Rodolfo Santillan
English 115
August 8, 2015
Water Shortage in California The California drought as of March 2015 has increased severely and has affected not just the residents of California, but also the farmers as well. My claim is to find a reliable way to save water and have the residents of California informed about the situation and the wastefulness of water being replenished. In this paper I want to address the issue of how much water we are constantly wasting even though we are in an exceptionally severe drought. I believe that the water shortage not only affects the residents but also takes a toll in the agricultural areas as well. I want to argue the point that everyone who wastes water is held responsible and what we could do
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“The Governor of California has already declared a state of emergency and has told everybody to cut water use by 20 percent, anyone who overuses water should be reported and are fine that up to $500.” (Greg Wuertz, 2014) The Drought affects everyone, we need water to survive, with less than 17 inches of rainfall, the agricultural areas will be parched of water and will be in need of water. Because of this, the farmers are forced to raise up their prices in order for them to maintain a balance. So those who live outside of California might tell themselves “Why do I care? This does not effect me at all.” It actually does,”California grows and exports a majority of the fruits and nuts eaten by the rest of the country. “By eating food grown in California, Americans indirectly uses more than 300 gallons of the state’s water each week,” so yes, it does affect …show more content…
Californians are using standard heads on their showers and are taking an abundant amount to get clean. There are so many products that you can buy at your local store that can reduce water use by half of what you regularly use. People who don’t use WaterSense shower heads that save up to 2,900 gallons per day and instead use regular shower head should be warned and show the problems it caused to our water supply. Those who over water their lawns are wasting 265 gallons of water monthly, and those who wash their cars and driveways are wasting 80 to 140 gallons of water were as an actual car wash garage only uses 30 to 45 gallons of water, we might think we are not wasting a lot, but we actually are. We do know that agriculture takes almost 70% of the water usage in California, but that’s because we need that water to help our produce survive. “California is one of the biggest providers in the world for fruits, vegetables and nuts.” (Zamora, Amanda, Lauren Kirchner, and Abrahm Lustgarten 2014) Without water providing this help, California would be affected almost
After more than five years of drought in California, we are just now beginning to see an above-average precipitation,and this is leaving many to ask, "is the drought over?" This last drought was one of the worsts droughts California has experienced in history and it left many panicked and trying to come up with solutions. “Governor Jerry Brown even made one of the first cutback to farmers ' water rights since 1977, and ordered cities and towns to cut water use by as much as 36 percent ” (Zamora,et al..) Overall California has 39 million residents and on top of that California also grows an unbelievable amount of
Californians are being heavily fined for using a certain amount of water a month, which impacts the daily lives of everyone. Water is a natural resource that is crucial to everyone’s survival. Whether if it’s being used for cooking, showering, gardening, washing your car or just simply drinking purposes; water is a necessity for everyone. Though the bill has not yet been passed by congress and officially has not become a law, the issue still remains on the table. The drought in California has taken a massive toll on agriculture, the environment and infrastructure. The drought is on its route to damage California’s climate change. In the past three consecutive years the average rain fall has drastically decreased, and the winter temperatures have increased. Since majority of California’s water comes from the Western Rocky Mountains, the water supply there is dropping resulting in more strict laws and regulations on how much water can be consumed by the average
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
For at least the past four years, California has been in a drought. Since it has been so long of a drought, officials are finally starting to encourage people to diminish their usage of water. When the encouragements are not working, they use force and statewide restrictions are put into place. In an article titled ¨The Wrong Way to Think about California Water¨ by Michael Hiltzik, the author rants on Californians for the amount of water that they use daily, yearly, and constantly. However, the argument only supports one side.
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:
California's future will be heavily impacted by this drought if things don’t change. Everything from its economy, to the people, to the physical land itself, is being threatened. According to American Farmland Trust, one eighth of the nation’s agricultural production comes from California: a third of the nation’s vegetables, and almost two thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. Agriculture is an enormous industry and is occasionally the only industry in certain parts of the state that is going through a severe drought. It’s impossible to grow crops without water, and it’s impossible to make money from crops that never grew, so in many areas the economy would collapse without sufficient water. American Farmland Trust
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.
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
From a wider scope of things, water usage is important for more reasons than solely the drought in California. As the world’s population nears 7.4 billion people, more people are born each day compared to how many pass away. Looking at the world’s total volume of water, only 2.5% of it is drinkable fresh water. Furthermore, 70% of that freshwater is frozen. With an every increase population like the one we have today, it is likely that water will become the most important resource to mankind. The problem lies in the way the fresh water is
Californians have been struggling with trying to conserve our water for over three years. Twenty-Thirteen was our driest year in many populated areas in California, and it doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, unless we all act now. In twenty-thirteen, Los Angeles and Sacramento, went down on record as the driest two cities in California. A drought is when area of land scarcely drop rain. Droughts are caused from climate changes and lack of precipitation, resulting in a shortage of water. Water is vital for all living things and is the essential component of all life. This ongoing drought has drastically affected the state of California. The long-term change in climate is truly affecting California. Our water reservations are lower than
Many different government campaigns have been created to educate the resident of California about the seriousness of this drought. The Save Our Water Campaign is a government campaign to reach out to residents in order to teach them how to conserve water. This campaign also try’s to convince people to forget about their green laws and focus on clean water (Save, 2015). Incentive programs have also been created for different counties in California. These incentive programs range from up to a 50 dollar reward for replacing a regular toilet for a high efficiency toilet all the way to replacing your entire grass or water dependent lawn to something that doesn’t need water for as much as 10 thousand dollars (Rebates, 2015). California’s Governor Jerry Brown has also mandated water cuts by 25 percent. Setting restrictions on residential water usage and giving out fines or penalties to residents who disobey. Another executive order given by Governor Jerry Brown is that the Department of Water Resources has to replace 50 million square feet of grass with fake grass, dirt, or pavement. There have also been rewards given to people who replace their grass lawns with other types of landscape (California,
California can meet their water needs by using this precious resource much more efficiently than they are presently doing. California has been raising sustainable awareness by adding bulb-lit freeway signs every 10 miles along California Interstate 5 that say “Serious drought, help save water”, they have also printed placards that are posted in sparsely blooming almond and cherry groves, asparagus fields, and mile upon mile of empty dry cracked or tilled earth that warn people to use less water. As California continues to grow, this puts more pressure on their limited water supplies. California needs to figure out a way to manage their groundwater basins to secure the future of agriculture life.
The low of water affect the most important supply of agriculture in the U.S. California agriculture produce more than 90% of food to the United States. The drought causes a massive economic problem from two directions. Katie Fehrenbacher from The Guardian states that agriculture industry has lost $1.5bn and more than 17,000 seasonal job. That statistic shows that the drought causes the agriculture a huge loss of money and farmers do not have jobs anymore. As a result the prices of food will rise and the cost of water will decrease. Since 2011 when the draught begun no one take a position or talk about it as a real problem they did not start to think about a real solutions to solve the problem until now. The mandatory cut of using water is a temporary solution the water will not last for more than one year. Reduce agriculture will hit the economy of the state and cause many problems because the lack of jobs. The number of Crimes will rise in the areas that suffer mostly from draught; people cannot find food or water. Farmers digging for water underground which increase the consumption of the underground water by 40%. Also, as far they go underground the amount of salt in water increase,
In recent years, California’s water shortage has been an issue and in 2014 an alarming driest historical year has impacted the state in different ways. Because of the lack of rainfall and snow, California’s reservoirs are running insignificant water basins below their capacity. While water shortages are experienced slowly and throughout a length of time, the harshest impacts are noticeable in areas that produce California’s food where wells are used as resource for water in agriculture, and residential areas. Though, most agree the drought is an issue some do not agree. To understand the circumstances, this paper will look at the drought’s impacts on California’s economy for agricultural, famers, and consumers. Also, this written work will examine the environmental consequences of surface water obtainability, and the areas that have encounter the most devastating affects. For most, this paper will examine the allocations of the governor’s drought declaration, and the strategies used by residents to conserver water.
California Homeowners Contend with a Drought California is in an official drought, which is now evidenced by the fact that there are now sanctions in place causing those found wasting water to incur a fine. In fact, according to Swain et al. (2014) “California’s driest 12-month period on record occurred during 2013114, and although global warming has very likely increased the probability of certain large-scale atmospheric conditions, implications for extremely low precipitation in California remain uncertain” (p. S3). This debate regarding the drought has been a topic that is affecting everyone from: business owners, the agriculture sector, and homeowners alike. What has gone from asking residents to help ration water usage has now become so critical that the governments are officially mandating water usage reduction or fines will be incurred.