San Joaquin River Restoration Project:
Irrigating the Valley
The San Joaquin River is the backbone of the San Joaquin Valley. The valley is not only the nation's most agricultural area but it is also one of the entire worlds. Millions depend on the crops that come form this luscious valley. The river has gone through many drastic changes over its illustrious lifetime. Once it was a magnificent 350 miles long it is now one of the nation's ten most endangered rivers. The river once flowed with enough water to support steam ships and a salmon migration it now goes completely dry in some areas. The river does not have enough water to support itself any more and must take in water from various other places, such as the Pacific Ocean which
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Two of the projected plans include keeping things the way they are and allowing more of the water in Friant Dam to flow into the river to bring back the former environment that was once there as well as improve the conditions for west-side farmers. The two plans contrast drastically with each other but both have positive and negative consequences.
If the east side farmers have it there way they will continue to be able to produce crops and farming on the east-side will still be a possibility. The Friant Dam has been irrigating the east side of the valley since 1944. Over 95% of all water collected at Millerton is used to help agriculture. It waters one million acres of farmland and because of it in the last 40 years the farming on the east side has taken over Southern California as the states leader in citrus farming, the value of this is 2.1 billion and it continues to grow. Although the farmers would prosper the environment would still suffer and the salmon run of yester year would still be an impossibility. The east side farmers argue that if there water was taken away only about a quarter of the east side could be farmed without Millerton. Without Millerton's water the farmers would have had to continue to pump their water from underground aquifers and if that had happened those aquifers would have gone dry 60 years ago. If the environmentalist and
In Weintraubs article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope” he states how the salmon is gone. It affects me emotionaly because what has our world come to. We are running out of food, and water. It makes me feel bad because I have to admit that i really dont take care of water at all. It makes me sad thinking that other people literaly have no water and that because of our actions the salmon is gone.
6.The California Water Project takes water from northern California to the south through various means. The two sides have disagreements on how the water should be used. Northern Californians argue that if they sent more water to the south, they would waste it, resulting in the Sacramento River being degraded. However, southern Californians still want more water, because they feel that their growing populations and agricultural needs require the water.
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China, established by Moa Zedong in 1952, is a water diversion project that would divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually to the drier north of China ("South-to-North Water"). The project would link China’s four main rivers the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe. China plans on doing this by constructing three diversion routes moving through the south to north ("South-to-North Water"). It would stretch across the central, eastern and western parts of the country ("South-to-North Water"). This project is expected to cost around $62 billion dollars and take around 50 more years to complete ("South-to-North Water"). By trying to divert the rivers and create an equal distribution of water, the project raises many environmental concerns but has many positives. This paper will evaluate the different perspectives of the ecomodernist and resilience theory. This will be shown by analyzing each perspective, evaluating the different concerns and analyzing how each perspective would respond to the water diversion project.
Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to
The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a Federal water project set up and run by the US Bureau of Reclamation to provide water for the Central Valley in California. Through twenty dams and reservoirs the CVP facilitates the collection and delivery of water for irrigation, municipal, and industrial use, as well as producing hydropower, providing flood control and recreational facilities on their reservoirs. The CVP provide a good example of how cost allocation works within a vast organization. I will use this organization to describe the method used by the CVP to allocate cost and whether I agree or disagree with their methods. I will also be identifying situations where common costs are allocated. I will explain the impact of allocating
With the Colorado River supplying 43% of all agricultural water consumption and 41% of all Municipal and Industrial water supply in the basin, losing access to this resource entirely for one year would cost $1.434 trillion in combined state GDP [2]. Just a ten percent decline in water availability will reduce combined basin states GDP by $143.4 billion, reduce employment in the area by 1.6 million job-years, and reduce labor income by 87.1billion dollars per year [2]. In addition to the shrinking economic production, the cost of living in the area would also start to increase. The water in the Colorado River provides inexpensive energy for the parts of the lower basin states, the cost of the power has doubled from the initial contracts, and if water levels fall to 1000', the costs could quintuple for customers that are bound to purchase the hydroelectric power until 2067 [8]. While the internal economy of the basin would suffer, the effects would also ripple into the rest of the country. The agricultural Imperial Valley in California, for example, provides two-thirds of the country's vegetables in the winter [9]. Without proper irrigation and water supply, production rates
In the ¨River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope¨, Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Authority, said “We hope to get double duty out of that water by taking it the long way around.¨ As Jacobsma is a general manager of the Friant water Authority, this offers us his experience, his ideas and his thoughts of how we can have hope for the project. President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill in March, the agreement turned into federal law when he signed it. The parties had been working on the restoration plan for more than two years laying the groundwork for the physical changes to come. When the president signed it, it made them get the approval which he supported for them to continue the process. The credibility of the author right has now been believable because he provided us with the ethics of President Obama and Jacobsma. The river will not necessarily end up to its full, natural path along its entire length. Too much has changed in the decades since the dams construction. They would use canals along some stretches to carry the water short distances and to ferry the salmon upstream. This is showing us logos with facts and information it offers an explanation on how to solve one of the problems with the plan. A professor named Peter Moyole, from UC Davis also had his opinion on the project. He said “We have never done anything on this scale”, but we were willing to try it and approve of the
The future of California is pretty good, for the state is projected to see growth in almost every sector of the economy as well as the population, but there are many concerns that must be addressed first in order to see California’s growth come to fruition. International trade and business is one of California’s largest industries and it’s expected to continue increasing, for many emerging economies are also located off of the Pacific Ocean. Growth in the economy is good, but requires resources that California has a limited supply of. The main resource California always needs is water, since most of the state’s population resides in the southern regions, which are arid and receive minimal precipitation annually. The state is planning on improving efficiency and the aqueduct system to increase the water supply while decrease the environmental effects California’s aqueduct’s have on regions like the San Joaquin River Delta. For many years California has been considered a very liberal and left state, which is due to the fact that the state has the toughest environmental legislation in the country. With such strong legislation ensuring the protection of the environment California has become a model state in the fight against climate change, and must remain vigilant for there are numerous species endemic to the state that are found nowhere else on the planet. Though there are numerous other factors’ affecting California’s future these are some of the most interesting areas to
McEwen supports these claim with examples, quotes from professionals, and reasoning. The purpose of his article was so he could make readers be aware that the river restoration plan won’t work.
Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these
The Klamath Lake, along with other various rivers, lakes and canals that surround it, are the basis for almost 500 species of wildlife in southern Oregon and parts of northern California. It also serves as the most important factor in a farmer’s livelihood; their irrigation. The basis for the water crisis that is going to today in this region is that the current water levels and somewhat water quality are diminishing and reeking havoc on the area’s
Daniel Weintraub in the article “ River Restoration Offers a Sprinkling of Hop” point that they are planing of getting the San Joaquin River back for the salmon can live. Weintraub supports his statement by explaining what was going on with the San Joaquin and the Delta. Also explains how they get fresh water from the river. The author’s purpose is to proves how they will get the river back in order so that the salmon live longer and so that the people who use to get fresh water from the river can get some know. The author writes in an informative tone for us to know what they are planning to do to get the San Joaquin River.
Daniel Weintraub in the article, “River Restoration Project Offers Sprinkling of Hope”, claims that only 12% of the San Joaquin River was recovered for the fish the river’s residents. Weintraub supports his statement by explaining that the project of restoring the San Joaquin River is bringing hope for the river’s residents. The author’s purpose is to show that the project will work so that people can join the project and help restore the San Joaquin River. The author writes in an informative tone for his
One of them is that if they would put waste water on the Friant Dam there will be not that much of salmon. There was a huge money spent to let the water flow. It wasn't well spent because they still need to put water on the river. The San Joaquin River Restoration has not reach its goal, but it will. Some failures that occurred in The San Joaquin Restoration Project occurred when San Joaquin River caused lots of water to flood an island. Somewhat I change my viewpoint when I gathered information. My viewpoint remain the same because I feel bad for the salmon because they are not going to be that much of salmon when they put water. My viewpoint has somewhat changed because I feel bad because there is some parts that does not have water in
The Laguna Creek Watershed is located in Fremont, California covering 25.1 mi2. Engineered channels along the flatlands of the watershed allow the water that comes from the Mission, Sabercat, Aqua Caliente, Vargas, Washington, Canada del Aliso, and Morrison creeks to flow into Laguna Creek. Laguna Creek drains into the foothills of the Diablo Range and Mud Slough. (Laguna Creek Watershed) The Laguna Creek Watershed Council is a nonprofit alliance that serves to protect Laguna Creek, associated riparian corridors, and tributary streams. The goals are accomplish through education of residents, community participation, and finding balanced solutions with all stakeholders. (Mission and Vision)