you don't miss your water

till your well runs dry

so I read that 17 steelhead trout died..I mean salmon, err trout..is it rainbow trout...fish!! they all look alike..ok it's trout...17 steelhead trout died...it's been confirmed....well at least they might have tried dying in my frying pan

 

some people are trying to save the steelhead from the brink of extinction but killing them is not the way to do it unless they are adopting the Channel Islands model (Nature Con/Park Service) of killing everything to save and restore everything....

but it seems some of the creeks around the area are dry...Rincon Creek where I go to meditate is pretty much low...just enough water to to support some water bugs, polliwogs and an occasional sip from some coyotes...but steelhead won't last a minute here....not even after a heavy rain

up at Cachuma, the level is low and silt is a big problem...Cachuma is a man-made lake created by Bradbury Dam.... the dam is on the Santa Ynez river, or the Río Grande de San Vernardo River

history
Water from Lake Cachuma is diverted into the Tecolote Tunnel, which passes south under the Santa Ynez Mountains. The tunnel supplies water to the city of Santa Barbara (which uses it for drinking water), the Goleta Water District, the Carpinteriaa Valley Water District, and the Montecito Water District. Water from Lake Cachuma is released into the Santa Ynez River below Bradbury Dam in order to satisfy downstream water rights

The other two reservoirs are Gibraltar Reservoir, impounded by Gibraltar Dam, and Jameson Lake, impounded by Juncal Dam. Gibraltar Reservoir supplies water to the City of Santa Barbara via the Santa Barbara Water Tunnel under the Santa Ynez Mountains. Jameson Lake supplies water to the Montecito Water District via another tunnel under the Santa Ynez Mountains

In the 1940s the Santa Ynez River was thought to have the largest run of Steelhead trout(Oncorhyncus mykiss) south of San Francisco Bay. Prior to the completion of Cachuma Dam in 1953, the steelhead run on the Santa Ynez River was estimated to be as high as 25,000 adults. Three decades earlier, in 1920, the Gibraltar Dam was built and blocked access to spawning in the upper watershed, so early twentieth century steelhead runs were likely much higher still.
　
lots of dams around here because we are semi-arid meaning we don't get alot of water..so we better use it wisely or we'll all be drinking sand...

so a pump at Cachuma failed during a power outage and somehow the steelhead were left without enough water...the pumps kick on to supply water to places that don't have sufficient water because like I said, we don't have the water for all these noble yet naive saving/restoration programs...

any creek that needs pumps to supply water for the fish is not much of a creek!!

and water rights! oh the water rights..ranchers and city folks and fish are all battling for a drop of the liquid gold...

as Mark Twain said: whiskey is for drinking, water is for fightin' over...