California’s Drought
Imagine having to go outside every time one needs to use the restroom. There has been a drought going on in California for the past four years. There is a feud for water between farmers, citizens, and the drillers who get drain the water. The drought is a damaging issue that is affecting the lives of many. Therefore, California’s government should pass laws to manage how aquifers are to be properly used.
Consequently, “For Angelica Gallegos, the worst part has been going without a shower for five months” (Source2). Going without a shower for five months is a terrible standard of living which the government of California should not allow. “Just over 95 per cent of the state now faces severe drought conditions and nearly
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We go and we go but it just seems like we can’t go fast enough,’ he says, sitting behind the steering wheel as he hustles up and down Highway 99 to check on drilling rigs that run 24 hours a day, probing for water” (Source3). Drillers need laws to give them a break from the busy jobs. If there are laws, then people won’t be asking drillers to get them water. There will be more predictable job schedules.
Even though, “‘We are tied to the groundwater 100 percent,’ he said, ‘so ultimately it will have an effect on consumer prices. There's just no getting around that’” (Source1), citizens would be able to obtain water with more ease. "City folks just don't understand that they're biting the hand that feeds them, I'm afraid" (Source1). With laws, farmers will have less access to water, but the citizens will be able to have any access. They might have to pay more for food, but they will be able to get water.
Overall, California should pass laws to manage the misuse of aquifers to be able to get the drought situation under control. This four year drought should have created some laws by the California government after this long. The citizens are suffering and need water, and the only way they’re going to get it is by California creating
At some point of our lives we have been asked or have heard the question, what can we not live without?. Many of us will not hesitate to mention family, friends, food, water, and other living essential we find futile to our survival. If we place these living essentials in order of importance some of us may place family over water. If you then think about it, we can live without our family, but we cannot live without water. Water gives us life its in our fruits, foods, and drinks. Without water we would not be alive and healthy for the most part. The importance of water is substantial and California is currently experiencing one of its worst droughts in history. The planet itself is also undergoing global warming, which only contributes to a more severe drought occurring in California. Droughts in California’s history did not have the contributing factor of Global warming diminishing their severity. California’s drought and Global warming share a common link in the factor that would contribute to the severity of the drought we are currently experiencing in California and
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
With no working water many have substituted, showers for “Bird Baths”. ‘That includes deciding whether to use precious water hauled from the local fire stations for the “bird baths” Mrs Gallegos says everyone now has instead of showers, or flushing the toilet’(Source 2). Using the toilet is also a everyday dilemma some have resorted to doing their business outside. “Sometimes,” she says, nodding towards her youngest child, “when she needs to go, I just take her outside”(Source 2). Many have not taken showers in months, because of the lack of water. “For Angelica Gallegos, the worst part has been going without a shower for five months”(Source 2). The lack of water has also had a strain on people's pockets, some dive out of town to take proper showers. “When it first went dry, we used to drive to my daughter’s house in Visalia about 45 minutes away to have a shower,” he says. “But it was costing a lot of money in gas”(Source
”Just over 95 percent of the state now faces severe drought conditions and nearly 60 per cent is in exceptional drought” (Source2). A lot of people are dependent on water. If we run out of water we won’t be able to do stuff like take showers, wash dishes, and sometimes go to the restroom. We could not take care of people that are sick and need water. Also cleaning your clothes would be a problem.
On March 27, 2014, Wade Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle reported “The Water Revolution California needs.” California is having a severe drought. Wade Graham tells his readers that California is in a serious water crisis. The state of California needs to make strict changes to how water is being distributed amongst farmers and residents. Before all of California’s ecological system is destroyed. Wade Graham believes that water should be priced higher; that way people aren’t wasting water. Water is a limited resource that should never be wasted, and is probably California’s most valuable resource. Unfortunately, many people waste water; instead of conserve water especially when we live in the state of California where we are subject to
Water rights policies have been an important topic throughout the history of California, as the resource is perpetually
Right now there is a drought in California and it is due to the water usage. Bach in the gold rush due to miners mining for gold, the rivers became polluted and freshwater became limited. After the earthquake in San Francisco that cause a big fire, San Francisco was in dire need of water so they made a plan to built a dam in Hetch Hetchy. Many people argue as to whether to build the dam and in the end the dam was built and that has shape California’s water system hugely. The use of water in California now has not been in the best interest of the state because The amount of water use for agriculture is disportional, laws are making us use more water than needed and the Indians and environment are being harm.
Have you thought about the importance of water recently? Water provides many things to people, from green lawns to nutritious food. An event that may have spurred these thoughts is the drought in California. They are struggling because there is simply not enough water in California to go around for all of its uses. Measures have been taken to conserve water, but cutbacks have been made on everything, even the giant industry of California agriculture. More water should be devoted to agricultural uses instead of residential uses in California for the following reasons:
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.
Do you really want to take your kids outside during the day, or even in the middle of the night, to go to the bathroom when it's 100 degrees or 30 degrees out? California has been in a drought for almost 3 years now. We barely have any water and now farmers are saying no to the laws that we want to make to regulate the water to everyone. Are you with the laws, or against the laws? In my opinion, there should be regulation because if farmers have all the water, parts of California will be completely dry without water. If that happens, then the people won’t be able to take a shower or go to the bathroom without going outside and doing it.
California has just come out of it’s 5th year of drought. In the last 5 years California has had record high temperatures and record low rain and snow. Even though they say the drought is over our groundwater levels are still down because of overpumping. Overpumping has been happening for 50 to 70 years. To me that is a really long time to overuse our water. Groundwater pumping is taking water from the ground. Most of the people using groundwater are farmers so their crops can grow in dry conditions (drought). Groundwater pumping is taking away from future water reserves which is the water we have to use during a drought. If we keep pumping groundwater out of the ground and don’t put it back in to replace it then it is a very bad use of a very valuable resource. California is lucky that state lawmakers are now beginning to try and regulate how groundwater is monitored and managed. The point of doing this is to try to find a better way to use our valuable resource.Fresh water is one of the basic needs of all living things.California needs to limit the amount of groundwater used by recycling wastewater and
In the article “Richard Goode: California drought crisis is everyone’s fault,” Richard Goode (2015), states that California does not have enough water to provide and everyone is responsible for it. California’s water problem has been an ongoing situation for years. Hydrologists have predicted and advised us about the water deficit in California, but everyone chose to ignore it. California has been pumping its water straight from the aquifer for years and now it is becoming dry. An enormous amount of water is being pumped each year which causes the water table to go low. When the water table is low, wells go dry and people are left without water. Richard Goode mentions, that California will be in a drought until we are able to receive the same amount of groundwater that we withdraw. However, we might be too late.
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.
This man Jose Lopez is saying that in 37 years, this water rule has never happened, “I’ve been here in the same house for 37 years and this has never happened before,” says Jose Lopez, 67, as he filled eight big containers in his pick-up truck with water from a 5,000-gallon roadside tank that Tulare County authorities installed in early August as the number of waterless homes soared “ (Source 2). Just over 95 percent of the state now faces severe drought conditions and nearly 60 percent is an exceptional drought, the highest of five rankings by the US drought monitor. This is bad because without water, what will we grow and bathe in, if ranchers keep this up they won’t be able
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.