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ih8thewrld t1_jboij86 wrote

now the west is flooding and stuff. weeee!

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marker8050 t1_jboy3mg wrote

At least it's helped with our years long drought lol

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IntrigueDossier t1_jbppxog wrote

The snow should definitely help, but severe drought conditions generally make flooding worse while having little effect on a region’s moisture, due to the fact that dry soil is less absorbent than already-damp soil, so it just tends to run right off like it would on a sidewalk.

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HereOnASphere t1_jbpvqk9 wrote

I dug weirs across a horse-damaged hill that had no plant life except a few daisies. I was able to mostly stop erosion and got some grasses growing. I tried for several years to get native western red cedar established, but they never took. I finally planted a grove of Sequoias, which are now getting big. Even when most of the topsoil is gone, keeping the remaining soil damp can promote plant growth and regeneration.

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ArtisticFerret t1_jbpyqwj wrote

But it has been raining for the last couple months on and off so I’d imagine some of the soil was damp already

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jason2354 t1_jbrkiwe wrote

Soil in most of the West is saturated above average due to a wet summer and fall.

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Chikitiki67 t1_jbqdwz5 wrote

Until summer comes along hotter than ever and sets us right back where we were.

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megjake t1_jbqqw4b wrote

I grew up in SoCal and my home town in the past 3 years has built a new reservoir, installed bigger storm drain pipes, and cleaned up the existing ones. Idk if it’s state wide but there seemed to be a genuine effort to make storm water management better.

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Iz-kan-reddit t1_jbrja4w wrote

>installed bigger storm drain pipes, and cleaned up the existing ones.

That's great for flooding, but SoCal needs to figure out a practical way to retain a lot more of that water instead of dumping it into the ocean.

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megjake t1_jbt9k7a wrote

Hence the new reservoir. The city basically has artificial lakes in the winter because they have reservoirs spread around. You often see helicopters collecting water from those spots during wildfires.

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Iz-kan-reddit t1_jbtb4zp wrote

>Hence the new reservoir.

Which one is that?

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megjake t1_jbtd46f wrote

The new one my home town built?

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Iz-kan-reddit t1_jbtew95 wrote

I was asking where it was located. I'm curious because it's a tough situation to solve, considering the lack of space in the areas where they're needed.

There's been talk since the 80s about excavating a large part of the Sepulveda Basin, which would be perfect as far as location on the LA River and already having a dam there, but there's a golf course there, so obviously that can't be done.

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megjake t1_jbtidtz wrote

Can’t seem to find anything online about its construction but my hometown is Beaumont CA. It wasn’t a big reservoir by any means but it was a good addition to the cities already pretty good flood management. We’d have the occasional mudslide but for the most part during heavy rains despite being in a valley we never had flood damage

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brightcoconut097 t1_jbpi23g wrote

I’m loving it (az)

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Bam801 t1_jbtdx86 wrote

Same. Only gripe is all the dirt in our rain, I haven’t washed my car in months because I don’t want to just have to do it again.

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