Follow-up to The Other Dan's "muttering about water." This is probably more of a Central California annoyance than anyone else's. In the early parts of the 20th Century, William Mulholland along with others, diverted many rivers in California and the vicinity. Of special note is the Owens Lake...um...what's left of it anyway. The Los Angeles Aqueduct was completed in 1913 and used the Owens River as its source. However, this caused the already naturally shrinking Owens Lake to shrink even faster. Today, it's pretty much nothing more than a lake bed with hazardous dust storms as the result of the rapid depeletion of it's only source of water. Although there are some interesting bacterial growth that causes the remaining water to turn red.