The California State Water Plan

Abraham Lustgarten has written a very informative article that is published by Pro Publica and titled “How the West Overcounts Its Water Supplies.” In great detail, he analyzes the drought situation in Arizona and California to draw attention the underlying cause: the miscounting of available water. There is miscounting because officials are refusing to legally accept that the major water resource of the West—the Colorado River—is interconnected with underground water resources. All in all, Lustgarten writes a convincing article that effectively addresses the need for officials to recognize the interconnection of ground and surface water so that water shortage in the West can be better managed; he does this through his ability to gain the

6.The California Water Project takes water from northern California to the south through various means. The two sides have disagreements on how the water should be used. Northern Californians argue that if they sent more water to the south, they would waste it, resulting in the Sacramento River being degraded. However, southern Californians still want more water, because they feel that their growing populations and agricultural needs require the water.

The State of Colorado has suffered from a water shortage in recent years; a difficult situation which is easily visible when viewing the quickly shortening length of the Colorado River. Lake Mead, for example, is roughly 130 feet lower than it once was, marked by the stained rock which towers above the current water level. “The river has become a perfect symbol of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource: it disappears. In fact, the Colorado no longer regularly reaches the sea” (Zielinski, 2010). Legislation was implemented early on to address this issue, though the results were (perhaps not surprisingly) rather unanticipated, regarding

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

According to the EPA, two of the best and most effective ways to conserve water include metering and drip irrigation (“How to Conserve Water and Use It Effectively”). Metering is effective because “surcharges also give customers a financial incentive to use less water on landscaped areas” (Vickers 340). If home and business owners meter their water, then these people will tend to use less water because they can control the flow of water during the day and night. They can set specific times to have the water on. Also, metering shows how much water a household or industry is using, and by being able to observe the amount of water used, water is conserved because water bills increase. One drawback to metering is that it has an initial start up cost. While it does cost an initial deposit to install, metering eventually saves money and conserves water. Studies show that metering reduces water usage and saves money in the long term (Vickers 382). Not only does metering systems need to be implemented into Arizona’s households and industries, but also drip irrigation needs to be used

Arizona has an incredibly large dependence on the Colorado River and groundwater. In fact, 39% of all water usage in Arizona is comprised of Colorado River water. Any dependence of that scale on any resource that originates in another area is always a major risk, as any major disaster or drastic change to the source of the river can cripple the state’s water supply. Furthermore, while Arizona does house the majority of the Lower Basin of the Colorado, the Colorado’s Upper Basin is shared between 4 other states, all with their own water needs and all with a susceptibility to drought. On the other hand, another 40% of all water Arizona uses is from groundwater sources. However, the Colorado River and these groundwater sources in the Colorado River basins have lost over 65 cubic kilometers of water over the last 9 years, with nearly 2/3 of it from groundwater loss due to over-pumping. This is because

Texas is a state that has a continuous history of arising issues and conflicts dealing with immigration policies, education policies, environmental policies, social welfare policies and many other disputes. Texas has a business mind-set view and the decisions made with only business goals are affecting the environment in a negative manner. “Rich natural resources, abundant land, a central location within the United States and a business-friendly environment have long attracted both immigrants and U.S. natives to Texas” (Petersen and Assanie). People are moving into the state of Texas for better opportunities the land provides but land is not being properly taken care of. Texas is located a geographic region where the state is rich with

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

Over the years, conflict has emerged over whether the water that is distributed to the state of California should be equally provided to every part of the state, regardless of where the water has come from. People have argued that California has small water systems that they polluted by industrial uses, which makes them less efficient. People have also claimed that the state’s water systems are located in low income communities which makes it hard to gather funds for improvement. However, the distribution of water to all parts of California has many positive aspects to it. Many regions of the state have water restrictions and limited uses of water, which makes makes it more difficult for these regions. People have argued that the provision

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.

When referring to Arizona’s water Kris Mayes, chairwoman of the state’s utility regulatory panel once said, “How do you say just how valuable water is in an arid state like Arizona?” she said. “It’s like the credit-card commercial-it’s priceless” (McKinnon). She was right, because in a dry state like Arizona, water is pretty important. To say water is ‘pretty important’ for the world is an understatement. We use water to function. And when we think of water we think of saving it. Keep the faucets from dripping or turn off the water while brushing your teeth. There are numerous tips for water conservation, but people don’t often think of the damage that is already done. Damages like ‘dead zones’. Dead zones in the ocean have been around for

“Here goes another repetitive essay about water conservation,” you might be thinking, and I don’t blame you. There are a lot of essays and organizations that repeatedly send messages about the importance of using our water thoughtfully before it runs out. This same message has been repeated for decades, and yet, water has continued to flow freely from faucets and showers. Even though water has not run out yet, these authors and groups are not doomsday fanatics that predict the end of the world. They have a very valid reason

Lourdes S. Arizpe, Margaret Priscilla. Stone, and David C. Major in their book, “Population and Environment: Rethinking the Debate,” surmise that, “Material resources are indeed finite, and the more of them we use, the sooner they will be exhausted.” The essence of their argument is that we don’t often think about what happens to our waste when we flush the toilet or how the damming of a water way effects the natural aquifers. We don’t reflect on what is released into the water by our local factories and how it can affect us personally. We don’t see that we are using up our fresh water supply faster than it can be replenished, and we may not notice until it is too late. In his article “The Numbers Game” Jim Motavalli declares that “One study suggests that most of the entire Western United States, already severely water

In Texas, no authorization is required for the domestic use of less than 400 gallons of gray water each day. Recycling water can save energy because its takes a lot of power to send water around. It may also contain high nutrients and is useful for irrigation. Recycled water can help reduce waste water discharge into oceans and thus reduces pollution. The only possible way we can stop drought as well as future and present water shortages is by raising awareness about the benefits of reusing greywater. This is turn

Currently California has a terrible water problem, which is causing many people to cease watering in excess all across the state. The reason California has water problems is that we are emptying our underground aquifers during a drought that has been going on and many people are still wasting water on their own personal opportunities. There are many options toward either ending or surviving the water issue, such as the idea of war to take the water that California needs to survive. Another is to build a pipeline from a place with extra rainfall annually that California can syphon off for usage. Another is the option to conserve water across the state and to reuse water as much as possible to minimize excess water usage. The most viable of these solutions is the conservation and recycling of water. By conserving and recycling water there is no waste, only recycled water for cleaning dishes, watering plants, and washing houses and cars. The only foreseeable problem is that the process cannot be monitored and people are only held by honesty and a promise to do what they can to conserve water, but the conservation of water seems to be the most affordable, quickly enacted, and can be done by most families. Also the other options require a higher amount of financial support to begin and continued maintenance, large spans of time to orchestrate, and would need a lot of manpower. With the option of water conservation time, money, and manpower is not as high of a needed factor when