...Physical Factors Southern California is largely flat, with no really impressive mountain ranges, and obviously well... it's further south. The moist air masses usually pass north of us, just because of how air currents in this part of the world flow. Warm air holds onto its moisture very well. Thus... we're very dry down here. Northern California has a number of rows of pretty good mountains, the moist air flows directly into the area, and as it hits he mountains, it rises and cools, dropping most of its water as both rain and snow. This is the western part of the "rain shadow effect." So in the north, water is not only dropped by being north and cold, but it's collected and funnelled by the mountains. The Central Valley / San Joachim Valley is in between the extremes, which is what makes it the "Bread Basket of the United States," and almost the entire world. More than half of the entire US food supply (agriculture, dairy, and livestock) comes out of our Central Valley. Where do they get it from? Southern California, home to half of the state's population, depends on the State Water Project, the Colorado River Aqueduct and the Los Angeles Aqueduct supply for about half of its supply. California's vast agricultural industry is also dependent on water projects, both large and small. The California State Water Project is the largest multipurpose, state-built water project in the United States. The SWP transports water from the Feather River watershed to agriculture...
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...California Water Crisis California is the third largest state in the United States and the nation’s leading agricultural producer and has been for the last 60 years. Located on the west coast, its agriculture provides millions of jobs and generates close to $27.6 billion dollars in sales annually. With California being the leader in agricultural production, a lot of water is a necessity and the biggest user of water in California is, you got it, the agriculture industry. Before 1922, 6 of the 7 states, including California, which are visited by the Colorado River, signed the Colorado River Compact. This was an agreement among the states governing the allocation of the water rights to the river’s water. California’s rapid growth in population and agriculture began to cause concern for other Colorado River Basin states who feared that California would established priority rights to the river water. The Imperial Valley, located in Southern California, was already relying heavily on the Colorado River for significantly agricultural development (www.usbr.com 2012). For years, California has had their fair share of problems regarding the amount of water that had supposed to been allocated to them or surplus water that the other states never used. In the 1930’s, Southern California’s rights to the river water were thought to be settled and solidified when several agencies signed water delivery contracts with the Secretary of the Interior. The contracts stated the priorities...
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...California’s Water Problem Introduction: Water Sources in California In her book entitled Managing Water: Avoiding Crisis in California, the ecologist and historian Dorothy Green describes the complicated and intricate California water system (University of California Press, October 9, 2007). Green’s description and analysis becomes more important to the people of California with every week that passes/ This is because California is now in the fourth year of drought in which no rain, snow, or hail has fallen (“California Drought”, CA.gov. Online at: http://ca.gov/drought/). In her work on the topic, Dorothy Green describes very carefully the system by which the rain, snow, and hail that fall in northern California move downwards in a flow of water that serves the entire state thanks to the power of gravity. The river systems of California include Colorado River and the Sacramento River. These great river systems move the water southwards, (to Los Angeles) and westwards (to San Francisco), respectively. In addition to these well known rivers to the system of rivers in California includes more than thirty rivers including the Klamath, the American, the Tolumne, the Merced, the Yuba, the Kern, the Russian, the Tule, and right here in Los Angeles the Los Angeles River which runs right through the industrial section of downtown Los Angeles in a cement channel : In addition to the river systems of California, Green describes a network of dam release channels, canals...
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...Major Water Scarcity in California And it’s Effect on the American South West This essay explains the lack of precipitation in South West America and its effects on California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. It also explores the numerous alternatives that could be used in order to solve this water crisis. The cause of the drought in California is the lack of snowfall in the Rocky Mountains, which caused the river to evaporate. As temperatures are rising, it causes water to evaporate and dry out soil that we need to plant crops. Authorities are reducing the flow from Colorado’s two reservoirs, Lake Powell, which supplies the upper Colorado Basin, and Lake Mead, which supplies Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Evidence suggests “For the...
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...California's Water Crisis The state of California has dealt with many problems, one of the most major ones being the drought. California has dealt with droughts for many years now. The current drought isn’t the first,it's one of many. Myself along with many hope it is the last. Do the people in California have what it takes to solve the problem? California gets most of their water supply from the aqueduct,colorado river, sacramento, and from water conservation. The Los Angeles Aqueduct receives water from the Eastern Sierra Nevada. The aqueduct now gets the supply from basins and snow covered mountains within the state. This water comes from far distances just to get to anyones place. The colorado river provides water for the upper part of calfornia. The state gets water from sacramento, the surface water found their is about 85 percent and groundwater is about 15 percent. Thirty to forty percent of ground water is used by the state(aceplumbing). The most significant droughts recorded are from 1929-1934, 1976-1977, 1987-1992, 2011-present (California Department of Water Resources). According to the article the year 2014,overlapping the driest calendar year, ended September 30 the states 3rd driest in 119 years of record. The weather has a lot to do with the drought. The state has been struggling for a very long time. There has been a few ideas to try and fix the issue but those ideas are not enough because obviously the drought keeps...
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...There are numerous of environmental problems, in this country, but the major problem going on in California is the need of water. Water is the main resource to many things so there can be life. If water doesn’t flow in California, many residents are going to be migrating to a different state. The three ways I believe it should be handled is by, conserving it in resident’s houses, closing water parks, and the responsibilities of the teachers to educate their students. Closing several places where water is normally used is a good start saving water. In order for this issue to be solved, everyone has to contribute, so therefore water doesn’t get wasted. Residents from California should take in consideration that water is very important and useful,...
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...Article of the Week Response In the article “The Wrong Way to Think about California Water”, the passage “Urban use: The shame of turf” talks about the cutbacks that average Californians have taken. Californians have cut back their water usage by 54 gallons from 1995 to 2010. The main reason of this sudden decrease in the amount of gallons used is turf, artificial grass. The passage states “‘We need to look at lawns the way we look at smoking in restaurants’, Gleick says, “‘as not a good idea anymore.’” I disagree with Gleick’s statement because there are plenty of other options, besides turf, to use as lawns, and I disagree with Gleick when he says that lawns are not a good idea anymore. Californians can turn their lawns into a water wise...
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...live in today is depleting our water resources in a way that it is hard to restore the damage. Out of all the states in the U.S., California is in an extreme drought right now and it could get worse than it already is. There are a lot of inconsiderate people out there that waste gallons of water on unnecessary things that are contributing to the drought. Therefore, it is time that people are informed on how to take appropriate action towards not wasting valuable water. Water is an important substance for the everyday necessities for both human beings and animals. It is used for drinking, washing, and irrigating plants. In one single word, water is used for everything. There isn’t a single thing we do that does not require us to have contact with water. In this paper I demonstrate that water conservation is important because we are in a severe drought, and show that taking shorter showers, watering the lawn every other week, and fixing leakages can reduce water usage....
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...As you aware, California has recently slowly been alleviated from severe to extreme drought conditions. An influx of winter storms have caused widespread flooding throughout the state and even damage to the Oroville dam due to an overflow of water. With these current weather conditions, talks about lessening and reducing water regulations have began. Currently, each Californian uses about 181 gallons of water a day, not to mention, California uses more water than any other state. I support the public regulations of water use. However, the valley farmers and irrigation should be allowed lenient water restrictions since they account for almost all of North America's agricultural produce. Additionally, funding for water collection and conservation should be a top priority for California....
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...Water Crisis Impact in California Monica Mois Essentials of College Writing/COMM/215 October 6, 2014 Carolyn Geiser Water Crisis Impact in California 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. Communities, Agriculture, Organic Ranchers and Dairy Farmers Many communities in California struggle with shortage of drinking water. One example is “the small community of Cameron Creek Colony in Tulare County is struggling due to severe drought. About ten percent of its residents have no access to water because their wells have run dry. Others have only intermittent access” (USDA, 2014). In other communities, residents are urged to avoid wasting water. The Waterboards.ca.gov (2014) website has a list of emergency water conservation regulations stating that every citizen is prohibited to use potable water to wash sidewalks and driveway, to use hoses with no shut off nozzles to wash their cars, water the lawn more than two times a week, and reduce the amount of watering time for each station using an automatic sprinkler system. Residents could face...
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...California Water Security Much of the American West is experiencing historical water shortages; however, California, the most populous state with 38 million people, has been hit the hardest. California is the world’s sixth largest economy, despite only being a state. Historically, California has had an abundant amount of water. When pipes and damns and reservoirs were built up, rural regions of California were given huge quotas for water, furthermore the price of water was incredibly cheap. There was no stress on the need for water – modern California is not like that. For the past four years, California has been suffering from the worst drought in its history. Due to this, many efforts have been put in place in order to improve the state’s water security. Much of California is arid, it only receives 250-500mm of water a year; just above desert climate. Around 65 % of that precipitation is lost through evaporation and transpiration, 13 % flows out into the sea - leaving only 22 % left for human consumption. Furthermore, California's natural supply of water levels is seasonal, leading to shortages in between seasons that do not have a lot of rainfall. North California is in water surplus, over 75% of water falls there but around 75% of California's population live in the south – where there is a water deficit, leading to an immense amount of pressure to the population and how much water they are able to get. Agriculture and water usage Currently, 43 % of California’s...
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...nt1320 The State of California is in its worst water drought to date, many are affected by the water shortage including farm crops, and small cities. The management of the states water resources are not up to standards; however; their efforts of water conservation are improving. The state of California has issued state-wide regulations for water use, but many cities are taking it a step further. The City of Fresno is in a stage two storage contingency plan, which regulates outdoor water usage. According to the city of Fresno's website (www.fresno.gov) the watering schedule allows residences and local business to water outside on specific days Depending on the last digit of their street numbers. For example; street numbers ending in ODD numbers can water on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Street numbers ending with EVEN numbers can water on Wednesdays and Sundays. Also watering can only happen from the hours of 7:00pm to 6:00am. Anyone who is caught not following the water restrictions in the City of Fresno can face a $500 daily fine. In Madera county, the city has declared a stage four plan to conserve water. This means that watering outdoors is prohibited, even parks and other recreational facilities. Their goal is to reduce water usage in half. If water usage is being abused the board of supervisors can increase the penalties. The states government is also trying to request a bond that will allow the state to build reservoirs and aboveground water storages including a dam...
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...Water Use in California Everyone in America knows that California is in a severe drought, but how we got in a drought? A lot of a people blame it on how us Californians are ignorant people who don’t know how to preserve anything, others blame it on how it doesn’t rain here? Well it’s a little bit of both and other reasons affect it as well. Although the use of water has benefited the businessmen,cities,and farmers it has also severely harmed the the environment and Native Americans. The use of our water has helped farmers feed twenty five percent of our Americans. Yet, they have been given most of our water as Document 3 states. “... eighty percent of California surface water supports agriculture, largely...
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...Devastating Water Shortage in California COMM/215 Essentials of College Writing 9/1/2014 Devastating Water Shortage in California Imagine lush green grass everywhere, trees full of life, birds singing, butterflies dancing, lovely flowers blooming year round, surfers headed to the beach to catch a wave, and the smell of fresh cut grass. Doesn’t this paint a perfect place? This is the view when you drive around Southern California. However, California is experiencing the biggest water drought in California's history contributing to severe water shortage. You surely wouldn't know this is happening if you came for a visit. It is time for the residents of California to take off their rose-colored glasses and see the seriousness of the water shortage. They need to educate themselves on how to conserve water and learn to apply some of the techniques into their daily lives. It is estimated that California residents will run out of water within the next twelve to eighteen months if no one takes action right now. California is in the third year of this devastating water drought, and there seems to be no weather related relief in sight. There are many time-consuming and costly solutions to fix this ongoing water shortage, but these solutions will take years. Building a new aqueduct, accessing new water resources, and converting saltwater to usable water will make an impact and help the water shortage further down the road. Farmlands...
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...years between 1986 and 2015. Rawls described California as a place of promise and paradox, which was true, however it is no longer thought of as a place of promise. Areas of California like Los Angeles and Hollywood have helped develop the ideology of California creating fame, success, and fortune, however current economic and environmental instability have altered its attractive identity. People no longer wish to live in California. Once admired for being “the place that never rains,” is now a growing concern. The lack of water is not only affecting the environment, but is worsening the economy. The drought of California has become familiarized throughout the United States. Although...
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