Synthesis Essay: Why Water Is Water? More Like Gold

In 2014, “groundwater makes up 60 percent of California’s water use” (Governor Brown Changes, 2014).

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

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.

Farmers were doing a great job being farmers and now the people are saying it’s the farmers fault the water is running out.

My opinion is that California should not regulate groundwater because of farmers and financially. A Farmer would need more water for their crops, animals , accordingly themselves. That is a large amount of water , I do not think that is fair because what would happen if the farmers ran out of water ;they would have to use other residents water. Farmers would have to buy less pickups,employing less people, moreover buying less tractors.In source 1 it says that “the Farmers feel very disconnected with the

We go and we go but it just seems like we can’t go fast enough,’ he says, sitting behind the steering wheel as he hustles up and down Highway 99 to check on drilling rigs that run 24 hours a day, probing for water” (Source3). Drillers need laws to give them a break from the busy jobs. If there are laws, then people won’t be asking drillers to get them water. There will be more predictable job schedules.

Would you like to go without a shower for five months? California right now are in an unfavorable and enormous drought. As a result, many citizens don’t have water to drink water, flush the toilet, take a shower, and wash the dishes. Also, Farmers don’t have enough water to harvest crops so if they can’t harvest crops, we won’t have enough food. Therefore, I support the regulations that allow the California Farm Bureau to control groundwater for all citizens.

You name it, from top to bottom," said Pete Belluomini, the VP of Farming for Luhr Brothers Inc.” (Source 1). “Beatrice Sanders, the executive director of the Kern County Farm Bureau, agreed."I almost feel like farming will eventually become obsolete here," she said” (Source 1). ““If you own property, you can dig a well and you can pump as much groundwater as you a want,” says Famiglietti, “even if that means you are drawing the water in from beneath your neighbor’s property in your well for your own benefit. So it’s not unlike having several straws in a glass, and everyone drinking at the same time, and no one really watching the level”” (Source

Another one of the many problems that the severe water drought caused was it has a big impact on farmers, families,business, and many other people in the Sacramento area. In “Addressing California’s Droughts” it states that the harsh drought has been hurting a lot of Sacramento families, farmers, and small business that don’t do so well because of the drought which affects their business majorly (Addressing California’s Droughts).The CBS News explain that the State Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin says “there simply is not enough water in the system to meet the needs of the farmers” (Facing Drought,California Will Not Allow Water To The Farmers, Cities). It is also said that without the water on the surface the farmers have to pump water from underground aquifers (Facing Drought,California Will Not Allow Water To The Farmers,Cities). This happens to alter the farmers and their business because without the water for their crops they end up not having any business because they don’t have any crops grown to

In the article “Richard Goode: California drought crisis is everyone’s fault,” Richard Goode (2015), states that California does not have enough water to provide and everyone is responsible for it. California’s water problem has been an ongoing situation for years. Hydrologists have predicted and advised us about the water deficit in California, but everyone chose to ignore it. California has been pumping its water straight from the aquifer for years and now it is becoming dry. An enormous amount of water is being pumped each year which causes the water table to go low. When the water table is low, wells go dry and people are left without water. Richard Goode mentions, that California will be in a drought until we are able to receive the same amount of groundwater that we withdraw. However, we might be too late.

Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.

It was a blistering summer day and it was so hot you could fry eggs on the sidewalk. I remember the day as clearly as if it happenned yesterday. The water ninjas were prowling the streets. Mocking undercover espionage and often anonymous, they secretly watch you, snapping away photos of all your wastefulness with their iPhones. Then uploading the evidence for the world to see – and the newly empowered local Glendale water agency – to blatantly see. Within five minutes of me starting to wash my car, I look behind me and there were the water district people. They did the whole calling me “mam” cliche and asking whether I knew the laws. In the end, they wrote me up a citation for using water on a non watering day. This is just an example of an incident that can occur when excess watering occurs. Luckily for me I managed to get out of the citation for being a first time offender and promising not to do it again. Many of the conventional beliefs have laid blame on the homeowners hooked on having the shiny clean cars, crisp green lawns, and sparkling swimming pools.  However, the conventional beliefs don’t always tell the whole story. The truth is California communities all across the state have tremendously reduced their average water consumption. There have been both successes and failures in the fronts of California’s drought and the conservation efforts, but as we go forward there is a definite need in better planning.

“Farmers too, are starting to worry. In Merced County, farm leaders are trying to stop two private landowners from selling as much as 7 billion gallons of good water to farmers in another country. They call it “groundwater mining” (Source 3).If we start fixing the problem now there will be no problem later in the future. “At this point in time, we don’t want to keep going on at this pace. It’s more of a temporary fix” (Source

Is California becoming a desert? Is it using too much? For the past few years California has been in a severe drought which has gotten the people to become desperate and use groundwater to supply themselves. The Farmers of the state are drilling deeper and deeper to obtain more water since California doesn’t have any laws from stopping them. The citizens want the state government to establish laws to stop the farmers from taking anymore water.