Southern California Water Resources Case Study

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.

Undoubtedly, Groundwater plays a significant role in California water supply. During a normal year, 30% of the state 's water supply comes from groundwater. In times of extreme drought, groundwater consumption can rise to 60% or more. Even though groundwater is more evenly distributed, over half of the groundwater is unable to be extracted due to the high pumping cost. The largest groundwater reservoirs are found in the Central Valley, with the majority of the supply existing as runoff that seeps into the aquifer.

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.

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 city of Fresno has a new water infrastructure program which brings opportunity to transport mountain water down here, so that our groundwater supply can rest, recharge, and be restored. Furthermore, the City of Fresno Water Conservation Program has been encouraging activities that lower water demand in the community to help Fresno meet the many challenges of water supply management. Another measure is that the State Water Resources Control Board has issued a new statewide water conservation policy that executes a minimum level of restrictions and stronger fines. Fresno has also moved to the Stage 2 water shortage contingency plan approved by City Council which regulates water use; it declares to limit summer outdoor irrigation to two days per week, to not water every Monday, Thursday, or Friday during summer, to limit winter outdoor irrigation to one day per week, and not to water every Monday to Friday during winter (as cited in City of Fresno Website,

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

Climate change is a growing issue. I have found that this is an issue that can no longer be ignore. One area that is effected even more so than others is California. Specifically California’s water resources are becoming depleted due to climate change. This is not only an issue of the future but of the present. If this trend continues on its predicted path not only will California be effected but our whole nation. It should be a concerning issue to everyone and is not to be taken lightly.

Over the years, conflict has emerged over whether the water that is distributed to the state of California should be equally provided to every part of the state, regardless of where the water has come from. People have argued that California has small water systems that they polluted by industrial uses, which makes them less efficient. People have also claimed that the state’s water systems are located in low income communities which makes it hard to gather funds for improvement. However, the distribution of water to all parts of California has many positive aspects to it. Many regions of the state have water restrictions and limited uses of water, which makes makes it more difficult for these regions. People have argued that the provision

We all love water, but don’t know much about it. What I mean is that a lot of us don’t even know where our water comes from. That answer varies; for example, the city of Camarillo California gets its’ water in Camrosa Water District. It’s official website, “Camrosa Water District building Water Self- Reliance” provides information like what their purpose is, and as well as water conservation, building self-reliance, and other public information. This website states that Camrosa is currently in a state two water supply shortage. This means that there are restrictions on water use and a call for a voluntary fifteen percent reduction on the amount of water consumption. Also, according to Camrosa “Agricultural Water Management Plan”, water is being

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.

Governor Brown’s “Water Action Plan” is very clear and concise plan for the local governments to follow when managing the groundwater. The plan has a clear definition of the challenges that are present for the use water. There is a brief overview of the challenges and how the plan will address the issues. The first proposed a plan is for the administration to increase the funding and expand the California Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring Program, “which provides essential data to characterize the state 's groundwater basins, including identifying basins in decline” (cite). This will open lines of communication between counties, and share valuable information for development the pumping plans. Next, there is the plan for Brown’s administration to work closely together with Legislation to fund the

From the groundwater basins it is estimated that 16,500 TAF of groundwater are extracted annually, which accounts for 38% of the water supply in the state (California Department of Water Resources California's Groundwater Update 2013: A Compilation of Enhanced Content for California Water Plan Update 2013). Despite the number of basins in the state, each basin is somewhat unique but, have been classified into the Central Valley aquifer system, the coastal aquifers, the Northern California basin-fill aquifers, and the eastern Sierra Nevada and the California Desert aquifers (California Department of Water Resources California's Groundwater Update 2013: A Compilation of Enhanced Content for California Water Plan Update 2013). In Figure 1, the location of the major groundwater basins and subbasins in California have been identified as the areas shaded in

Established in 1888, the Brown’s Valley Irrigation District is one of YCWA’s eight local water districts. We obtain water under contract from YCWA and then provide that water for agricultural purposes in an area of Yuba County that spans nearly 87 square miles, with approximately 1,500 installed connections. YCWA provides this essential water supply by actively controlling and storing water at New Bullards Bar Reservoir, which enables us to convey it to

An article written by Ostrander (2015) gives an interesting take on longer term and more sustainable strategies for L.A in response to the Californian drought, all of which revolve around changing the way the city deals with its water. The article states that the concreting of channels and river beds and an increase in urban impermeable surfaces have meant that less water can filter into the ground, rather it either floods or drains straight into the ocean. In changing the rhetoric of storm water being a nuisance and restoring waterways to allow them to hold, slow and filter water would fix many problems at once. Combining this with technology such as permeable tarmac would allow groundwater to replenish faster when the rains arrive. Although these solutions are not cheap, they are said to be far cheaper than desalinization. In addition, It is estimated that through strategies such as these, L.A could reduce its water import from 85% to just over half.

Every day Americans depend on public water systems to treat and deliver over 44 billion gallons of water to homes daily (“Importance of Clean Water”). However, Americans