Irony, indeed, Ingrid! That word sums it up. And miles away in TX and LA, too much rain. "Old" water. Who knew? Sigh. Carol

And here we're still drought-afflicted. We would so gladly hosted Harvey.

BTW Ingrid, I didn't mean your comment about "old water" was ridiculous. In reading my comment over, I see that it could be taken that way, but that was certainly not my intention. I'm sorry if I came across that way. I did not see the article or news clip about "old water". What I MEANT was more like, "What next?" Lisa:)

Someone might want to contact some of the other places where water storage is done:

Do the Great Lakes have a 100% turnover every year, or even a 10%

How about some of the dams that the Corps of Engineers runs? And TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)?

The lakes in the Swiss Alps with their very limited outflows?

The only comp I can come up with from a desert are the dams on the Colorado?

Or are they thinking that this sort of thing is what destroyed the dam and distribution system on the southern end of Saudi Arabia (and Yemen) where archeologists have found remnants of a sophisticated system that stopped being tended.

Are you with a privately for profit water company or a publicly owned service? Just thought this question was relevant..

THAT'S a good question, Nik. I'm going to find out! Lisa

Maybe the reservoirs need to be more depleted in case you have another good snow year--we had near full reservoirs this spring, and it resulted in flooding farther down the system. It's a fine line, and the Army Corps of Engineers calls the shots on our many reservoirs around here. They judiciously released water from the reservoirs into the Boise River all spring, rather than having topping dams. The electricity generated by the dams is distributed by a publicly regulated (PUC/Public Utilities Commission) utility that is privately owned (Idaho Power Company). The PUC regulates rate increases by Idaho Power Company, which does make a profit and may sell excess power to other states. States that use hydroelectric power go this route, I think. However, the water we irrigate with and use in the house is city water, comes from wells, and costs a fortune. The reservoir water is mainly for agriculture, industry, and power. Diane

I wonder if the problem could be algae?

Virginia

I think the news is the silver lightning for rose gardeners in California. Imaging right now with the temperature of 107 degree and we weren't allowed to water your roses too often? That would be bad. I thanks nature for giving us the extra water :) Helen

I think the "old" part was related to being in the pipes too long. Maybe it's the pipes that are old and not the water.

Lisa, not to worry and no need to apologize, I knew exactly what you meant. You're much too nice to ever cause offense.

We're a small rural water district that buys water from larger districts like Los Angeles, and apparently the small districts that don't use enough water have this problem of water sitting in the pipes too long, especially if people are trying to conserve water. Lisa, you're in a larger district so I doubt that this would affect you.

Thanks, Ingrid. I'm sometimes unsure things come across without being able to say them in person. I sure hope we get some of this predicted rain today. I just felt a few tiny drops about 15 minutes ago. The wind is gusting up something fierce. The kitties were out with me, and Millie had never experienced rain before. She is absolutely terrified of water. Just those few tiny drops sent her into a panic, running around in a circle, and finally trying to climb my leg to escape. It was rather adorable, in spite of her terror:) I hope we get more, as those few drops didn't even wet the ground. Lisa

We did have a bit of a drizzle, not enough to do any real good, but at least the temperature went down and I was able to spend some blissful minutes outside in the evening.

Poor Millie, I hope by the time the winter rains come (and please let them come) she'll slowly get used to that wet stuff coming down. It reminds me of our cat Casey when we moved to the country and he saw and heard his first horse and rider. We were with him to reassure him but I thought his eyes would pop out of his head. By the second time he had already acquired some sang-froid, being a wise older kitty who had some dignity to uphold.