The Environmental Issues Of California Water Crisis

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,

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.

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

On March 27, 2014, Wade Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle reported “The Water Revolution California needs.” California is having a severe drought. Wade Graham tells his readers that California is in a serious water crisis. The state of California needs to make strict changes to how water is being distributed amongst farmers and residents. Before all of California’s ecological system is destroyed. Wade Graham believes that water should be priced higher; that way people aren’t wasting water. Water is a limited resource that should never be wasted, and is probably California’s most valuable resource. Unfortunately, many people waste water; instead of conserve water especially when we live in the state of California where we are subject to

Water resources in the state of California have deteriorated drastically as a result of the current drought event in the west coast of the United States. This has resulted in insufficient supplies of water to residents of southern California, as well as the devastation of wildlife and aquatic ecosystems that are characteristic of this area. This policy analysis will provide the context of the issue, as well as possible solutions, followed by a proposed policy plan to reach the policy goal of equitable and reliable water allocation in the state of California, drought resilience, as well as restoration of the destroyed ecosystems.

Right now there is a drought in California and it is due to the water usage. Bach in the gold rush due to miners mining for gold, the rivers became polluted and freshwater became limited. After the earthquake in San Francisco that cause a big fire, San Francisco was in dire need of water so they made a plan to built a dam in Hetch Hetchy. Many people argue as to whether to build the dam and in the end the dam was built and that has shape California’s water system hugely. The use of water in California now has not been in the best interest of the state because The amount of water use for agriculture is disportional, laws are making us use more water than needed and the Indians and environment are being harm.

What if you had no water to bathe, wash dishes, or even drink? This is the future we face here in California if the state doesn’t act to conserve our water and ensure that it is wasted as little as possible. California is in its 3rd year of a debilitating drought, and many citizens, especially farmers are dangerously tapping more into an nonrenewable resource: groundwater. In light of the severity of current and future problems that have or will result from the depletion of the fast-emptying subterranean reserves of water, California’s Legislature has introduced a new bill designed to limit and control the use of groundwater, a decision that all other western states have already made. I believe that this new bill is necessary to prevent California

What if you were not able to shower for five months, what if you could not wash your

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.

Water is the most important resource, controlling all aspects of life. The effect on climate change is changing California’s water quality and quantity. This creates

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 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

Some of the issues related to wastewater management as a result of the drought are: the rising food prices, unsafe potable water, the impact on agriculture and produce supplies, and the increase of groundwater usage. The drought impact will increase with current warmer temperatures and the length of the drought. As a result of this four year drought, many cities in California rely deeply on ground water pumping to meet demands. According to the California Department of Water Resources (February, 2015) “Reduced surface water availability triggered increased groundwater pumping, with groundwater levels in many parts of the state dropping 50 to 100 feet below their previous historical lows.” Common pool resources, such as the Colorado River have

Although the South Coast Water District services parts of San Clemente’s water, the water SCWD distributes goes through several wholesale tiers. As mentioned earlier, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California delivers water to 26 member agencies located throughout Southern California (Figure 1). To supply more than 300 cities with potable water, MWDC supplies the Southern California region with imported water from the State Water Project and the Colorado River Aqueduct. An estimated 45% of Southern California’s water derives from these two water sources; the remaining differences are met by local sources. The Metropolitan uses 16 hydroelectric facilities, nine reservoirs, 819 miles of large-scale pipes and five water treatment

As California enters the fourth year of the worst drought in the state’s history, it is estimated that it would require 11 trillion gallons of water to replace what has been lost from the water reservoirs (Dieckmeyer). Over the years there have been a few different measures that have been taken to attempt to conserve water, none of which have done as much good as people have hoped. When water conservation efforts fall through and are not carried out, it is mainly due to the fact that there is either not enough money or support to continue or expand the project, or the project would take to long to complete before the drought is over, thus making it not useful. However, there are multiple different efforts and ideas for water conservation that are currently underway, while there are also ideas that have yet to be considered, but most importantly there are ways to conserve water that are quick, inexpensive, and manageable.