Jeffrey Dotson
McCarthy
Period 6
12 April 2017
Main Claim: The state of California must prevent groundwater overuse by regulating groundwater use, making regulation telling farmers when and how to water crops, and improving aquifer water levels with new innovative technologies.
California Groundwater Depletion: An Ever Increasing Issue The state of California may run out of groundwater in as little as ten years. California is dependent on groundwater, and without it, it would be thrown into a statewide water crisis. So far, people do not know about this problem or do not care or believe in it. The state of California must prevent groundwater overuse by regulating groundwater use, making regulations telling farmers when and how to
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Some people say that if California were to stop using groundwater water prices would go up, and people do not want to pay for higher water prices. Unfortunately, water prices would go up, but this is the price we have to pay for not regulating groundwater use for the last fifty years. Most likely, when we would put new laws into effect, we would not totally discard groundwater, but groundwater would be a lesser percentage of the total plan. Also, this plan would help make us more conscientious about our groundwater use. Maybe it would cost a little more money, but is that more important than our aquifers having water for later generations? Groundwater depletion is becoming a growing risk, and if the Californian government does not do anything about it, it could become a disaster.
With our water aquifers running out of water fast and our farmer pumping out water as quickly as they can, our aquifers will not be able to replenish themselves fast enough to survive the constant water use, and if the Californian government were to just implement a law regulating how much water these farmers use, the state of California may be one step closer to solving the problem of groundwater depletion. Currently, when a farmer digs a well in California, they have no limitations on how much water they use nor do they have to tell anybody how much groundwater they use (Pool). In California, farmers use eighty percent of the state 's groundwater, and without the
My opinion is that California should not regulate groundwater because of farmers and financially. A Farmer would need more water for their crops, animals , accordingly themselves. That is a large amount of water , I do not think that is fair because what would happen if the farmers ran out of water ;they would have to use other residents water. Farmers would have to buy less pickups,employing less people, moreover buying less tractors.In source 1 it says that “the Farmers feel very disconnected with the
One of the main consumers of water are farmers, they account for 80 percent of water usage in California (Skelton). The problem with cutting water to farmers is money; the amount of money that California farmers generate is around 46.4 billion (Fox). Cutting water to farmers will cause unemployment to increase and a decrease in the amount of taxable income. Along with the loss of money and jobs an increase in the price for produce will be expected. Many of the smaller farmers will not be able to make ends meet with the increase price of water. Sure many of the mega farms will get by without a huge
California has been in a terrible drought, if we keep doing this it’s just going to get worse. The State of California should have groundwater regulations. Hydrologists are showing charts of how the water keeps lowering over time. Having regulations on groundwater not only will save money, it will save time, and it will help the
What do you think would happen if your town ran out of water? In the town of East Porterville they have not had water in 5 months. Life is really bad for them. They can not do basic stuff that involves using water. I do think that California should control phreatic water.
Would you like to go without a shower for five months? California right now are in an unfavorable and enormous drought. As a result, many citizens don’t have water to drink water, flush the toilet, take a shower, and wash the dishes. Also, Farmers don’t have enough water to harvest crops so if they can’t harvest crops, we won’t have enough food. Therefore, I support the regulations that allow the California Farm Bureau to control groundwater for all citizens.
Envision yourself, about to complete a straightforward, everyday thing such as washing the dishes, suddenly to your surprise there is no water coming out of the faucet. Well for the civilians of East Porterville this is their reality. California has always had very lenient and ineffective groundwater regulations. Today, this has become a major issue, especially with California's severe drought. The regulation of the aquifer is a necessity because cleanliness is a basic human right and by not regulating the groundwater and leaving civilians with no working water, that right is taken away. The right to bathe, wash your hands, and have a working toilet is simply no more. Furthermore there are scientific statements, proving that excessively pumping groundwater will lower the water levels, which will likely lead to the land level sinking as well.
The groundwater of California is a serious policy matter in legislation. If there is drought, such as years like this, then management is necessary because it may encourage more pumping to supplant the water not gathered from other resources. Groundwater can account for as much as 35% of all the water used by California (cite). Unfortunately, there are not many laws established to regulate groundwater. The basins can replenish if they are pumped on a limited basis during normal or peak years. Luckily, proposals have been brought forth to help regulate ground water basins to insure their use is efficient and does not harm the environment.
Should California regulate groundwater? In my opinion, I think that farmers shouldn’t be able to get water from underground because other farmers are sucking up all the underground water. I had read an article that was talking about if they should let farmers be able to get water from underground. The article’s that I have read was that they think they shouldn’t because farmers would get gallons of water from underground. The state should regulate groundwater.
The first reason that California should regulate water usage is that due to the farmers are using an enormous amount of water, normal people are having trouble showering or using the bathroom. I quote section 2 “when she needs to go, i just take her outside”. No one should live like that. A man from California said that he needs to drive about 4 hours to his sister’s house just
Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.
From a wider scope of things, water usage is important for more reasons than solely the drought in California. As the world’s population nears 7.4 billion people, more people are born each day compared to how many pass away. Looking at the world’s total volume of water, only 2.5% of it is drinkable fresh water. Furthermore, 70% of that freshwater is frozen. With an every increase population like the one we have today, it is likely that water will become the most important resource to mankind. The problem lies in the way the fresh water is
California has always had a warm climate, yet its supply of water has rarely been affected. In 2014 California’s water shortage issue truly began. Due to low amounts of snow in the winter in recent years, California has tried to equal out these shortages by drilling water from underground aquifers. Yet, underground aquifers recharge much slower than surface water sources. California has already made significant drawbacks to attempt to limit the amount of water they use, so these aquifers can recharge. But still resources continue going down and the Central Valley Aquifer’s water level is rapidly declining. Luckily, on April 7, 2017 the drought stage of emergency in California was ended. Yet the issue isn’t truly resolved. Glen MacDonald
Currently California is facing a water shortage. The issue has been addressed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in February. He called for all state agencies to find the way to help in the statewide water shortage. This is California’s third consecutive year of drought and last spring and summer was the worst of the season because it had the lowest amount of water recorded and California’s reservoirs were at their lowest point as well which did not help in the water shortage. Many agencies have been acquired to find possible solutions to the water shortage, the Department of Water Resources has been directed to find solutions to the problem as well as asking people to conserve water.
These past years california has been in a drought because of farmers and people wasting a lot of water.A lot of farmers are making wells to get water out of them but they are wasting too much water a day so our streets and grounds are sinking.I think that farmers should only use water like three times a week because if they use the water every day we will run out of water soon and we will be in a bigger drought.
“Would you be able to go a few weeks without taking a shower?”, “Is having food and being able to eat more important than being able to brush your teeth, take showers, use the bathroom, what would you do”? There is a severe drought in California and the farmers are in need of water to produce crops, and the town needs water to do their everyday routine of brushing their teeth, taking a shower, going to the bathroom, washing dishes.. eEtc. I think the government should regulate the use of groundwater in the state of California.