Fracking All Over -- May 3, 2015

4.0 earthquake near San Franciso suburb this afternoon.

3.9 earthquake in Los Angeles this morning.

3.1 earthquake in Irving, Texas this morning.

No reports of earthquakes in North Dakota so far today; about 1,000 wells are waiting to be fracked.

The Greek default story has been grossly overblown; now that we've passed several "drop dead" milestones, the truth finally emerges. Greece doesn't matter.

Think how much money Warren Buffett would have made HAD he guessed right on interest rates. I'm somewhat disappointed in his most recent mistake. Earlier he admitted to a huge mistake in investing in COP. Pretty soon we will hear he is selling his stake in DQ and Coca-Cola.

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From The Bakken

Driving south from the four-mile corner west of Williston to the Lewis and Clark bridge southwest of Williston.

Video taken April 28, 2015  

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The California Drought
The Salton Sea

I started the MillionDollarWay to help me understand the Bakken. I had a feeling back in 2007 it was going to be a big story and wanted to  understand it. Along the way, I've learned about a number of other things which has made the blog for me, at least, that much more rewarding.

I do not understand the drought in California. 

In this week's issue of The New Yorker there is an article on the Salton Sea, a "sea" that sits between the rich agricultural Imperial Valley and San Diego. The article started out well, but then devolved into too much fluff discussing the health of one poor Latino family making their living off the Salton Sea. It piqued my interest in the California drought, and the water issues in southern California (Palm Springs to the north, the Mexican border to the south, and the Salton Sea in the middle. But the article did not do much to really explain the situation.

Two data points to help me understand this. First, Imperial Valley:

The Valley is bordered by the Colorado River to the east and, in part, the Salton Sea to the west. Farther west lies the San Diego and Imperial County border. To the north is the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley, which together form the Salton Trough, or the Cahuilla Basin, also the county line of Imperial and Riverside counties, and to the south the international boundary with the U.S. state of California and Baja California.

Now, the Salton Sea:

The Salton Basin has over the ages been alternately a freshwater lake, an increasingly saline lake, and a dry desert basin, depending on river flows and the balance between inflow and evaporative loss. A lake exists only during times it was replenished by the rivers and rainfall, a cycle that repeated itself many times over hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps cycling every 400 to 500 years.

The modern sea was accidentally created by the engineers of the California Development Company in 1905. In an effort to increase water flow into the area for farming, irrigation canals were dug from the Colorado River into the valley. Due to fears of silt buildup, a cut was made in the bank of the Colorado River to further increase the water flow. The resulting outflow overwhelmed the engineered canal, and the river flowed into the Salton Basin for two years, filling the historic dry lake bed and creating the modern sea, before repairs were completed.

While it varies in dimensions and area with fluctuations in agricultural runoff and rainfall, the Salton Sea averages 15 miles by 35 miles. With an estimated surface area of 350 square miles, the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California.

The average annual inflow is less than 1,200,000 acre feet, which is enough to maintain a maximum depth of 44 feet and a total volume of about 6,000,000 acre feet.

However, due to changes in water apportionments agreed upon for the Colorado River under the Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003, the overall water level of the Sea is expected to decrease significantly between 2013 and 2021.

But, a reminder: only due to human error, today's Salton Sea is a "sea." If the engineers had not created a false lake at the turn of the century, would this be a problem today? I don't know. I'm only starting to begin my quest to understand the water rights issue affecting Imperial Valley, the Salton Sea, and San Diego.