We’re headed back to California after several days in Connecticut. We talked with a local farmer about water wars. He knew about the Sacramento Delta and the coming mother of all water wars there over California Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to shunt water away from the Delta via two huge tunnels. Connecticut faces nothing like that, he said, but it does have its own water problems. Some outlying towns in the Hartford area that are not part of the reservoir system get much of their water from just a few prolific, deep wells. Attempts have been made to snatch control of some reservoirs away from those who control them now.
Moderate to exceptional drought covers 46.1% of the contiguous United States, an increase from last week’s 44.9%.However, the worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased slightly from 13.8% last week to 13.3%.
As you can see from the Drought Monitor, the eastern half of the country has no drought. But water wars continue to simmer there too.