You Don’t Miss Your Water Till Your Well Runs Dry

It’s tempting to think of the current dry spell as an episode that we have to weather and get through, but in reality we have no way of knowing whether we’re approaching the end of a three-year drought or we’re in the early phases of a 10–20-year drought. Tree ring and sediment studies reveal that we’re now in the driest period in 400 years, but before that droughts lasting 10, 20 and even 50 years plus, were not uncommon. Th e century starting in the late 1800’s was the wettest 100-year period during the past 7,000 years. Th is also happens to have been the time when the massive water infrastructure of the West was made; dams were built, reservoirs fi lled, pipes and aqueduct laid, and far more water was promised than now exists. Scott Stine is a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. He tells us, “We continue to run California as if the longest drought we ar