Absolutely wells going dry in Ca....and there was a time when I worried about being dependent on a well alone...however....in Contra Costa County, in 1976-77, we'd just bought our second home and it was during a severe drought. Our water was rationed to a certain amount, less than others because we were in an area that received canal water...and then they cut off the canal water access. We had never used it because it was cut just when we moived in, but our 'city' water was cut nonetheless. We were clearing out a small barn on the property, which turned out to really be a large pump house, because we found a well therein that even old time neighbors had not known was there. We dropped a pump in and miraculously started pumping water and I learned to love the idea of my own well...lol..
I spent my grade school years in the San Joaquin Valley...in retrospect, I think the water usage there by agriculture in all of the previous years was extremely wasteful, especially Big Ag ...gotten a lot of preferential treatment. In later years, while we were already going through cutbacks and rising water costs in San Diego County, areas such as where my dad lived in Modesto were still unmetered...he died about 5 years ago and though there was talk of meters, his water usage was still unmetered.
In our 30-some years in Fallbrook, we had opportunity to watch our water bills climb drastically and watch the actions of the various water districts and supply and I decided I would rather be not dependent on them again if possible.
Perspective is everything..there was a time when people said about the PNW..."It rains all the time...." and that was considered a 'bad' thing...lol..well, even in more rain plentiful times, it doesn't really rain ALL the time...and there is drought here also, but "Rains All The Time" took on an entirely different look.....
My husband is from Iowa and I've spent a couple of different years there, in Davenport, and I did like the green, I did not like the humidity at all. Depending on where you are, the California brown can be nice if it's rolling hills and oaks, picturesque. I've found that I'm much happer when surrounded by green and large trees and water. I've also spent a couple of years in Arizona and the desert can be beautiful in early mornings and evenings with long purple shadows, but overall, I would not choose desert again either.
Water is a risky issue..we can either be dependent on our well, in an area that gets more rain, or under the control of water districts which I've come to dislike and mistrust. In an area of wells, I think the water usage is more conservative, being very aware of how much we use and even though fluoridation was discontinued here as far as city water (before we got here and I think that's a good thing), with our well we have no fluoride and we have no chlorine, which at times was just intolerable in our previous area...you could turn a hose on outside and smell it...awful. We installed a whole house filter and an RO system in the kitchen.
In SoCal I laughed at the thought of rain barrels, etc....the small amount of rain we got was actually better off soaking into the ground around the house. We've been busy working on too many things here, but need to get to installing rain barrels, a cistern system, catchment of our winter rains to use during summer since we do get enough rain in the winter to make that a feasible consideration. We're quite happy at the moment that this area is getting 1/3-1/2 of its, considered til now, rainfall in the more usual amount of 60-70 inches, but we do see the need for more.
To me, rainfall became the prime issue in where I would live from here on out.
