America's Water Problem

The author argues that The Great Lakes region is entering an era of unparalleled water tension. Agreeing with this argument, The Great Lakes are just another piece of Earth that us humans are ruining. Since The Great Lakes are one of the largest fresh water sources in the world we are forced to protect against losing it's surface area. 40 million Canadians and Americans live amongst their basin. The author, Peter Annin, brings up clean water scarcity, this is a huge problem around the world and right in our "back yard". The city of Flint's toxic, unusable water has become an embarrassment for all of Michigan.

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

The US can be a leader in the fight for water equality by formally declaring water a human right. The US is in a unique position, because we have already done so much to aid people in water-stressed regions. This experience will be invaluable in escalating our efforts to secure the natural human right to clean and sustainable water for our allies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We can dedicate our vast resources and capable personnel in innovative and strategic ways to this most noble of all causes to bring prosperity abroad and secure it for posterity at home.

On March 27, 2014, Wade Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle reported “The Water Revolution California needs.” California is having a severe drought. Wade Graham tells his readers that California is in a serious water crisis. The state of California needs to make strict changes to how water is being distributed amongst farmers and residents. Before all of California’s ecological system is destroyed. Wade Graham believes that water should be priced higher; that way people aren’t wasting water. Water is a limited resource that should never be wasted, and is probably California’s most valuable resource. Unfortunately, many people waste water; instead of conserve water especially when we live in the state of California where we are subject to

The article “Water Works”, published by Orion Magazine and written by environmental specialist Cynthia Barnett intends to inform the reader anyone can make water an important factor. Overlooking it has become common many people in the United States have adapted to through the changes that have occurred in society over time. At the beginning of her article, she describes an area that does not make water care a priority, whereas in another location they make it very evident water is important. The location she describes is gloomy, grey, and is a populated area that has old water systems that are damaging environmental factors. Barnett continuously emphasizes that people are the ones who can help restore nature. This is at a less cost than

In the his brief but effectual article “The Wrong Way to Think about California Water”, the author Michael Hiltzik presents to the reader “a guide to the wrong ways to think about California water, and the glimmer of a better way”(Hiltzik). In the short piece, Hiltzik argues that the current debate on how California should be spending its meager allowance of water during the current drought is being thoroughly misguided. Hiltzik writes that people should stop criticizing businesses that consume “large” amounts of water, rather, the water already being used should be utilized more efficiently and effectively. “The only lasting solutions include creating a better-functioning water market with transparent pricing and transfers, so that water

Abraham Lustgarten has written a very informative article that is published by Pro Publica and titled “How the West Overcounts Its Water Supplies.” In great detail, he analyzes the drought situation in Arizona and California to draw attention the underlying cause: the miscounting of available water. There is miscounting because officials are refusing to legally accept that the major water resource of the West—the Colorado River—is interconnected with underground water resources. All in all, Lustgarten writes a convincing article that effectively addresses the need for officials to recognize the interconnection of ground and surface water so that water shortage in the West can be better managed; he does this through his ability to gain the

Have you thought about the importance of water recently? Water provides many things to people, from green lawns to nutritious food. An event that may have spurred these thoughts is the drought in California. They are struggling because there is simply not enough water in California to go around for all of its uses. Measures have been taken to conserve water, but cutbacks have been made on everything, even the giant industry of California agriculture. More water should be devoted to agricultural uses instead of residential uses in California for the following reasons:

The way Americans use water all depends on the location and how much water is readily available. California, a dry state with scarce water supply, versus Florida, a tropical state with more water resources, have very different ways of using water throughout the day. For example, Coastal southern California has cutting-edge water usage policies, including mandatory low-flow toilets and strict lawn watering laws (Pickert, 19). Compared to Florida, which has an adequate water supply, Floridians still use more water than what is available, and have very little water usage policies to resolve this issue (Behn, 45). Although there are many issues concerning water usage in Florida and California, there are many ways in which they can be resolved,

The problem stated in this video is the water-crisis in the southwest region of the United States of America. The southwest region of America is rapidly growing and booming, which makes the water crisis become more significant than ever before, because of the mass population heavily relying on the Colorado river and other water resources like groundwater. Therefore, leads to depletion of the water resources, which is bad because life depends on water. I believe this water crisis is happening because of cities in the southwest region of America relies on pumping water from the Colorado river and not being very self-sufficient with the water. Potential solutions to this problem is to be more self-sufficient with water by recycling water such

In this country, we have 4.5 percent of the world’s population yet almost 8 percent of its freshwater resources. It is home to the largest freshwater lake system in the world, the Great Lakes, which holds 6 quadrillion gallons of water(Grace,2017). These water supply isn’t endless, but it often is not found where it is needed, when it is needed, or in a useable form. We use nearly twice as much as the world’s

Water is an essential substance which is needed by all human beings to survive. It has also enabled us to live in well-furnished houses that have free flowing water in the taps, showers and even some to help us support with our daily use. In a developed country like the US; water has been the most essential thing that has been able to accommodate its citizens. Living the American standards means having flushing toilets, hot and cold showers, swimming pools in the front or the backyard or your house, washing machine and a big house that shines everywhere with electricity (Bradley 1962). Unlike someone else living in Africa or India that have to walk for miles and miles each day in order to find water, in the United States water is always readily available even one that you can use to irrigate your lawn.

In today’s society, the idea of a limited resource is not a foreign concept. Most people understand that eventually humans will use up many of these resources, such as fossil fuels, and they will cease to exist. However, very rarely does a conversation about limited resources get started over the water. While water itself is not a limited resource, clean drinkable water is becoming scarcer as people continue to use excess water. The documentary “Last Call at the Oasis” highlights how precious water is to survival and just how much miss use of water occurs in the United States alone. Even though the United States has gone down the wrong path with its water consumption methods, it may not be too late to recover. With the proper systems and education in place, the chances of delaying a water crisis increase exponentially.

With all these potential issues of water reclamation projects, it makes one wonder if a sustainable water source is even a reachable goal. However, a proposed solution with the use of our current water resources for potable water, using reclaimed water for uses other than drinking such as irrigation, and the mass implementation of water conservation policies, from the industrial scale all the way down to a local scale, the goal of sustainable water may be well within reach. The main issue seems to be the reducing the consumption and waste of potable water. In the United States, the average American family of four generates approximately 265 liters of gray water per day, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By comparison, a similar sized family in Africa generates and average of 19 liters today. If the amount of gray water being produced can be brought down to a much lower level, and if this water is then

Every day Americans depend on public water systems to treat and deliver over 44 billion gallons of water to homes daily (“Importance of Clean Water”). However, Americans