Essay On California Water Crisis

As you are fully aware, California has been in a drought for over four years and the declining water level is a growing issue. A water analysis performed by the City of Fresno clearly reveals that in the past 80 years,

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

Ever since the early nineteenth century until today, the California water crisis has been an issue that is yet to be resolved. As one of the largest states with a population of over thirty million (Class Discussion); water consumption is in high demand. "From the very beginning, California was a state with tremendous agricultural potential"(Chan, S., and Olin, S. Pg 136). A similarity from both the California of the early 1800 's and today is that water is an expensive and important resource being sourced primarily from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The difference between then and now is that previously we had an abundant water supply but we did not know how to utilize it effectively to meet demand. Contrast that situation to today, and the demand for water remains, however the supply is no longer available to meet the needs of Californians. In this paper, we will discuss the legislative decision 's to bring California’s water supply to its people, the fight for conservation, and discuss the drought as it is today.

The drought has a strong impact on the Californian economy as well, a whopping 2.74 billion dollars down that drain and twenty thousand jobs lost. Agriculture the major business hit by the drought. Agriculture uses eighty percent of California’s water, although it has a high water usage California agriculture is very important for the national economy (Ross). Half a million acers of farmland has been dried up due to the drought which means less money in agriculture. The almond industry uses ten percent of California’s water, taking one gallon of water to grow just one almond (Holthaus). Many people think that almonds are wasting water since it takes so much resources to cultivate. On the other hand California produces more than eighty percent

“California’s water future is increasingly uncertain,” says Heather Cooley, in her article California Needs Better Water Management and Pricing Policies (Source A). Agriculture uses 80 percent of California’s constrained water supply and proves to be the primary source of California’s drought. There has been no permanent and largely successful conservation effort to save water. However, with a reformed water management and conservation system, California’s largest industry, agriculture, can thrive while saving water at the same time.

California is going on a four-year drought, having many devastating implications that are being felt by everyone in the state. The population hit the hardest has been the farmers of California. California, being economically driven by its agricultural production, is losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every year due to the lack of water. Farmers’ use 80% of water the state produces, directly influencing their production (Mieszkowski, 2014). The country heavily relies on California for much of its produce such as tomatoes, nuts, avocados, strawberries, broccoli, grapes and various others (Cooley et al. 2015). In 2014, harvested acreage was 6.9 million acres, the lowest it has been for the past 15 years. Farmers are now being forced to use significantly less land then before, but also ditch old irrigation techniques and implement new techniques to better conserve water; maximizing production as much as possible in order to combat the drought.

No Californian is impervious to the California drought. The Bay Area, Sierra Mountains, and the Central Valley have all reported record drought conditions. Even with this obvious evidence that has been brought forth for about four years now, farmers have been continuously taking local citizen’s water for their own orchards. The California legislature needs to come to the decision that caps need to be put on large water users so the preexisting residents may receive water.

In the movie the last call at the oasis, Jessica Yu speaks on a lot about the depletion of Central Valley’s low Water supply. Yu talked about Central Valley California diminishing water supply that grow 25 percent of the food Americans eat today, much of the nations fruit, nuts and produce come from. She also went into dept about the reliance on "recycled" or "new" water that is, treated sewage water. All the community talked about

California is experiencing its worst drought in history. Throughout the state you can see lakes, rivers and streams drying up and leaving farmers and communities without water. Although it seems that science and global weather patterns caused this severe drought, however irresponsible usage of water paired with state laws on water rights and population growth have all played a role in prolonging this drought that is going into its eighth year. California’s central valley is the world leader in Agriculture, however the valley is also the perfect area for a drought to occur due to climate change. California is in a state of emergency, with the help of reduced water usage along with the state and federal government need to aid in lessening

Agriculture in California uses about 80% of the state’s developed water supply (Koroma). In a case of severe drought, water usage would have to be cut, which would result in fewer crops and higher prices of food. The decrease in water would also highly impact the amount of drinking water available to the population. In times of struggle, people would turn to sources such as river and ocean water which are not filtered correctly and this could lead to serious diseases such as cholera or guinea worm disease. Lastly, due to California’s large population, a water shortage would not be able to sustain it, people would be forced to relocate to other states which could result in

Over the past 4 years the water crisis has been rearing its mean head not only across the globe, but here in our home country, in the state of California. The citizens in California have moved having a normal lawn of grass into the luxury category. Not only have lakes and rivers dried up, but reservoirs that provide water for the entire state have dropped to hazardous levels. In Calaveras County, home of the state’s fourth largest reservoir, levels of water have dropped to only 20% capacity.

The California drought as of March 2015 has increased severely and has affected not just the residents of California, but also the farmers as well. My claim is to find a reliable way to save water and have the residents of California informed about the situation and the wastefulness of water being replenished. In this paper I want to address the issue of how much water we are constantly wasting even though we are in an exceptionally severe drought. I believe that the water shortage not only affects the residents but also takes a toll in the agricultural areas as well. I want to argue the point that everyone who wastes water is held responsible and what we could do

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.

The California drought has affected many lives in the long period of time it has been going on. It has affected our wildlife, residents, and especially our farmers. Now how exactly has it affected our farmers? Our California farms use up to 80% of the water used by humans in the state (Mieszkowski). With the drought going on they have to spend an additional $303 million pumping groundwater to make up for the large amount of water they’ve lost from the Central Valley Project and State Water Project (Associated Press). This drought has cost farmers $600 million this year alone. Although the California drought has surely taken its toll, the aftermath hasn’t been all bad.

California Almonds are crunchy, delicious, and healthy and currently are becoming one of the world’s favorite snacks. Almonds are currently consumed about 1000% more than they did a decade ago by people from around the world and became the most exported crop in the nation’s top agriculture state (While California FightsDrought, Almonds Using More Water Than Residents, 3). In addition, almonds are tremendously profitable, generating approximately $11 billion to the state’s economy in 2014 alone (Philpott, T., & Lurie J., 3). However, the huge success of almonds results a water crisis in California. The issue of drought in California has continued to worsen since 2011 and one of