San Diego Water Crisis

The Earth is a huge planet this is covered by 70 percent water. Astonishingly from this 70 percent the human population can only use 1 percent of the world’s water the rest of it is salt water, frozen, or in some way unattainable (Santa Clara Valley Water District, 2016). Humans have found many different ways to obtain this 1 percent of fresh water they need, but the techniques vary depending on location. In San Jose, California we obtain our water from 3 major sources: groundwater, imported surface water, and local mountain surface water. These 3 sources contribute different amounts of water to the San Jose community. Imported surface water composes about 50 percent of our water supply, while ground water composes roughly 40 percent, and local mountain surface water composes approximately 10 percent (Santa Jose Water Company, 2016). However, these percentages can change due to factors such as weather and global warming.

Water may be a renewable resource, but the world’s supply of drinkable fresh water is being consumed more rapidly than ever before, and most importantly, more rapidly than it can be replenished. Only 2.5% of water on Earth is fresh

Organic ranchers and dairy farmers in California also feel the effects of the drought. They rely on green pasture to feed their animals a healthy diet. Due to the lack of rain, the pasture are drying up and the ranchers have to purchase supplemental organic hay from other states. In an attempt to fund the purchasing of this out of state hay, the organic farmers are selling herds to businesses for hamburger meat and the small

California is in a drought and has been for the last three years. Southern California especially is affected by the drought that is now become a regular occurrence with no end in sight. With decreased rainfall and a steadily growing population, Southern California residents now have to make an effort to conserve the renewable resource that is water. Everyone uses water and humans, like all mammals, requires water for survival. With increased demand and decreased supply, water companies now charge more for water than ever before. Water companies can also use this as a way to educate the customers who habitually overuse water with the goal of persuading them to conserve the limited resources available. Recycled water is a more sustainable alternative, however even after treating and purifying that water, it would be still unsafe to drink, and even if it were, no one in their right mind would want to pay to drink what is a essentially sewer water.

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.

In recent years, California’s water shortage has been an issue and in 2014 an alarming driest historical year has impacted the state in different ways. Because of the lack of rainfall and snow, California’s reservoirs are running insignificant water basins below their capacity. While water shortages are experienced slowly and throughout a length of time, the harshest impacts are noticeable in areas that produce California’s food where wells are used as resource for water in agriculture, and residential areas. Though, most agree the drought is an issue some do not agree. To understand the circumstances, this paper will look at the drought’s impacts on California’s economy for agricultural, famers, and consumers. Also, this written work will examine the environmental consequences of surface water obtainability, and the areas that have encounter the most devastating affects. For most, this paper will examine the allocations of the governor’s drought declaration, and the strategies used by residents to conserver water.

There is no reason to wait until the day comes that there is not any water coming out of the showers or sinks in people’s homes. It is time to not only begin recognizing how severe California’s drought is, but trying to stop it by conserving more water. There is many reasons that California is in a water drought, but some of the main causes include not getting enough rainfall, over usage of water in homes, and over usage of water outside of homes. People should have a limit on the amount of water they can use within a day and be able to see how much they have used already. If people are able to physically see how much water they wasted then they might stop using so much. In order to conserve more water and prevent California’s drought to worsen

California should not desalinate Ocean water because it costs lots of money. This is true because in the article, “California tries one solution to water problems — treating seawater,” on page one it says, “The project is expected to cost $1 billion.” Also on page 2 it says, “San Diego County agreed to pay for 48,000 acre-feet of water from the plant every year whether it needs the water or not. It is doing so to ensure a guaranteed long-term supply. The water will cost $2,257 per acre-foot, about double the price of the authority’s most expensive supply now.” Lastly it on page 3 it says, “We believe in being innovative and open-minded when it comes to tackling the water crisis,” mayoral spokeswoman Marie Lloyd said. “At the same time, we do

​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

The problem stated in this video is the water-crisis in the southwest region of the United States of America. The southwest region of America is rapidly growing and booming, which makes the water crisis become more significant than ever before, because of the mass population heavily relying on the Colorado river and other water resources like groundwater. Therefore, leads to depletion of the water resources, which is bad because life depends on water. I believe this water crisis is happening because of cities in the southwest region of America relies on pumping water from the Colorado river and not being very self-sufficient with the water. Potential solutions to this problem is to be more self-sufficient with water by recycling water such

The necessity for this element in our day to day lives is of upmost importance. Therefore, H20 or water as many know of it is an essential player in our daily activities. Recently, over the past years there has been much debate regarding the usage and conservation of water, as well as its allocation towards agriculture needs and domestic usage of water as well. The west faces a huge problem, one that it might not have expected to have surfaced this soon in recent years. The west is facing a drought, a drought which has raised awareness to many political members, as well as citizens which are populating areas which are affected. California is a key player in this discussion of water and its allocation. Californians have needed to devise new

With the water crisis being seen around the world, even right here in the United States, we need to explore other options to supply fresh water to the residents. One State, in particular, that raises concern is the state of California. An alternative method to supply water to residents could be the process of desalination. Desalination is when fresh water is made by using either seawater or brackish and eliminating the minerals and salts as a way to make the water safe for human and agriculture uses ( Kesieme et al., 2013). In recent years, we have seen an increase the in the number of desalination plants around the United States (fig 1). However, is the process of desalination the answer for the water crisis going on in California? As a

In less than a year, California residents will not have enough water to drink, and their beautiful state will turn into a desert. This problem is not limited to California, the entire world is facing clean water shortage problems. If the human community doesn’t pay attention to this problem, in a few decades the number of people who die due to lack of water or hunger that is caused by water shortage will be over millions a year. Polluting the remaining sources of clean water is also another problem. Some factories and farms are releasing their chemical waste into the close by water sources which causes contamination of the water. Harvesting new sources of water is required in order to increase the remaining sources of clean water, and also preventing water contamination is necessary because the process of removing waste from the water is very expensive. In order to solve the

One of the biggest world problems in California is water and how bad of a drought we are in. In 2011 our water level was average as we move on in the years you can see a dramatic change from 2011 to 2015. Also during the time from 2011 to 2015 63 trillion water was wasted according to an article by Nick Kirkpatrick. The water has become such a great concern that California is now starting to put water restrictions for residents that live in california. Such as only being able to water 2 times a week, will be charge if seen wasting water such as car washes, broken sprinkler, etc. Although there is really no way of bringing water or forcing it in California I have ideas that we can work with from what we have already.

California’s water supply derives from multiple sources that comprise of surface water, ground water, recycled water, and desalinated seawater. These sources are either imported or are procured locally. Due to California entering its fifth consecutive drought year and global climate change looking to exacerbate drought conditions in the upcoming years, many water managers and environmentalists in the state are considering a new sustainable method that converts recycled water into drinking water. Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) is the emerging water supply method that may not only be drought resistant process, but may also provide high quality drinking water to many water districts in arid regions such as California. DPR would provide flexibility