Case Analysis: The Los Angeles River

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

This system was established in response to the relatively short amount and inaccessibility of water compared to the eastern United States, where a riparian system is employed. Prior appropriation, long known as the Colorado Doctrine, is often identified by its “first in time, first in right” motto. This means that whoever uses the water first, despite where they might reside, receives that water right, allowing for the transmission of water to areas that may need it (Frosch 2014). This was originally established so that those people who would actually put the water to good use, either for farming or mining, would receive these rights, allowing for economic growth of the new

What if you had no water to bathe, wash dishes, or even drink? This is the future we face here in California if the state doesn’t act to conserve our water and ensure that it is wasted as little as possible. California is in its 3rd year of a debilitating drought, and many citizens, especially farmers are dangerously tapping more into an nonrenewable resource: groundwater. In light of the severity of current and future problems that have or will result from the depletion of the fast-emptying subterranean reserves of water, California’s Legislature has introduced a new bill designed to limit and control the use of groundwater, a decision that all other western states have already made. I believe that this new bill is necessary to prevent California

Why do citizens have to overuse water? California has a drought and laws are trying to stop the way that people overuse water. I believe that it's a good way to control water to prevent numerous things that will affect the state and innocent people.

Why do they want to regulate water ? We are having a drought in California because there are farmers that are taking a lot more water.I think they shouldn't limit water because it is making living a lot harder in other cities.Consequently,”When it first went dry, we used to drive to my daughter’s house in Visalia about 45 minutes away to have a shower”Source 2. Quotes an East Porterville Man. It was a big transition from having enormous amounts of water to not even being able to take a shower or wash yourself.It’s officially getting crazy.Ordinarily, “We go and we go, but it just seems like we can’t go fast enough”,Source 3, a drill worker speaks. It Explains we need laws because it shows that they are tired of being in this severe drought

Visualize that citizens have to go 5 months without showering, living in filth, not being able to flush their toilet. Horrible right? Well sorrowfully, for numerous cresidents in California, that is the life they live. There is currently a 3-year drought in California. Innumerable citizens are compelled to drive miles and miles away in order to acquire water and bathe, while for farmers, they have been allowed to use aquifers frequently to grow their crops. We do not have enough water for both the farmers and citizens to be used oftenly, which has precipitated an outage between the two. Therefore, the California government is debating on whether to supervise the usage of aquifers. As a result, I support California enforcing

That means that the more than 40% of California is supplied by aquifers, that means that there is a lot of water if it is able to support 40% of California. And if California did pass groundwater regulations, that means that farmers would have to evenly distribute water or lose a lot of their crops and that would be bad because then farmers would not produce as many crops, that means less revenue for California. That is why so many farmers are against the groundwater regulations.

From the groundwater basins it is estimated that 16,500 TAF of groundwater are extracted annually, which accounts for 38% of the water supply in the state (California Department of Water Resources California's Groundwater Update 2013: A Compilation of Enhanced Content for California Water Plan Update 2013). Despite the number of basins in the state, each basin is somewhat unique but, have been classified into the Central Valley aquifer system, the coastal aquifers, the Northern California basin-fill aquifers, and the eastern Sierra Nevada and the California Desert aquifers (California Department of Water Resources California's Groundwater Update 2013: A Compilation of Enhanced Content for California Water Plan Update 2013). In Figure 1, the location of the major groundwater basins and subbasins in California have been identified as the areas shaded in

When groundwater overdraft was experienced, private pumpers would “acquire rights against one another by the continued act of pumping, without regard to seniority or the location of use.” (prfane). However, this doctrine raised several questions and problems. It was not until the case of City of Los Angeles vs. City of San Fernando, that the doctrine of mutual prescription was limited. This case defined overdraft as “the condition when withdrawals exceed both safe yield and temporary surplus,” but more importantly, it declared that equitable appointment was more important than mutual prescription. In other words, all water rights “must be subject to reasonable conditions and priorities” (prfane).

In the early 1900s diverting water from the river through ditches was how the water supply was handled for the Los Angeles River. Since the population of Los Angeles was increasing there was something that needed to be done to manage the water supply and that’s why the dam was built. Around the same time a water company that was private gave away the city’s waterworks and began offering water to the city. Los Angeles took over the city’s water supply in 1902. Originally the Water Department was established but the name was eventually changed to Bureau of Water Works and Supply. In 1878 an employee by the name of William Mulholland was hired. Mulholland originally supervised the Los Angeles Aqueduct and at the time it was the longest aqueduct

Have you ever heard of someone not showering for 5 months? Well, in California, severe drought has caused many people to forgo showering to flush their toilets instead. California has been in a drought for about 3 years now. The state is now looking to implement groundwater regulations into the everyday lives of people residing in the state. However, if California regulates groundwater usage, jobs will be lost, prices will go up, and farmers won’t be able to water their crops.

Consequently, farmers are using the aquifer water to the point that citizens are left without water. “Officials say at the minimum 1,300 people lost their water around East Porterville, nearly three hours drive north of Los Angeles, making the town’s residents some of the hardest hit victims of the three-year-old drought ” (Source 2). The citizens are going through drastic conditions, because the farmer are taking all of the water.

The Klamath River Basin has been fraught with political and legal battles over naturel resources for more than a century (Most 2006). Clashes between diverse interests for the waters of the Klamath River Basin have occurred in court rooms, picket lines, and in the state house, as irrigators, environmentalists, tribes and fishermen vie for position as the user with the most legitimate moral and scientific claim. The Klamath is not an anomaly in the Western United States as the recent occupation at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as demonstrated that tensions over resources in the West often culminate in extra-legal actions by multiple parties. At Malheur ranchers, who were not landowners in Harney County, protested the abuse of federal power and expressed a feeling of entitlement to the lands that are administered by the federal

A large portion of where Californians get their water from is the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (also known as the California Delta). In fact, this delta supplies almost two thirds of Californians with both drinking water and water for agricultural land (“Bay-Delta Levees”, 2007). The California Delta is located inland of the San Francisco Bay, and is the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Currently the vast delta is home to not only fertile farming land, but also thousands of Americans who live in 13 cities and stretch over 1,000 square miles (“Bay-Delta Levees”, 2007). Two of the state's largest water projects- the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project- also rely on these Delta waterways to move water from the Sierra Nevada and other

An understanding of the notion of “water rights” in the eastern part of the United States is supported by two key questions (a) What can I do? (b) What can someone else do?