I ran across this on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/us/california-water-restrictions-drought/index.html

It puts a lot of pressure on everyone. How does this affect home gardeners/fruit growers? Do I have it right that farmers/nurseries purchase water rights to a certain amount of water?

I hope you guys get some rain...

Pretty Scary!  We have already had county restrictions.  They divided up all the residents into sections.  Each section can only water gardens on certain days and times.  That will probably change again with these new restrictions.  We are in the agricultural water zone, not city, so we are on orchard and dairy farm rules. 

We all hope for rain soon!

Suzi

That’s funny, I just wanted to post the same link story.

Yes, it is serious. We can water once a week only with the sprinklers, I am working on installing the drip lines where it is possible to use them.

Wow, good luck. Each year it seems we get guidelines about water usage, but I've never really felt anything truly serious. Maybe when I was a kid there were a few restrictions for a couple hot summers...

I think we are all hoping Ca gets some water soon. An aweful lot of food is grown out that way. This looks like its getting serious.

Our current rain season is about over in Cali, so unless there is a freakish storm, that's about it till hopefully next Oct/November.

Many of the restrictions Gov Brown is suggesting/mandating should have been done a long time ago. For example, lawns, golf courses - a real waste in a drought. I'd rather they grow food with 'lawn' water. Also more tiered water charges so homeowners who use more pay more so conservation is encouraged.

"Also more tiered water charges so homeowners who use more pay more so conservation is encouraged. "

That is currently the case in Santa Barbara county.  I own a house on a 1/4 acre lot.   A few months ago I got a water bill for $273.00  as I was trying to save my avocado tree.   Later I learned Lake Cachuma, our water source was below 30% capacity so I practically stumped my big hass avocado to try to wait out the drought. 

Hope we finish our desalination plant soon.

Tim  Zone 10a

Don't look for desal water to lower your water bill. It's very expensive. If a plant is built in your area, it probably will turn your $270 water bill into more than a $500 one. Unless you use less.

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near

[QUOTE]

Desalinated water typically costs about $2,000 an acre foot -- roughly the amount of water a family of five uses in a year. The cost is about double that of water obtained from building a new reservoir or recycling wastewater, according to a 2013 study from the state Department of Water Resources.

And its price tag is at least four times the cost of obtaining "new water" from conservation methods -- such as paying farmers to install drip irrigation, or providing rebates for homeowners to rip out lawns or buy water-efficient toilets.

"We look out and see a vast ocean. It seems obvious," said Heather Cooley, water director for the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Oakland. "But it's cost prohibitive for most places in California."

I'm thankful that Fig trees (in ground) are drought tolerant.  The few potted figs we have are on drip.  We have planted most of ours near boulders so their roots can stay cool and damp.  We replaced our lawn with a very expensive FAKE very GREEN putting green.  Everything is on drip, and that isn't cheap either.  Some smart previous owner practically covered this land (1.5 acres) with drought tolerant rosemary.  Svanessa has a beautiful drought tolerant perennial called Statice.  I just ordered seeds.

I just don't want our pine groves to die.  They are on drip, and were neglected for years from foreclosure, so they are coming back.  Just lost a lime to some disease.

I do make coffee and wash the dishes, but we cut the showers to really short and every other dayish. 

I have planted a ton of succulents.  They spread fast and my big worry is fire.  They hold any water they can in their leaves and stop the burn.

Not pretty, but most of our country has had drought or floods.

Rain Dance!!

Suzi

[QUOTE]Not pretty, but most of our country has had drought or floods.[/QUOTE]

And earthquakes, mud slides, and wild fires...

I assume you are familiar with Fritz Coleman, NBC weather guy out of L.A.? I love how he referred to California years ago as 'The Acts of God Theme Park'.

It's true, lol.

My figs are irrigated from my water well which has a standing water table within a few feet of soil surface.  The rest of my crops are watered from the Sacramento River water and I still expect to have all I need this year.  Almost feel guilty....

I'm using recycled water. I pick it up 210 gallons at a time from the wastewater treatment plant. I love it because a) it's free b) it includes organic fertilizer.

That 210 gallons of water is worth about $1.25 at local water rates. The fertilizer portion could be valued anywhere from $0.25(compared to ConvertedOrganics products) to $7.88 (compared to fish emulsion)

How do you transport that many gallons?  You have access to a tank truck?
Suzi

Norwesco Plastics makes tanks for pickup trucks - they have an indent for the wheel well. I bought mine at Tractor Supply for $250. 

In case anyone is worried about weight...
210 gallons = 1700lb. My truck has a GVWR of 7000, and a curb weight of 5300, so the math works perfectly on load. 

Once you get it on site, how do you distribute it to the plants?

I offload the water into an IBC container which holds 275 gallons. That is plumbed into my drip irrigation.  The IBC container with the water is 25ish feet higher than what it's watering, so it's gravity fed. I'm running 100gph of drippers so irrigation should take 2-3 hours, but due to the low pressure it takes a lot longer. Yesterday I filled up the IBC at 1pm and it was about half empty at 5pm. There's a filter in-line that might be getting clogged and slowing it up.

Most people just use a pump.

PS: IBC containers are 1000L plastic totes in a metal cage. New they are 250ish, but used ones can be found. Average used price in my area was $125 - but recently the price has been dropping. 

smatthew that is a great contribution to this thread and I'm sure it will help many without water.  Thanks so much for your input.

Suzi

[QUOTE=Gina]For example, lawns, golf courses - a real waste in a drought. I'd rather they grow food with 'lawn' water. Also more tiered water charges so homeowners who use more pay more so conservation is encouraged.[/QUOTE]

Well said Gina. Lawns/golf courses should be the first thing to go.

Another sad story for CA.
There is plenty of water here in NJ.
Wish we had a better warm climate to re-declare NJ as the 'Garden State' from older times ...

[E: todays NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/california-imposes-first-ever-water-restrictions-to-deal-with-drought.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0]

Indeed our water issues are downright scary!   In hindsight, too bad we didn’t start major conservation rules a few years ago, not like this crisis just snuck up on us.

Personally, I’ve let a lot of tropical (water loving) landscape die back and replacing with more drought tolerant succulents.   I have a small lawn area of a hybrid Bermuda (takes little water) but, that too may go on the chopping block.    Lawn removal landscapers are working overtime around here these days.   My only dilemma is what to do with 3 acres of commercial lemons surrounding my house.   Last year the grove manager pruned way back and reduced water but, not sure how long that will work.  Even with an ag water rate, the economics really start to suck if rates go sky high or restrictions.   But, then again, soon as I tear out the lemons (along with all other growers) a diminished supply will surely drive lemon prices sky high and I miss the market…..urgh.

Funny thing is, I’m about to do a way overdue pool replaster project, called the water district about any restrictions and they had no issues whatsoever.   As long as I’m willing to pay for the water at current rate, that is!   Geeesh…… I’m really feeling guilty now after the last few days of publicity about out shortage…….. :-(

Oh the price of a wonderful climate… 

California politicians (Democrat controlled legislature my whole life) have resisted spending money on water infrastructure for the last 40-50 years, esp storage projects. However, they are always willing to issue more building permits (money making item for them) for more houses and businesses that USE water. There are water projects here in San Diego that were planned in the 1800s that still have not been completed. Wa are currently experiencing a rainfall/snowpack issue, but we have had a mismanagement issue for a long, long time.

I had to laugh when someone observed that our current governor (Governor Moonbeam for those old enough to remember the last time he was governor) has the perfect name for the future of California:  Brown.

Watch to see when the politicians realize that the water issue is going to become a tax issue. All the businesses such as farms that depend on water will be paying less taxes because they are doing less business. That means they are buying less stuff, which means they need to hire less people, and their suppliers will hire less people, and pretty soon income tax receipts from those people who are not working and producing will drop. The politicians will figure this out in a year or two when the State treasurer's report says that receipts are down, and then they will all be looking around, scratching themselves, wondering what happened. They will never see it coming.

If you are in farming or have an orchard, prepare to find a new job. If you are in the nursery or landscaping business, prepare to find a new job. If you are in any of the service industries that supply goods and services to the agricultural industry, prepare top find a new job. If you have landscaping, prepare for it to go away. If you eat, prepare to pay more for your food, or do without, and/or get it from questionable foreign sources where sanitation practices do not compare with those here.

if you eat walnuts, pistachios, almonds, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, prunes, raisins, wine, rice, apples, artichokes, garlic, figs, macadamias, peaches, nectarines, plums, avocados, lettuce, melons, strawberries, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, carrots and a host of other things, prepare to see less of them and pay more for them. This affects dairy products, alfalfa, cotton, beef, chicken, eggs, and a whole lot more.

Meanwhile, lush green lawns in Arizona with people watering so it flows down the gutter like a river all day saturated with fertilizers and roundup.

Very very very very well said Jon.
We deffinitlly have the technology and means of producing clean drinkable water from sea water and don't we always hear the argument that the sea level keeps rising? How about controlling and collecting all the melting ice and flood water running purposeless down the middle of our country? I also understand that it takes a vast amount of energy to convert or desalinize sea water but with all the solar and wind options California has it is just a matter of willing to spend the money on infrastructure ,just like Jon said. Best of luck to all of us and I hate to say that it's a darn shame that we have to leave serious and totally solvable matters like that to " Luck"!

Agree with what Jon says.  We did finally pass a water bond last year which includes a bunch of garbage but did include funding for storage and, supposedly, the Sykes reservoir will be built.  To be located in Colosa County north of me, it won't be directly connected to any stream or reservoir but used to store water during heavy run-off periods.  Although we're in a drought, we had way above average rainfall in December and a lot of water flowed right past my farm and out into the ocean.

It's not being reported much, but most of our reservoirs have more water in them today than a year ago because of the December rains.  The bad news is that much more water is flowing into them because of the dismal snowpack.

Crumbling (and underdeveloped) infrastructure is a problem across the whole country.  We seem to be living off of the investments that were made in the last century and there isn't the political will to invest in the future.  Our newly elected republican governor is scaling back on transportation infrastructure projects that we need in my area. Many of our political leaders don't want to spend the money on what will benefit us over the long term. What I often read about California is that some of the crops that are grown there (alfalfa, some of which is exported, rice, etc) are not really suited for what appears to be a new normal i.e. a dry west.  Harvey, I'd like to get your thoughts on this - are there crops currently grown in California that would be better grown elsewhere, given the projections regarding water in the west over the next few decades?  I grew up on a farm in Iowa which has some of the richest farmland in the world.  But essentially none of the crops grown there is recognizable as human food.  It gets turned into high fructose corn syrup, ethanol, and meat.  There's got to be a way to move at least a bit of the water-intensive agriculture going on in California to areas where there is more water.  As far as desalination - it may come to that but it is very energy intensive and therefore very expensive to do on the scale needed to satisfy agricultural demands.

Rewton, in the Southern California Low deserts, Windmills and miles of solar panels facing South West are all along Highway 10.  In our case, we put solar panels on our South Facing roof.  Our Electric Bill?  $1.25 / month. 

We have so many beaches where they could put solar panels (kinda on slanted fence type things) to generate the electricity to run the desalination plants, but they are just to stupid to think of that.  I guess Surfer's have a lot of clout with government.

Suzi

[QUOTE=DesertDance]Rewton, in the Southern California Low deserts, Windmills and miles of solar panels facing South West are all along Highway 10.  In our case, we put solar panels on our South Facing roof.  Our Electric Bill?  $1.25 / month. 

We have so many beaches where they could put solar panels (kinda on slanted fence type things) to generate the electricity to run the desalination plants, but they are just to stupid to think of that.  I guess Surfer's have a lot of clout with government.

Suzi[/QUOTE]

Cover the beaches with solar panels........ huhhh?   

Please, let’s not shoot before we aim.  Besides, it’s a battle royal to permit any desal development anywhere near the coast, let alone massive solar fields.  !f the past is any indication.anyway! Think it took Poseidon over ten years to get approval at Carlsbad.   And, that was at an existing power generation property.

If it comes down to power for coastal desal plants, there are thousands of acres of solar fields now in place or under construction in our deserts that would do job.  In day time at least!   We do have existing transmission and distribution pretty much in place!   With a seemingly  never ending glut of natural gas available, gas fired "peaker" power plants, located at the desal plants, would be a logical answer for after-hours cheap electricity..    Assuming no permitting issues……. LOL

Personally, I think it going to take some real pain, true conservation and economic loss to get any action out of the people we elect to manage the big things, like infrastructure or clean water.   Especially since many are still in total denial about obvious weather changes or god forbid “global warming”!    Go figure!   Just my dos centavos on the issue!

Happy figging....

It's my understanding that a lot of southern California's water comes from Colorado Via the Colorado River.  I've heard that the once mighty Colorado no longer makes it to the Sea of Cortez because it has been sucked dry. Part of the problem with water level in the Colorado River basin, other than lakes Powell and Mead, is the ongoing drought in Colorado. We have been mostly on and are rarely off of water restrictions for the better part of a decade, we are on these restrictions do to record low snow pack and record low rain.

It effects everyone at both ends.   So I feel the pain all of you are experiencing, and I certainly hope the end is in the near future.   Interestingly enogh, with urban development here, there is more hard scape here then ever putting more water into the rivers then ever.... yet it is still not enough. 

And check this out, in Colorado, it is illegal to collect rain and snow melt. ... that's right, illegal! !!  They are trying to change it, I guess someone was finally able to convince our politicians that we live in a desert.  Plus a major study in Denver proved that collecting rain water would not effect how much precipitation makes it to the streams and rivers.   Yet the states our forefathers sold our water to are fighting the repeal of the law tooth and nail. 

Yesterday while driving, the newsman came on and said it is supposed to rain here Tuesday, so I looked at Intellicast.  Hmmmm.  Tues night.  Light Rain.  70%.  This probably means no rain.  We'd all love a 3 day downpour, but the flip side of that is floods.  Sad for those who are in states experiencing flooding.

The anti-rain barrel law here is totally ridiculous. I can understand if one were storing the water and exporting/selling it, which sounds crazy in itself, but seriously..the collected water is still on its way to the aquifer. We are just delaying it to a more opportune time.
I would love to have a huge cistern under my yard! One or two big snow storms or spring rain spells would fill it easy.

[QUOTE=cis4elk]The anti-rain barrel law here is totally ridiculous. I can understand if one were storing the water and exporting/selling it, which sounds crazy in itself, but seriously..the collected water is still on its way to the aquifer. We are just delaying it to a more opportune time.
I would love to have a huge cistern under my yard! One or two big snow storms or spring rain spells would fill it easy.[/QUOTE]

I nearly added a 3000 gallon cistern under my main garden, I mean who would know. ... really.   Hopefully the law is repealed soon.

I am planning on attaching a flexible diverter to the bottom of the downspouts.  If it were raining on the day I need to mix new solution and one were to find it's way into the reservoir... oops.

The Weather Channel gives Santa Barbara a 100% probablity for rain on Tuesday.

In the past, I looked out my living room window in wonder at the torrent gushing past during any descent rain storm.  You see, my street goes straight up hill 1/4 mile.  I suppose all that water goes straight into the Santa Barbara Channel (Pacific), about 5 blocks from my home.

Next Tuesday will be different; I'm getting wet!

Yesterday, I drove 200 mi rt to Los Angeles to pick up 200 ft of  2 1/2" fire hose in time for Tuesday.  Today, I fashioned a funnel from an office rug protector, mat.  A quarter is on top of the wide end, for scale.
 
 

Next season I could have a reservoir  waiting.  For now the plan is to flood my backyard and save my fruit  and redwood (100 ft) trees with water from my street.

I'll let the initial 30 minutes of water flow past. The rest of the street water should be much cleaner, in fact much better for my trees than that salty tap water we drink.  I'll be pushing that salty residue deeper into the earth.

Anticipating the rain, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Cheers. 
             Tim Zone 10a

Can anyone recommend a 1500 to 2000  gal reservoir vendor?

good luck with the rain.

Farming is such a small part of CA tax revenue and economy. 40$ billion in revenue of a 1.6 trillion dollar economy. Tax revenues in the state rise and fall with fortunes of Silicon Valley. The Bay Area is the only part of CA economy that has grown in recent years (talking private sector, public sector keeps expanding as always). 

Farmers must pay more for water, it will make them drop water intensive crops that should not be grown in our arid climate. Food prices should go up. Americans pay the lowest proportion of their income to food items than any other country. 

[QUOTE]Food prices should go up. Americans pay the lowest proportion of their income to food items than any other country.[/QUOTE]

This is the problem when the consumers do not know the true cost of the goods they purchase.  And it is not limited to agriculture. Unfortunately, it would take many decades to do away with all of the subsidies in a manner which would not be a catastrophic disruption to the economy.  Until politicians can see beyond the next election and business execs beyond the next financial statement, it will continue.

I believe additional storage needs to be built and city folks need to quit blaming agriculture for water woes of California.

Water projects were built with the expressed purpose of irrigating areas of the central valley and contracts granted to those areas.  Some areas, such as mine, have riparian water rights that date back over 100 years.  The right to extract water from the Sacramento River is part of my property.  Now someone else thinks they have a better use for it and want to control what I and others do with OUR property.  I suggest that someone with a 4 bedroom house in Silicon Valley or Malibu be restricted to having no more than 1 inhabitant in their home and solve their water restrictions that way, okay?  Perhaps they wouldn't like my thoughts on how they use their property?  Some people want to change the price of water used by farmers. I pay very little for my water (would pay nothing except for a settlement reached with the state the last time they stole water from us when 1977 when Governor Moonbeam/BROWN was in office the first time around.  As part of that contract, the riparian water rights of north delta users is assured and the state agreed it would pay farmers in our area for any crop losses or crops that were not planted if it was unable to supply the water traditionally available to our area.

The biggest user of water in California is not agriculture.  Environmental uses take up 50% of our water, agriculture about 40%, urban 10%.  Yes, we need to be protective of our environment  but some of this can be done more wisely.  During the winter before this last some environmental researchers discharged something like 900,000 acre feet of water from reservoirs upriver from here to see what influence that would have on the Delta Smelt.  Pretty poor timing when reservoirs were already very low.  I've also read that more Delta Smelt are killed via monitoring/counting of these tiny fish than caught in the screens of the pumps that pump water down south of here.  In December we had rainfall way above normal and our reservoirs only capture a portion of the heavy run-off with high river levels in my area while the water flowed out to sea.  That did not benefit the environment or humans.

The vast majority food consumed in California is consumed by urban dwellers.  They don't need farms here, they get their food from the grocery store.  Yes, that's the mentality of many that like to suggest how others change their lifestyle so they don't need to change theirs.

There has been much reporting lately of how it takes 1 gallon to produce 1 almond.  Almonds are the cause of all of our problems, right?!  California produces more almonds than anywhere else in the world and nowhere else in the U.S. has the climate suitable for growing almonds.  Nearly all almond orchards in California make as most efficient use of water as possible.  People need to realize that their own food consumption affects how water is used.  Most alfalfa grown in California is used by dairies with most of the milk from these dairies consumed in California.  Miilk is expensive to transport but some milk has been imported into California from other southwest states.  I've read that it takes about 150 gallons of water to grow one watermelon.  So, when someone in California is enjoying a watermelon this summer I wonder if they will give much thought to how much water was used to grow it.  Rice is viewed as a huge waste of water but much of that is ignorance, IMO.  Just because it is grown in standing water does not mean it is using more water than a crop in dry land.  Rice grown in California is almost always grown on heavy clay soils that hold the water very well and very little water is released from the rice fields until the end of the year.  These same rice fields are also an important part of habitat for migrating waterfowl.  Processing tomatoes are also a huge crop in California and, again, there is nowhere else in the U.S. with a climate suitable for growing this crop.

Recently there has been the talk that the cost of water should be increased and this would force wiser use of water.  This would likely decrease the use by farms and make many food items more scarce and expensive.  I think the state should place a $100,000 bond on the property of every urban dweller and use those funds to build more reservoirs and subsidize more efficient irrigation systems for some farmers.  But I imagine some folks that own these homes wouldn't like the idea of suddenly having to pay more for something that they already own.  Imagine that.  In reality, I believe the state should look at buying the portion of water rights from many agricultural areas and those growers could use those funds to install even more efficient irrigation systems.  I already use micro-irrigation systems on my chestnuts, pomegranates, and figs.  Last year my partner and I spent $60,000 for sprinkler irrigation equipment for my alfalfa instead of flood irrigating.  I could not justify this for its water savings (I used about 40% less water, however), but did so because of improved uniformity leading to better yields.  This was a difficult decision as I'm a small farmer and the return on this investment will take many years to recover and I work my butt off moving sprinkler pipe.  Subsurface drip irrigation might be even better but would cost much more and have a shorter lifespan.

Lately there has been some complaints that farmers aren't subject to the mandated cut-backs instituted by Governor Brown last week.  He has pointed out that many farmers have been forced to do without any deliveries of water from water projects (some are receiving 5% of their allocated water rights) and that farmers are not making frivolous use of water.  He hasn't said so but, in  most cases, he does not have the legal authority to curtail usage any further in agriculture.

Some people have complained that California farmers should not export any crops.  This comes from people who everyday purchase imported items and who seem to have a strange idea on free trade and trade balances.

The placing of blame on others only ensure that the underlying problems will not be addressed.

crunbar...... I like your idea for capturing run-off.  Only question I would have is, will you have enough pressure or elevation drop to inflate the fire hose?   I was messing with a long light wieght 2" plastic swimming pool discharge hose a few years ago and amazed how much pressure plus volmue it took to inflate it and get measurable water out the other end.

Weather reports claim Tuesday's rain is on track and may provide Santa Barbara a little relief.   I pray it makes it to San Diego County, I'm not seeing much on the radar though.

Best of luck

No matter who has the rights......whatever purpose it is used for......or whoever you want to blame or call someone names....when it is gone.....it is gone.

Lots of clouds today.  Fingers crossed for rain tomorrow.  I wish there was a way to capture the runoff from our steep road.  Even a light rain creates a river down the middle.  Evidently, prior to us moving here, it would make a big lake at the bottom that cars had difficulty driving through, so there are all these speed bump things that catch water and divert it off to the sides and down into the ravines.  Any rain hitting at the top of the hills will tend to transfer down with gravity, so hillside trees here should benefit.

It's a fact that folks who live on the East coast (like me) have no idea what an impact this has on our economy as a whole! I remember just last year looking out as far as the eye could see and see all those walnut trees, tomatoes, watermelons. Wow, until a person visits or lives in CA, they can only imagine. I think it's time to install a major water pipeline from the east coast to the west coast and give states all the water they need!

Jack, thanks for the interest.  When deciding upon the diameter of the fire hose and the dimensions of the funnel, I considered 2 constraints.  1) resistance to flow,  2) limitations of human (my) strength.

The water flowing down the streets hill (guessing 10 to 15 mph) will already have some momentum.  The funnel capacity is about 6 gallons (50 lbs).  There is a 10-11 ft drop in the first 60 ft of 200 ft hose. it's an 18 ft drop if I hold the (clogged?) funnel over my head, which (if then flowing) would cause a temporary suction at the funnel end.  I bet about $300 that will be sufficient.  Of course that is no guarantee.

Jack, thanks to your inquiry it now occurs to me that I could better prime that suction pump by holding the funnel high and having a helper quickly dump a 5 gallon bucket of water into it, then place the funnel on the street and start collecting.  This afternoon I'll do this experiment and see how well that pressure inflates the fire hose.

Thanks for the input.

Tim Zone 10a

I collect rainwater from the roof. I've sawed off one of the downspouts and with ordinary black 4 inch tubing and connectors found at homedepot, collect runoff into ordinary Rubbermaid trash cans. They each old 32 gallons and are more than strong enough. A couple of my old trashcans have small leaks, but those I've lined with very large construction plastic trash liners purchased online.

The amount of rain that can be collected from one modified down-spout is amazing. The biggest problem is having enough containers in which to store it. You also have to be outside when it's raining to move the tube from one can to another as they fill.  

To deliver the water from the cans to plants, I either use a watering can, or for larger jobs, use a submersible pump formerly used in the fish pond. Make sure your pump is plugged into an outlet with a ground fault circuit breaker of course.

If you connect the cans with a piece of two inch pipe, one can will simply flow into the next when it's full.   No needed to move the run off pipe any more. 

[QUOTE=COGardener]If you connect the cans with a piece of two inch pipe, one can will simply flow into the next when it's full.   No needed to move the run off pipe any more. [/QUOTE]

Yes, but that requires more work in terms of positioning and cutting the cans, and connecting pipes, and water proofing them. This very primitive system works for me, and I like its flexibility. I can also move the empty cans around and fill them from a distance with the pool pump for easier hand watering. Also easier to stack and put them all away when they are empty.

Connecting them permanently and keeping them in place would be better for more serious water collection. And it may come to that what with climate change and continually increasing CA population that demands more and more water.

Agreed.

Perhaps a permanent solution is not a bad idea. 

It is sad and scary indeed. We need to think of the natural habitat of southern California as being semi arid. There gotta be a better water infrastructure, otherwise only Cacti can thrive there.
The Mediterranean climate is still the most ideal climate for growing Figs and all kinds of fruit trees. 

Here's an interesting piggyback article. Not hard to believe, but it suggests the issue is really multifaceted: political, financial, AND cultural/societal/common-sense:

http://news.yahoo.com/wealth-is-most-reliable-predictor-of-water-use-in-los-angeles--study-184853474.html

Harvey

last night, I think it was ABC News that stated 80% of used California surface water goes to agriculture and 20% to "all other uses." 

As for exporting water intensive crops, is this not a case of the government subsidizing private business?  We in suburban areas pay far higher water prices, even if we are growing food.

Tim  Zone 10a

BTW I also collect rain water from my roof into trash cans.

Tim, did your plan work?  What modifications would you use the next time?