" Wait until the real droughts come. California had it's water allocation from the Colorado river cut back. Much of the Colorado river comes from snow and ice melt and the Glacier National Park glaciers are almost gone. Those thirsty Southern California folks will make it up somewhere, right? ~Ruff "

" I wonder why there is ample money for this lawsuit, SO obviously necessitated by local population growth that is mandated by the state, but county leaders quake in their boots at the idea of being sued for failing to meet their assigned growth numbers?
Why doesn't the county sue over the assigned growth numbers? The numbers are not "green," they are not "sustainable" and there aren't local resources to support them.
Maybe it's because the county hopes to profit from the growth and needs water to do it!
This lawsuit illustrates that whatever they may say, county leaders are in fact firmly committed to becoming exactly like their congested Bay Area brethren. "

" Nuclear Power + Sea Water + Desalinization Plants = Water Problem Solved "

" Our beloved buerocrats are leaving California and it's infrastructure in a near state of collapse. The lack of a comprehensive energy policy, our roads are in such a state of disrepair that it is becoming dangerous, schools are failing our children, water is and will become a huge issue in the not so distant future, cities are going bankrupt because they cannot fund outrageous pensions that were awarded and we are taxed at one of the highest rates in the nation. The leeches that are in charge of this state and some counties and cities (not all) spend money like drunken sailors (no disrespect to sailors intended) on programs that benefit themselves or people connected to them. Remember that when you go to the booth in November. Vote the BUMS out. "

" Ruff and Cadence are right on point. Here are some more facts about the State Water Project that were reported in Western Water magazine.
2008 was the driest Sierra winter since 1921
2008 snowpack at 67% of normal
2008 water runoff into streams and reservoirs at 55-65% normal
Lake Oroville, the principal source for State Water Project water is at 48% of capacity
Federal Court ruling to protect the Smelt will reduce Delta water allocations to 35% of requested
Many Climatologists claim that we are entering a drought cycle likely to last 15 to 20 years.

Lawsuit or nor lawsuit, they can't deliver water they don't have. So, when new developments do their environmental impact reviews, the finding that there is sufficient water is based on the assumption that the State Water Project will provide significant supplemental water to the jurisdiction. I don't believe that is a valid assumption. In fact, the people who deliver water to over 400 jurisdictions don't believe that is a valid assumption. Check out the State Water Agencies' website www.calwatercrisis.org for more information.

Our planners and elected officials need to take this issue very seriously when they approve major new developments. I would urge them to adopt ordinances requiring new developments to offset their water usage by at least 50% or more. "

" Your editorial rests on the false premise that Napa County owns the water that flows down Putah Creek. Solano Irrigation District owns the water in Lake Berryessa, Within the last 20 years Solano Irrigation District sued and won against every property owner in the Putah Creek Watershed to perfect its rights to water that flows into Lake Berryessa. "

" Canada has plenty of water. Start building pipelines... "

" But Kevin, the Canadians haven't made a lot of mistakes to date. Why should they start now? "

" The article states; "There are some favorable changes out there. For example, Napa and many other cities are using the same amount or less water per capita than they did years ago,..."

This, my friends, is what is commonly known as a specious argument.

Why? Because, any reasonable person who considers this quote realizes that the "per capita" to which the writer refers is constantly in a state of increase....so whatever "gains" in lower usage is offset by the continual growth in the 'per capita!'

LOL....

musikluvr, danmonez (yeah!!) , cadence, ruff, cab...you're all right! How come we see it and our elected officials choose to turn a blind eye?

Hmmmmmmmm....one wonders, don't one!?! "

" Concerned - If I remember correctly Napa County uses approximately the same amount of water as we did in around 1980. That's not exactly correct but I think I'm pretty close. The reasons for this are mostly improvements in landscape irrigation and toilettes. Hopefully someone in the know from the county can pipe up and clarify the numbers. "

" ummm - say you're correct, Common Sense, how many decades will your plan require to become effective and actually deliver potable water? And at what cost?
The developers are processing their plans right now.
Yours are where in the planning process? "

" There are some BIG desalinization plants being built in southern california using the reverse osmosis process. 50 MGD. Obviously they are becoming cost effective.

You could be drinking Napa River Water real soon! "

" Napa would not be having this problem if the supervisors had not handed over 100% of the water rights to Solano county when the damn at Berryessa was built. Damns store water that we can control, produce electricity, & provide recreation. Harnessing nature & its' powers is not a bad thing. "

" good point, about the mistakes with berryessa dam, but how does lamenting about what happened about 50 years ago help with the current situation?....Water users in other counties around the bay have been told to cut their usage by nearly 20 percent to help begin, I stress the word, begin to deal with their water shortages...without action soon, users here could be facing similar action...then watch the sparks fly between the ag community and the urbanites.... "

" Napa County uses thousands of more acre feet of water than just a few decades ago…just because it‘s captured or pumped out of a well nobody seems to pay any attention.

I live in an area of Napa County that had abundant water until the everybody started planting grapes and now the water table is dropping faster than the drillers can keep up with it….it’s a good business to be in around here. With three golf courses pumping 2 million gallons a night doesn’t help much either….

It wouldn’t matter what the residents do with their use and they can sue anybody and everybody and it wouldn't change anything…until we have responsible vineyard and golf course management this place will continue to dry up like the Mojave… "

" cadence says "how many decades will your plan require to become effective and actually deliver potable water?"

-What was I thinking. Surely we are better off waiting until the problem is at crisis levels (similar to the Democrat approach to our looming social security collapse).

China can build a reactor in a few short years, well under a decade. There's no way we Americans are capable of that...we can only do things like go from airplanes to a moon landing in under 10 years. "

" That's why we "contract out". Hire the Chinese to build it for us... "