Regulating Groundwater In The United States

Envision yourself, about to complete a straightforward, everyday thing such as washing the dishes, suddenly to your surprise there is no water coming out of the faucet. Well for the civilians of East Porterville this is their reality. California has always had very lenient and ineffective groundwater regulations. Today, this has become a major issue, especially with California's severe drought. The regulation of the aquifer is a necessity because cleanliness is a basic human right and by not regulating the groundwater and leaving civilians with no working water, that right is taken away. The right to bathe, wash your hands, and have a working toilet is simply no more. Furthermore there are scientific statements, proving that excessively pumping groundwater will lower the water levels, which will likely lead to the land level sinking as well.

What do you think would happen if your town ran out of water? In the town of East Porterville they have not had water in 5 months. Life is really bad for them. They can not do basic stuff that involves using water. I do think that California should control phreatic water.

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:

Farmers spend millions of dollars buying wells for their crops, “a 70-foot high drilling rig bores a hole in the earth 2,500 feet deep. This well will cost the farmer about a million dollars” (source, 3). Every farmer is worry about their crops but they don't really care about the Earth, they are wasting millions of dollars and they are damaging the place we live in . Groundwater pumping could worsen the San Andreas Fault.

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

One more efficient way people could conserve would be by having their house inspected for leaks as they account for 16% of our water supply If farmers cut back by just 5% it would be equal to the 25% that the cities in California are required to conserve. The main goal of the city-wide water restrictions

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

Should California regulate groundwater? In my opinion, I think that farmers shouldn’t be able to get water from underground because other farmers are sucking up all the underground water. I had read an article that was talking about if they should let farmers be able to get water from underground. The article’s that I have read was that they think they shouldn’t because farmers would get gallons of water from underground. The state should regulate groundwater.

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.

What is the point of taking the water for the farm to make food if the people in the town need water to live also? California has been in a drought for 4 years now and the farmers are drilling wells and taking all of the water from the town for themselves. I think they should make a law. They prove them because it says that people can not do their laundry or drink water or wash dishes. It says that it affects prices and that it costs farmers a lot of money. You have to beg and pay extra to have them drill wells and they have to buy less stuff to be able to pay people to drill wells. I think we need laws because if they take all of the water there is no use for food because water is actually more important than food because you can die from

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

To preserve water here in California is particularly important because it is vital part in our economy. People should me more conscious and aware for the need to preserve water. California has been facing a major drought recently because in the past few years their has been no consistent rainfall or snow. Communities should be following rules and regulations that are mandated by the state and counties. Any efforts to better preserve water should be done because just as simplifying as following rules and regulations can help our state to preserve its water.

One of the biggest consumers of groundwater in our state are farmers. During a drought the farmers have to use wells to water their crops. The water from these wells use garoundwater from Aquifers. Water in Aquifers provide 60% of California's groundwater in drought years. Because California has been in a drought for the last 5 years, farmers have used and over used groundwater from wells. Over-pumping can compress soil and rocks making them compact

“It’s been terrible, really tough”(says a woman who has no water in her town)(Source 2).“When it first went dry, we used to drive to my daughter’s house in Alisa about 45 minutes away to have a shower”(Source 2).It is my belief that people need laws because a mother’s child has to live in filth and can’t be bathed or even use the toilet.

There are reasons that we should limit the water because we are in a drought.“I’ve been here in the same house for 37 years and this has never happened before,” says Jose Lopez, 67(source 2). But this is not a reason to limit the water because the food that the farmers produce is the food for about ⅓ of the world and if you stop them from using the water the food supply will diminish and thomas malthus theory that the world will run out of food will come true.