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California Water Scarcity

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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 …show more content…
The lack of snow and rainfall in the South West is resulting in the depletion of ground water and overuse of the Colorado River. Evidence suggests that the March 3rd measurement of the statewide snowpack was the water equivalent of five inches, or nineteen percent of the average for that date. “It’s anticipated that the current drought condition will result in a reduction of between ten to forty percent of water flow” (Thebaut, 2008). Without water in the Colorado River, we don’t have energy or crops to grow food and electricity bills will increase tremendously. The best solutions for the California drought issue are water treatments, sharing water and using less ground water, however there are other methods that I believe should be experimented. Desalination, fog catching and Geoengineering are other alternatives that need to be explored. Although some methods are more affective than others, desalination is a method that it is very expensive and cannot be depended on. In Santa Barbara, the desalination plant is being taken out of mothballs at a cost of about $40 million dollars. “Desalination is our absolute last resort,” said Helene Schneider, the mayor. “Unfortunately, given the way the drought is going, we are now at that last resort” (Schneider, 2015). Desalination is not the best option, however it should not be …show more content…
Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado all use the same water from the Colorado River, however there are sharing guidelines that need to be followed. In 1922, there was an agreement between seven U.S states called the Colorado River Compact and the subsequent project called the Boulder Canyon Project. This project divided the amount of water given to the seven South West states and Mexico. Unfortunately, not every state received an equal amount of water, so it has caused a lot of feuds in the South West. California only has two sources for water, the Colorado River aqueduct and the California aqueduct. California is only increasing in size, which requires an increase in water; therefore, the South West drought is only going to get worse. With all of the water projects and division of states, there are certain restrictions within establishments. The hospitality industry faces new requirements for service policies. Restaurants and bars are permitted to serve water only upon request, while hotels must ask multi-night guests whether they want their linen and towels laundered. People can get up to five hundred dollar fines for hosing down their driveways. “The regulations require local water agencies that don’t already limit outdoor watering to certain days of the week to adopt a two-day-a-week policy. Among the Bay Area agencies that would have to impose the

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