The cons definitely outweigh the pros, but some good things come from extreme weather patterns like this drought and a lot of money has been devoted to it.
There are some good things that come from extreme weather, both wet and dry. Important policy changes for California have resulted because of droughts in the past.
Department of Water Resources Interstate Resources Manager Jeanine Jones says more water policy and system changes are coming because of the current drought. “For example, in some of our past droughts we got a whole new legislative framework for water conservation and transfers that has enabled our modern water transfer workshop,” Jones says. “The big policy action out of the current drought was it’s impotence in pushing the sustainable groundwater management legislation which happened a hundred years after the state first began regulating surface water. Extreme events in general, whether it’s a drought or a flood, drives change.”