The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild

The norcal/socal divide caused by the river is funny to me. I grew up in LA, then moved to the Bay Area for college. In LA we never really talked about where our water comes from. But we were always 'in a drought' and always taught to conserve water.

My wife grew up in the Bay Area, and was told the same.

But her family is from Sacramento. Up until about 15 years ago, everyone in Sacramento paid the same for water (based on square footage of your home). There were no water meters. So they didn't conserve. They ran the sprinklers in 100 degree heat for hours, they washed sidewalks with water instead sweeping, and all the other things.

But when the meters came, her Uncle blamed SoCal for "stealing his water". He complained every month when the bill came about how he has to pay more now because of SoCal.

Being from LA, I am used to a water system that works without needing power. I think most of CA is like that. It was a surprise to lose the water back east when the power went out during a storm.

Sometimes it feels like the US has lost its appetite for grand structural projects like that. Maybe it’s just that I’m unaware of them and that impression is the result of survival bias, but given how impossibly hard it is to just build anything where I live (Seattle), I’m not so sure.

"Well There's Your Problem" on the collapse of the St Francis Dam, mentioned in Grady's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxLgM1vnuUA

Also I love when they refer to it as the "_First_ California Water Wars" in a grim realization of the future of water scarcity in the West

I was in Owens River Gorge last week, it's a very interesting place. It has some of the tallest single pitch rock climbing in the world, sometimes requiring 80M ropes: https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105843226/owens-river-g...

For anyone interested in a deep dive, I recommend the book Vision or villainy: origins of the Owens Valley-Los Angeles water controversy.

Some say the LA aqueduct saved Owens Valley from development. (I’m sure the old timers out there would have a different opinion)

I was surprised to find out it was largely uncovered, though I guess it probably makes it much cheaper to construct. I usually think of aqueducts as pipes or tunnels, like Persian qanāts. I wonder how much water is lost due to evaporation.

I remember hearing years ago that this aqueduct was going to be shut down and then it just... never was? Does anyone else recall that?

Nice picture but I've never seen the water anywhere near blue like that.

Growing up in LA, I was fascinated as a kid watching the water flow down this aqueduct. Anytime we drove by it on the way to Magic Mountain, I'd hope that it would be a water-on day.

I wonder at what point the up-front costs of massive desalination would overcome the (often hidden and externalized) costs of projects like this.

I really dig the editorial viewpoint of this article. New journalism style meets fun facts about engineering.

If anyone wants a deep dive on this subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert

The California aquaduct system is an engineering marvel.

Really enjoyed watching that. Good luck with water LA.