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Comment by bmelton | Hacker News Reader

Mandatory rationing of drinking water may be a step, but should definitely not be the next step.

Despite California's attempts to "crack down" on the ALS challenge and such, there are still companies sourcing bottled water from the state that should likely be dealt with first.

Agriculture is (obviously) the largest source of water consumption in California as well.

Beyond that, there are some wacky laws (and logistical issues) complicating the import of water from places like Canada, but in my opinion, the next step should be to curtail (or impose costs upon) the alfalfa hay being exported from California to China.

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> California's attempts to "crack down" on the ALS challenge and such

I don't think this has actually happened. The only source I've seen for that is a satire site.

Ha! Yes. I'm an idiot. And sadly, while I grew up with the Onion and such, this is not the first time in recent history that I fell for something like that.

I don't know if I'm getting older, or the weirdest news is getting too believable.

The real news almost seems like a joke at times. It is getting harder to tell the difference. I fell for the satire article about the ALS crackdown. It didn't have anything in it that was over the top to tip you off that it was satire. At least The Onion usually throws in something to tip you off. But I could be biased about that because I already know The Onion is satire. I'd never heard of the one that ran the ALS crackdown article.

"there are still companies sourcing bottled water from the state"

If that is true, then this says the price that the bottler is paying for California sourced water is far too low.

http://clui.org/ludb/site/crystal-geyser-olancha-plant

The Olancha Crystal Geyser bottling plant is on Highway 395 right next to the dry bed of Owens Lake. The Owens River used to run into Owens Lake but the water was diverted for the Los Angeles Aqueduct and now it's an Alkali dust bowl. Every time I drive past the facility (usually twice a year) I'm reminded about how much of a mess Californias water policy has been since at least 1905 when the projects were first started. In 1930 LA started a project to siphon water away from the Mono Basin and that's had a very detrimental effect on the area including Mono Lake as well. You can see some changes in the area since courts have ruled that not as much water can be taken, from Mono at least, but the drought has made it look pretty insignificant.

I don't know which states are supplied bottled water from that facility but at the very least it's bottled and trucked into LA, and for some residents it's essentially the same water they are getting from their tap.

> Despite California's attempts to "crack down" on the ALS challenge

I don't think any such challenge exists; the only thing I've seen from the state government relating to the ALS challenge in the context of the drought is a public information officer for the Department of Water Resources responding to questions about it by saying that the Department hasn't given any thought to it and redirecting attention to the ongoing water uses that the Department is trying to get people to cut down on.

In the above, "challenge" should be "attempt" -- noticed that after the edit window closed.

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