in his vest, as if to calm his tremors. But a much more striking example of leadership attempting to cope with its own anxieties is in the “worry balls” (two steel balls) which Captain Queeg, the central character of Herman Wouk’s 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny constantly rolls in his hand when he is under conditions of stress. This proved such a popular idea that they were later marketed as “Queeg Balls.” General Eisenhower, just before the D-Day invasion in 1944, resorted to another method of relieving tremendous strain. He wrote an “In Case of Failure,” letter. In it, he said that “Our landings... have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack... was based upon the best information available. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.” Fortunately, that letter never had to be released. Apart from writing (and taking pills) one of my own time-tested techniques for coping with anxiety is singing. Besides the “old kit bag,” another of my favorite songs in such situations was made famous by Woody Guthrie. I’ll leave you with the simple chorus: It takes a worried man to sing a worried song. . . I’m worried now, but I won’t be worried long. •MJ
2 – 9 July 2020
I’m not sure about this “honor,” which so many have died defending. Even our own U.S. marines sing an anthem in which they proudly proclaim themselves to be: First to fight for right and freedom, And to keep our honor clean.
Between 2012 and 2019, the County of Santa Barbara experienced extraordinary drought conditions, including seven of the driest consecutive years on record. Tree ring analysts predict that California is actually facing not only a drought, but the strong possibility of a “megadrought” which may involve a decades-long period of low precipitation and dry soil moisture. Prudent planners look for the worst case scenario, and smile broadly if buckets of “raindrops keep falling on our heads” in Montecito. Too much water is a problem we would all love to have. The job of the current MWD Directors is to make sure Montecito has adequate water, drought or no drought.
How Much Water Does Montecito-Summerland Use Per Year?
MWD water sales peaked in 2008 at 6,518 acre feet per year (AFY). For the next six years after 2008, water sales ranged from a high of 5,964 in 2009 to a low of 4,715 AFY in a wet 2011. One acre foot is equal to 893 gallons, or the planned water usage of a suburban family household, daily. That’s 326,000 gallons per annum. In 2015, after water rationing and mandatory conservation were imposed, MWD water sales plummeted to 3,331 AFY, or 50% of the water sales in 2008, and have remained at about that level since. The District’s Future Supply and Demand Study assumes a demand of some 3,850 AFY in wet years, rising to possibly 5,000 AFY in dry years.
Are Our Current Water Supply Sources Reliable?
Our biggest supplier, the State Water Project, (SWP) promises to deliver 3,300 AFY of allocated water for Montecito from snowmelt in the High Sierra Mountains through the California Conduit and down the Coastal Branch Aqueduct to the Lake Cachuma Reservoir, 400 miles to the south, and on to Montecito. Unfortunately, State Water has a long history of being overpromised and under-delivered. Depending upon the volume of snowmelt, deliveries of State Water to Montecito have varied between 5% in 2012, a dry year, to 85% in 2018, a wet year. The average delivery from the State Water Program for Montecito lies in the 60% range of promised allocations. The aging State Water Project, designed to serve 23 million California residents, is now being asked to serve 40 million residents. Its 21 dams and more than 700 miles of aqueducts, canals, pipelines, and pumping stations are energy inefficient and badly in need of repair. Some 70% of the increasingly expensive State Water Project water is used by urban areas in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area, while 30% is sent to the Central Valley to be used for agricultural irrigation. Other sources are also rainfall dependent. Surface reservoirs like Lake Cachuma are subject to massive evaporation. Pipeline capacity into Cachuma is too small to transport purchased water and State water in times of drought. Any unused MWD carryover water stored in Cachuma becomes the first water to be spilled over the dam and lost forever when Cachuma fills. Who can forget the loss of a year’s worth of MWD water stored in the San Luis Reservoir in 2017 when additional water from the Orville Dam was pumped through the Delta and into the San Luis Reservoir? Jameson Reservoir is increasingly filling with silt and cannot be dredged economically, thanks to environmental restrictions. Debris, soot and ash from the Thomas Wildfire shut down water deliveries from Jameson for almost a year.
More State Water is Needed for Agriculture
The thirsty Central Valley of California covers approximately 18,000 square miles, about 11% of California’s total land area. Its watershed comprises 60,000 square miles, or over a third of California’s area. About one-sixth of the irrigated land in the U.S. lies in California’s Central Valley. The Central Valley is the single most productive agricultural region in California, and one of the most productive in the world. It provides more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States, including tomatoes, almonds, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus. Agricultural productivity relies on irrigation from both surface water diversions and groundwater pumping from wells. More than seven million acres of the valley are irrigated. The valley also demands water for its urban cities, including the state capitol, Sacramento as well as Fresno, Bakersfield, Redding, Stockton, Modesto and Chico.
Is Desalination the Way to Go for All of Coastal California?
The California Department of Water Resources’ Water Plan Update has iden-
• The Voice of the Village •
WATER WISDOM Page 284 MONTECITO JOURNAL
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