Water Crisis: California's Drought

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.

In the his brief but effectual article “The Wrong Way to Think about California Water”, the author Michael Hiltzik presents to the reader “a guide to the wrong ways to think about California water, and the glimmer of a better way”(Hiltzik). In the short piece, Hiltzik argues that the current debate on how California should be spending its meager allowance of water during the current drought is being thoroughly misguided. Hiltzik writes that people should stop criticizing businesses that consume “large” amounts of water, rather, the water already being used should be utilized more efficiently and effectively. “The only lasting solutions include creating a better-functioning water market with transparent pricing and transfers, so that water

Have you thought about the importance of water recently? Water provides many things to people, from green lawns to nutritious food. An event that may have spurred these thoughts is the drought in California. They are struggling because there is simply not enough water in California to go around for all of its uses. Measures have been taken to conserve water, but cutbacks have been made on everything, even the giant industry of California agriculture. More water should be devoted to agricultural uses instead of residential uses in California for the following reasons:

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.

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.

Can you imagine living in a nauseating, vile, and disgusting manner? Well Californians can. Currently, the state of California is in the midst of a severe drought. This drought is one of the worst droughts in the state’s recorded history. Due to this drought, more than a thousand of California’s residents have lost their water. The drought sparks a conflict for the residents. People can not bathe, use their toilets, wash their dishes, or do anything with water. Because of the overuse of groundwater, a law is being established in the California State Legislature that would maintain aquifer, the pumping of groundwater, for the first time in history. In other words, residents would not be able to pump water which is naturally available under their

The water users of California have been asked to cut back water use whenever possible. This means shorter showers, drought resistant landscape, and low flow options for faucets and sprinklers. Farmer’s alike have been spotlighted to cut back on water use for it is calculated that they consume 80% of the state’s developed water supply (pacisnt). Although cutting back is a way to help conserve what is available, it is imperative that a new supply of fresh water be found before California overdrafts itself to no supply at all.

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

We as society like to think that what we do with our personal interests won't affect our environment. But in this current drought in California many people's current interest and behavior may affect the drought both negatively and positively. Even though farmers aren't able to completely fix the water shortage on their own, they need help to switch the way they consume water just how people who live in the city need to realize how they waste their water.

California is experiencing one of its worst droughts in history. Water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. It sounds so simple, but it should not be taken for granted because without it we would cease to exist. It is so necessary for survival that without it we would die in a few days. Fortunately, the California drought has not reached that level. Yet, there is a need for concern because human beings are not among the only living organism that depends on water. All living organisms depend on it, from a mighty bald eagle, to the bright orange California poppy. Not only does it bring life, but it also plays a role in the economy as well. There are many occupations that rely on water and if one industry is directly affected then presumably fifty or more are indirectly affected. Water is in high demand, but there is not enough supply to meet it. It is extremely difficult to predict next week’s weather, let alone next year’s total rainfall. In a 6-10 day (accumulated) precipitation forecast history shows that meteorologist have only been correct about 40% of the time. This is a great cause for concern because it makes it extremely difficult to know if we are rationing enough now. As mentioned before, water is in great demand and it is intrinsically necessary. So, how much will California lose if the drought continues and what can be done to ease the situation? I will report on the current water system in CA, the users (i.e. urban and agriculture), and different

The state of California now has better technology to tell how much water is used, helping restrict the use of water, potentially causing land that has been farmed for many years to stop being farmed. The governor of the state has received criticism for calling for limits on the use of water in populated areas, but not on farms. Farmers have been limited more and more each year, making the new restrictions something that most expected and prepared for by creating reserves and drilling wells; nonetheless, thousands of acres of farmland will go unfarmed. I chose this article because it offers a view on how the water rights restrictions impacts farmers, making this article useful while writing about why farmers should or should not be allowed to have more water rights.

This policy analysis review paper investigates the development of California’s drought policy B-29-15 which was issued on April 1, 2015 by Governor Jerry Brown to fight the effects of the drought. Composed of four objectives with a total of 31 directives, this was the first policy issued by the governor requiring mandatory water conservation efforts by the public since he declared a state of emergency in 2014. Despite the best efforts of the policy to save water, secondary research from both professional policy analysts, journalists, and industry experts reveal that the policy does not do enough to help the state be much better prepared to manage future droughts. Since a drought is one of the hardest natural disasters to define and

Scoville argues that their needs to be an implementation of governmental policies to allow Californians to reshape their relationship with nature to have sustainable water use. Stephanie Pincetl and Terri S. Hogue (2015) demonstrate that there is a dramatic difference in public perception of water and water use and that those who are the wealthiest are not as compelled to change their behaviors despite the fact that it is the wealthy who use up to three times more water. Pincetl and Hogue (2015) also show that it is a lack of strict policy that allows for inefficient use of water while allowing those who are already suffering to suffer further. Lewis Coser (1957) argues that conflict is essential to bringing about social change, and that it is stimulatory to the technological and economic realms of society as it pushes for innovation and prevents a stagnate state of being. Out of the conflict over water use in California can come technological and political innovation that can help to alleviate this conflict. The normal response for California is crisis-driven responses, but it has been shown that these policies increase vulnerability, and certain strategies in one sector have a negative impact on other

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.

Have you ever imagined picture of California arid and lifeless in the next few years because of the drought? That is likely to come true if we don’t know how to use water wisely. Now in California, The valleys become barren and rivers and lakes are gradually drying up due to lack of water.Because California is in serious shortage of water and the water reserves are being depleted due to the prolonged dry heat and it has been happening for several years and have more negative developments. Since records of researchers that 81% California in an “ extreme drought ” and the main cause of droughts are climate change, overuse of groundwater resources and the issues of water storage systems.