All American Canal~That's My World 120109

The Coachella Valley gets its water from two sources: groundwater underneath Palm Springs and the All-American Canal, which brings us Colorado River water. There is a LOT of water under the ground, but farmers get the river water for irrigation of their fields. The Coachella Valley is California's second largest agricultural region, followed by the great Central Valley. Here, we have a 365 day growing season, dependent only upon the delivery of water. When we had breakfast at our daughter's new house over the holidays, I stopped one morning to take some pictures. I didn't even know the canal ran up behind her house! Actually, it is about two blocks away. It was a stormy morning and it had snowed in our local mountains the day before. My school is only a few blocks from the local water agency and we always take a field trip down there every school year. Did you know it takes 8 years for the snow to settle into the great aquafer beneath our valley? And, the water district sometimes has to drill 1,500 feet down for their wells? And, Indian Wells, the city, is actually named after a real Indian well that white settled discovered there? See, I'm just a treasure trove of trivia! That's My World for Tuesday, December 1, 2009.