Mackenzie Jurosko
GEO 1110 Geology
Professor Macenczak
10 January 2017
We Are Running Out of Water
Around the world our water supply is depleting. Our water is becoming contaminated making it harmful for both mammals and aquatic life. Today over one billion people go without adequate water supply and every fifteen seconds a child dies of waterborne illness. Sources of water that once supplied water to millions can no longer meet the supply and demand of the water need. Scientist predict that the amount of useful water will keep depleting greatly in the years to come. In the next couple of pages it will talk about both the geological and human reasons as to why are water supply is depleting. About seventy percent of
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On average 700 people worldwide drink contaminated water worldwide. The leading cause to water pollution is sewage and waste. On average the world dumps 5-10 million tons of untreated industrial waste into streams, rivers and oceans. In 2011 a tsunami that hit Japan sent a forty-three and half miles long island made of debris floating out into the pacific ocean. Also from causes of the tasumi it promoted the Japanese government to dump two million of radioactive water into the pacific ocean as well. In 1989 Exxon accidently spilled eleven million metric tons of crude oil into the sea off of Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound. The disaster cover 3,000 square miles. One major example of water shortage in the United States can be seen in the Arizona vs California supreme court case. The Colorado River basin supplies water to Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. More than thirty-three million people depend on the Colorado river for water supply. The Colorado river supplies quarter of a million jobs. In recreational activities alone the river brings in twenty-six billion dollars. In 1922 the Colorado River compact was made allowing the seven states to use the river for their supply and demand of water. However this compact was made when it was considered “wetter” times, because the compact divvied up to each state 's more than
Conflict can also occur within a country, for example the states situated within the Colorado river basin have been constantly squabbling over who owns the water supply and who should be allocated the most water. In the 1920s the ‘Law of the River’ established the division of water amongst the upper basin states, it also defined their responsibility to supply water to the lower basin states. This division had been based on an estimated annual flow of 21 billion m3/yr in 1920, however this was a time of above normal flows, recent studies have indicated that long term average flows are around 18 billion m3/yr. The deficit between the flow and the allocation has become more apparent as the population in the clorado basin states continues to rise. As a result of this deficit tensions are rising between the states, California receives a large percentage of the water as a result of its large population and political power even though the river does not directly flow through it. This has heightened tensions with the states
Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from Geoscience Laboratory. Select answers are provided for you in red font to assist you with your lab work. Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged to answer others from the text on your own.
The Colorado River is shared by several states due to the large capacity of water that it holds and its proximity. These states include California, Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The Colorado water compact is a 1922 agreement that was signed by seven states within the US to govern the sharing or water resources along the Colorado River. Since the development of the compact, California has been the most disadvantaged state since it uses water that has been already used up by other states. Before the compact, most of the states that use the water were in conflict due to the unfair allocation of the water resources. The allocation led to the development of the upper and the lower basin with the division point at the Lee Ferry. Some of the states got more allocation than the others while some did not get any fresh water (Sally, 2012). The Colorado water compact is ruled by many contracts and rulings that were signed by the states that use the water.
Abraham Lustgarten has written a very informative article that is published by Pro Publica and titled “How the West Overcounts Its Water Supplies.” In great detail, he analyzes the drought situation in Arizona and California to draw attention the underlying cause: the miscounting of available water. There is miscounting because officials are refusing to legally accept that the major water resource of the West—the Colorado River—is interconnected with underground water resources. All in all, Lustgarten writes a convincing article that effectively addresses the need for officials to recognize the interconnection of ground and surface water so that water shortage in the West can be better managed; he does this through his ability to gain the
I believe that both the United States and the Japanese are both responsible for the contamination that has now spread from not just the water but into the soil as well. I agree that the U.S. is in charge
The upper basin states (including Colorado) were allocated a much greater percentage of the water than the lower basin states, while the upper basin states were developing at a much slower rate than those in the lower basin, notably California. Nevada (as of 1997) anticipated being unable to rely just on this water by 2015, while in 1997 California was already exceeding its originally allocated supply by diverting unused water from the upper basin states (Arizona.edu, 1997). It goes without saying that this legislation from the early twentieth century is not going to be sufficient in coming years as the development of these regions has progressed at a much faster rate than originally anticipated, and it is the responsibility of state and federal governments, water management companies, as well as appeals from farmers and non-farming residents alike to come to an agreement on how to apportion water and how to implement secondary hydration plans due to the rapidly declining resource that the once-magnificent Colorado River was able to supply us
Water is one of the most precious resources, which support the life of almost everything in the world. Indeed, the world is covered by 75% water, but most of this water is not suitable for human consumption or use. On the same note, the world has been increasing its consumption of water due to the increasing population, leading to increased demands. The increased water consumption, which has been a result of high population, is worrying because the matter may lead to massive water shortages in the future.
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
While reading The Guardian article, I found it alarming the environmental impacts that resulted from this disaster. According to Paleoseismicity.org, sediments from Japan’s coast were found up to three miles inland. Homes, businesses, cars, and boats were swept into the sea and can still be found today washing onto the shores of British Columbia. You can see the images here: https://postmedia.us.janrainsso.com/static/server.html?origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vancouversun.com%2Fnews%2FPhotos%2BJapanese%2Btsunami%2Bdebris%2Bstill%2Bwashing%2Bshores%2F10877860%2Fstory.html. It is estimated that up to 1.5 million tons of debris was washed into the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the Pacific Ocean garbage patch gained a vast blanket of waste. The waste dumped was equivalent to what gets tossed into the Pacific in just one year.
This created a new problem of supplying water throughout the state. Now that the southern region of California is densely populated, state officials need new sources of water to supply its residents. The state looked to the Colorado River, one of the longest rivers in the United States. Nonetheless, this also created problems with other states who used the river as well. To solve this issue, the Colorado River Compact was issued in 1922. This compact was an agreement between seven U.S. states in the southwest on the allocation of water rights to access the river’s water. The large influx of Californian residents would also lead to the growth of the agricultural
One of the largest geographic physical structures in the United States is the Colorado River. Human activity and its interaction with this great river have an interesting history. The resources provided by the river have been used by humans, and caused conflict for human populations as well. One of these conflicts is water distribution, and the effects drought conditions have played in this distribution throughout the southwestern region. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the southwest depend on the river. It provides water for over 20 million people, irrigation for 2 million acres of land, four thousand megawatts of hydroelectric energy, and over twenty million annual visitors for
There is a water crisis which faces many parts of the world and it is a threat to survival of human beings since humans are primarily dependent on water. Shortage in drinking water is beginning to show its effects in first world countries, but is a current major problem facing lesser developed countries which have not taken drastic steps to harvest water and purify it to make it safe for human consumption. In developed countries the population growth has strained available water resources and stretched the ability of governments and private firms to provide safe drinking water to the vast majority of the population. Seventy one percent of
The world’s supply of water is in steep decline as more and more is being used each year by more and more people around the globe. Currently, 800 million people do not have access to a drinking source. At the current rate, 1.8 billion people could be living in areas of absolute water scarcity by 2025.
The earth is like a living organism; it thrives full of life with a fragile balance. This balance has been thrown off by many different things. Water seems to be one of the biggest problems with this offset balance. Water is a magic liquid keeping all of life thriving. Humans drink and use water, plants use water, water is used in everyday life, and it’s slowly being taken away. In the future, there will be no water left to sustain life on earth.
Many people know that water is essential for human-being and it is not only valuable for health and life, but water is also important for industry and agriculture. Furthermore, use of water has a spiritual, cultural and recreational dimension. However, water resources are not infinite. Wide and inefficient use of water resources can lead to irreversible consequences, such as water shortage. This essay will firstly discuss the problem of water shortage on examples of developed and developing countries and include the diversification of the same issue in the different parts of the world. It will also identify causes and effects of this environmental problem on society and other spheres of life. Moreover, in this essay I am going to propose