Even though we definitely needed the rain and snow this winter to help with the years-long drought in Southern California, I am personally looking forward to the warm, sunny weather we are expected to get this weekend. There’s just one issue: With warmer weather, all of that snow is starting to melt. If it melts too much, too fast, all that water could trigger a flood.
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Much of Yosemite will be closed this weekend due to flooding concerns. But, there’s another potential problem.
Los Angeles gets half of its water supply from the Sierra Nevada via the L.A. Aqueduct, the flowing water channel you can spy traveling north on the 5 Freeway. If too much water starts to run through it, the aqueduct could get overburdened.
My colleague Jacob Margolis wrote about the amount of stored water in the snowpack in and around Inyo and Mono counties. It's a lot. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power anticipates having more than double the acre feet of water they usually have in a normal year.
The department has several measures in place to try and prevent any significant overflow, like excavators on hand to dig out sediment that might clog the aqueduct. But, Jacob added, it's an unprecedented situation — the LADWP has never dealt with this much melting snow before.
Read Jacob’s story to learn more.
As always, stay happy and healthy, folks. There’s more news below — just keep reading.
(After you stop hitting snooze)
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Angelenos have a rep for being healthy, organic food fans. Many of us like to invest in the latest fad diets, peruse the aisle at Erewhon and exercise — a LOT. But writer Clare Wiley noticed something recently that surprised her.
Restaurants like Mendocino Farms and Burgerlords seem to be moving away from offering plant-based meat options. They're just not selling.
Frederick Guerrero, the owner of Burgerlords, said that the COVID-19 pandemic had something to do with it. People want comfort food — food they can count on.
“I have this term I tell my staff,” says Guerrero, “It’s like, we’ve been 'green-pilled.' We’ve been so marketed to that ‘plant-based is the future, blah, blah, blah’. But the reality is, that’s still a very small percentage of the way people eat. I think it will get there, I want it to get there. But I think it’s really far out.”
It seems like there’s a long way to go for the majority of folks out there to embrace vegan eating. But some believe there are also other forces at work that have turned people off of plant-based diets this year.
Read the rest of Clare’s story for more.
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