Robert Bergschneider
BRAE 340
Professor Gaudi
3/8/15
A Current Issue in California’s Water Future
How Desalination Plants may help to aid California’s Water Crisis
1.) Introduction
To whom it may concern;
The general problem is that California is in a drought. The state of California is searching high and low trying to find a sustainable source of water. The specific problem is that California is not able to produce a large amount of water, be that potable or water that may be able to be used in the extensive agricultural and industrial sectors that California is known for world wide.
A.) Background Since the discovery that desalination could provide humans in California with clean potable water from the ocean could be very effective, it
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B.) History of the Issue The issue of building desalination plants has been a hot topic of Californians in the past couple decades because researchers knew that our available surface and groundwater supplies are becoming scarce. This problem is important because California is home to a large population of people as well as extensive agricultural and industrial productions that need vast amounts of water. With the reduction in available ground and fresh water brings other problems that need to be addressed. Many farmers are having to impose stricter management policies in regards to how they use the water the pay so much for. Crops sensitive to the amount of water they receive or do not receive can be destroyed in a short amount of time if neglected of water. With the amount of fresh water accumulated by both snow melt of California’s mountains as well as ground water retrieved from wells and pumps being depleted faster than we can recharge those sources, farmers face further impacts. An article by Robert Glennon, “Unquenchable: Americas water crisis and what to do about it” says “In the summer of 2009, California is facing mandatory water rationing. Many farmers may be entirely cut off, costing the economy more than $1 billion and putting more
Desalination is a great way to help people. Many areas do not have fresh water resources such as rivers and lakes. Taking out the salt from seawater will provide lots of people. This is needed where there is not a lot of natural drinking water. “People are building the Carlsbad desalination project. When it is completed, the huge plant will turn as many as 56 million gallons of seawater each day into drinking
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.
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.
Water is one of the crucial element our planet provides, however, the supply of freshwater will wane if the consumption of water remains unchecked. The steadily growing need to conserve water usage within the United States has sparked people to change their usage of water to aid their communities during desperate times. Recently California experienced a severe drought which called on a restriction on water usage to a bare minimum. During this drought, rising temperature and lack of rain on cities who rely on rain water to recharge the many water sources pushed California governor to act encouraging people to assist with implement the restrictions. The water restriction allowed people to still go about their daily lives while maintaining a
Water is a precious resource. It is the lifeblood of every living thing on Earth. California is in the midst of a water crisis. Combined with a three (plus) year drought and many people moving into the state there is not enough water to support the crops the farmers need to grow. There is also a tiny little fish that is causing a mess in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta water pumps were turned off to prevent the extinction of the tiny little fish. Some farmers have to let their fields sit idle for the fall and spring planting season. This is causing a lot of problems in California. The pumps need to be turned back on. The needs of the people should come before that of a fish.
Today, desalination is a common process that's used in seaside cities and towns worldwide. There are more than 15,000 desalination plants around the world providing freshwater from salt and brackish water alike (Planet Green 2011). This number continues to grow as researchers work to improve the process, both in terms of cost effectiveness and energy efficiency (DSE 2011). But countries such as Australia, Israel and even the United States are continually adding desalination plants of various sorts into their water-management portfolios. The facilities are common in North Africa and the Mideast, where freshwater is scarce (Chandler 2008).
The advantages of desalination represents an opportunity to use oceanic water resources. If the appropriate conditions are present, a desalination plant could potentially be used to replace an existing or future dam. As existing sources of useable water run dry, desalination is a very effective, alternative source of water. On top of that the distillation process produces one of the highest quality water, with a range of 1 to 50 ppm tds, tds is also known as total dissolved solids. With the recommended California standard being 500 ppm, this quality of water is far beyond any other water quality seen before.
Desalination is one of the more popular options being considered to attempt to terminate the drought. Desalination is a process through which salt water is pumped from the ocean in to a treatment facility, and then the salt is extracted to make it possible to be used domestically. This is a long drawn out process, which involves seven different steps. The steps of desalination include the
If they aren’t the problem, then the problem has to lie with the system we have established. Due to the water situation there are currently 500,000 acres of land being unused around California, it is estimated that this will cost upwards of $1.5 billion in potential revenue for the state (Geiling). Not only will it affect revenue, but also jobs; it’s estimated to cost 17 thousand jobs also. This number is only going to get bigger as more and more time passes. It estimated we grow about different types of crops in our California, and many of these originated in Asian or Mexico. We alone are making two thirds of the National produce here (Geiling). It’s clear that a lot of our water problems are due to the amount that is grown in our state. Consider
What would some solutions to the problems arid cities such as Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada, would face if the Southwest’s largest reservoirs became filled with silt during this century? Can GMO’s help in any way?
The state of California is in the midst of a five year drought. The results of which are beginning to reek havoc on the state’s municipalities, farms and wetland habitats. If the state continues as is supporting in thirsty agricultural industries, towns and cities at current levels, not only will this exacerbate already tenuous water supply problem within the state it will have ripple affects throughout the South West. Surrounding states will have to adopt even more stringent restriction for farms, cities and industries which may have further calamitous economic results. However, the most difficult questions like proper allocation or modifying water rights have yet to be answered and likely will not be resolved before California’s water situation worsens. Last April standing in front of a snowpack at just 5% of normal levels, Governor Jerry Brown declared the drought in California has reached a crisis level and instituted state-wide water restriction for towns, cities and municipalities. He called for a 25% reduction of water usage by urging Californians flush less, take shorter showers, and let lawns turn brown. Although agriculture accounts for roughly 80% (Northern California Water Association) of all human consumption of water this industry was exempted any restriction by the governor. With a drought which shows no sign of letting up, powerful farm and environmental lobbies, difficult to
The intended reader for the article is a professional, someone who is a politician or a legislator who works for the state. The main point of this article is arguing how California needs to create a groundwater management for better regulation of their water resources. The use of vocabulary shows that the author is writing to a very knowledgeable person about California’s water problems. The choice of words is technical, for which the reader should understand when reading the article. In addition, the format of the article is solution-oriented, where the beginning starts with the introduction of California’s water problem and concludes with a solution. This is an extensive article with lots of technical information regarding the sustainable
Desalination has been a hot topic as a possible solution. What desalination does is takes sea water and convert it into fresh water. The major hurdle with this is the cost and people that protest against it. Companies will need to first get over the initial cost of building a desalination facility. Despite this companies such as Poseidon Water has a contract with San Diego to construct a desalinations plant in Carlsbad (Neill). Protesters have complained about the effects of desalination on the environment. Desalination requires large and powerful pumps to extract the water. These pumps potentially could destroy habitats and marine life that live near it. This is not the case for Carlsbad plant as it has already gone through extensive governmental
After closely reading the article California tries one solution to water problems -treating seawater I believe that they should not make ocean water drinkable. First off it is a $1 billion dollar project. Second of all it will cause environmental harm. Lastly there are other alternatives than desalination.
Water shortage, California has a limit in how much they use water. For instance in Orange county, California they as well have things going on just as in China. Orange County has illnesses that they fell that has to do with the marine waters close by. Which is an economic burden for them in Journal, of Environment Management, they are mention that they have to pay gastrointestinal illness, acute respiratory disease, ear ailment and the list goes on. Why do they have to pay for this illness? They are as much as we do are at fault. We all need to be able to take care of our waters if not we all suffer from it. Back to the shortage, would you think it’s because of what we do to our waters? In California they get fined if they went over the amount