Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Case Study

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

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.

An Average of 1.6 trillion gallons of water are extracted from the Delta for the Central Valley Project and State Water Project on an annual basis (Holyoke). With so much demand, the Delta’s ecological balance has been deeply affected. Furthermore, water supplies and local uses are considered to be in crisis due to crashing number of fish species and old weak levees (Lund, et al.) It is feared that during a strong regional earthquake, many of the levees would fail. Due to the increasing demand on water supplies, conservation efforts, and hundreds of interests, the Delta is also the jugular of California’s water

Water control in California has always been problematic. Long drafts and severe floods show the coming of the state’s and world’s changing climate regional differences in water existence and demand for water. “A vast network of storage and conveyance facilities delivers water from the wetter parts of the state to population and farming centers in the Bay area, Southern California and the Sun Joaquin Valley. This network is now threatened by the physical and biological fragility of the system’s hub in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.” (2015) California is also living through one of the worst droughts 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.

This project is called the San Joaquin River Restoration.They had to rebuild the river so that the salmon and fishes can swim back and forth. It cost them only $400 dollars to rebuild the dry river.I agree with Daniel Weintraub because he’s been the public affairs columnist for the editorial pages of Sacramento Bee since November 2000. Daniel Weintraub has been covering California politics and a public policy for 22 years, also including the last 18 years in Sacramento. I choose this statement because I think California should invest money in this project because it can help us in many ways and so that we can have a better economy. “The Sacramento Bee, April 26,2009 is the newspaper where this article was published in. I believe the SJRP was worth the $400 dollars because of the experts that supported the numerous studies that proved it would work and help California and the positive impact this project would have on people emotionally.

California’s ideal weather would be rainy winters and dry summers, but that isn’t the case anymore. Many people are concerned and deeply worried about the world’s constant decrease in the fresh water supply and the social, economic, and environmental issues that are caused from this drought. A textbook definition of a drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall which results in a shortage of water, which is normal considering California has been given the title in its recent years the term drought since 2012. Even though being in a drought is nothing new to California, for the past three years it has experienced severe drought conditions in the

Agriculture, probably more than any other human enterprise, is responsible for destabilizing our planet’s water supply. California and their emergency crisis on their low levels of water ultimately having a national controversial impact on the production of the agricultural industry.

While many blame current droughts on climate change, rainfall patterns in areas like California—currently in its fourth consecutive year of drought—have actually varied little from a century ago. But if little is done to curb carbon emissions, what is to come may be far worse. In fact, economic losses associated with climate change, globally, will reach an estimated $3 billion by the end of 2015. Furthermore, these human-induced droughts will uproot entire communities and force them to migrate to regions with more water and food. With climate change set to worsen over the course of this century, food and water shortages will only get worse, and not just for Californians.

Restoring a river? Completely possible when you have a dam holding all the water back. The San Joaquin River, the longest river in Central California, begins from the Thousand Island Lake and then reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Sacramento Bee’s Daniel Weintraub supports the plan with his article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope” where he explains the San Joaquin River Project’s stupendousness. The project plans to restore the San Joaquin River by increasing the amount of water released from the Friant Dam in an endeavor to restore the salmon in the river. Weintraub, a native of California, worked in the political field for twenty-two years, including the eighteen he worked for the Sacramento Bee. In Sacramento,

Solving the global water crisis moves beyond the technical feasibility stage.(2011). Trends Magazine, (104), 19-24.

Water covers 70% of our planet, and it is easy to think that it will always be plentiful. However, freshwater, what we drink, bathe in, irrigate our farm fields with makes up only 3% of the world’s water, and two-thirds of that is stored in frozen glaciers or unavailable for our use. Many of the water systems that keep ecosystems thriving and feed a growing human population have become stressed. Rivers, lakes and aquifers are drying up or becoming too polluted to use. Already, 80 countries suffer from water shortages that threaten health and economies while 40 percent of the world—more than 2 billion people—does not have access to clean water or sanitation

Water is the main source of life on the Earth. It is vital for normal existence and functioning of organisms. Earth is sometimes called “water planet.” But, in fact, the number of freshwater is limited. “Only about 2 percent of the planet's water is fresh.” (How much water is there on Earth?) This water is not enough even to meet daily needs of mankind. According to World Health Organization, “a lack of water to meet daily needs is a reality today for one in three people around the world.” (2009) In the Middle East the situation is especially hard. This region is thought to be one of the droughtiest places in the world, most of it’s territory is deserted. Freshwater accounts to 1 percent of the world’s supplies, while the population comes

It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.