Water in Southern California

The cost and availability of fresh water is an ongoing problem with few answers. We have the Pacific full of salt water but little effort to source it for fresh even though we have the technology. An official has said that Valley Center and other agricultural areas will face a “long-term train wreck” from the deteriorating supply. Some are already doomed to quit farming right here in Fallbrook. We all know the supply was cut dramatically to save the tiny fish in the delta.

Local farmers originally depended on rainfall and well water to produce crops. The construction of dams and seven major reservoirs, the Colorado River and Northern California supply turned California into the breadbasket for half a century, but our population growth and diminishing supply of water is now a driving force to reduce demand.

Well water, why not more of them? My own well, drilled to 109 feet, supplied me for 13 years including irrigation of a one acre pet cemetery, care of several horses, all my kids’ 4-H stock, a garden, and 30 citrus trees. A five-horsepower submersible pump delivered 20 gallons pm from canyon well to mesa 5000 gallon holding tank. A supplement pump provided 50 pound pressure for the five room residence. That may sound ludicrous to some but thousands of small farms have existed for decades on similar supply.

Have often wondered why the 500 gallon per minute well was shuttered on the now Marine Corps Air Station. It was fabulous.

John R. Limpus