California Drought

“For Angelica Gallegos, the worst part has been going without a shower for five months” (Source 2). There is an ongoing drought in California citizens need water, however farmers need it too. California should control aquifers.

The farmers have faced challenges with the limited amount of water to supplement the variety of crops throughout many years, but on January 17, 2014 the Governor Jerry Brown according to an article from USGS named, “California Drought” brought to attention the issue of the drought. The limited resource of water devastated the farmers because the crops were in danger of becoming dry and useless. Since the awareness of the limited water supply the farmers had to find a way to manage the crops water usage. According to the article “How Farmers Conserve Water in a Drought”, by Elizabeth Held

California is often regarded as one of the best places to live in America, and one of its main attractions is the warm weather year-round. However, the consistent heat and lack of rain has caused many droughts in the past and is still a major issue today. California has currently been in a drought for four years and recently it has become a serious problem. While the state has experienced many droughts before, the current drought has already had severe effects on California’s society and economy. If conditions continue to worsen, these effects will not only be devastating for California but also for the whole nation.

Central Valley California is approximately stretched over 450 square miles of prime, fertile, farming land; with Almonds being a major crop. Due to this California ranks as a top farm state by annual value of agricultural products. This draws a lot of revenue to the state however, it requires about 10 percent of the state’s water reserves.

Agriculture, probably more than any other human enterprise, is responsible for destabilizing our planet’s water supply. California and their emergency crisis on their low levels of water ultimately having a national controversial impact on the production of the agricultural industry.

In California we are in a drought. On April 1st, the Governor of California Jerry Brown stood on a random patch of brown grass in the Sierra Nevada mountains which is usually covered with several feet of snow is when he announced the first forced water restrictions in the history of California.

Agriculture uses 80% of California’s water. The Central Valley, produces a quarter of the nation's food. For years, scientists have warned farmers to prepare for climate change.

Should the state control groundwater for farmers? California is in a drought right now and the state has made laws about how much groundwater a farmer could take for their land, but they are not happy about it. There should be laws against farmers being able to take as much water as they want because then we will run out of water for ourselves to shower, cook, clean, etc. Also dehydration and hunger will become a big problem.

Jerry Brown has already announced a mandatory 25 percent cutback of water, the first mandate of its kind in state history. Local water agencies would face fines of $10,000 per day if they didn’t follow the mandate. In the first month of the cutbacks, the urban areas cut their usage by 27.3 percent. In July, the next month, they increased that to 31.3 percent. Outside of these urban areas, farmers have faced more dramatic water cutback; but it should be noted that even with hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland left dry, California farmers have brought in record-high revenues during the drought, partly by using flood irrigation, rather than sprinklers or drip irrigation. However, switching to drip irrigation is expensive.

Last century, the population of California was increasing quickly. However, the water distribution of California is unbalanced, for the southern part has fewer rivers and lakes, but has more deserts comparing with northern regions. Therefore, many constructions have been built to transport (which uses 19 percent of state’s overall electricity, 32 percent of its natural gas, and 88 million gallons of diesel per year ) and store water. From then on, each time drought happens, the government will control the transportation of water, limit the provision of the northern region and supply more to the southern area. The extra part of the water will be stored in reservoirs. Today we are facing one of the most serious droughts, and up to now, the government has reduced 28 percent of residential water, storage 1.6 million acre feet water which is enough for eight million people using one year.

The drought has affected the central valley, in particular Fresno, for about four years because of the lack of rain and the overuse of water in the communities. There is no real solution to fix the issue of no rain, but in the City of Fresno, they implemented some regulations to aid in water conservation. Some of these regulations included watering schedules in which certain addresses are able to water their lawn on specific days during a certain time period. Also each household is limited on the amount of water being they are able to use or risk the chance of being fined. The central valley is known for its agriculture and many farmers in Fresno had to reduce the amount of crops because of the drought. If rain does not come soon, then water

Fresh water is one of the basic needs of living things. Without water, we will be dehydrated to death. In fact, there will be no living thing will live without water. There is a serious water issues in California, which is drought. Drought affected the economy because the water price and food price increased. Also, Drought affected the society because there was less labor force and it affected the tourisms. Fortunately, there are 3 solutions that can solve the drought in California include water management for agriculture, government should create laws, and the government manage to create a system of canals and levees.

Groundwater is used primarily for irrigating farmland; and secondarily, for consumption and industrial use. Aquifers, unconsolidated subterranean layers which hold water, are rapidly dwindling, and groundwater depletion is quickly growing to become a major problem for farmers and the public at large. Reserves close to ground level are rapidly drying up and due to technological roadblocks, extracting water from deeper reserves is not yet financially feasible. The problem is especially severe in California, which represents around 20% of all groundwater withdrawal in the United States (Famiglietti, LA Times). A lack of water for agriculture would directly lead to diminished food production and indirectly lead to requiring food imports from outside the state. Groundwater resources are an unregulated public resource and despite any innovative breakthrough in extraction techniques, the only sustainable, long-term solution is to enforce limits on extraction. Regulation of how much groundwater can be extracted from an aquifer in a set period of time; along with incentives to obtain water from alternative sources is the ideal solution to address the perennially growing challenge of groundwater depletion in California.

Secondly, wisely using appropriate management, water in agriculture is one of the best ways to control water instead of restricting personal water use. Agriculture consumes about 80 percent of all water usages in California, and the primary water consuming in agriculture is irrigation. This irrigation system helps lands that don’t annually receive enough rainfall to be utilized for growing plants. According to University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication

It’s hard to imagine what life would be like without easily accessible and plentiful water. Humans use water in many different ways for a number of important reasons, so the current drought that’s taking place in California is a big deal. Last year, during an outdoor speech, California governor Jerry Brown made this statement: "Today we are standing on dry grass where there should be five feet of snow. This historic drought demands unprecedented action, therefore, I 'm issuing an executive order mandating substantial water reductions across our state”. California is home to 27 million acres of farmland and 38 million people, so this problem is widespread and could be devastating nationwide. Everyone from farmers in somewhat rural areas, to residents in the middle of huge cities feel the repercussions of the drought. The issue at hand is very complex and multidimensional, but can be thoroughly explained by answering these key questions: