California Water Crisis: What You NEED to Know

Source: http://keywordsuggest.org/

California has been dealing with climate change, and water scarcity due to an extensive drought, but March of 2015 marked the date when Governor Jerry Brown mandated water restrictions to combat the effects of the drought from the previous 4 years. We are coming up on nearly a decade of the drought, and the damage is unsurmountable thus far. The drought is not only affecting California, but the entire West Coast as well. There are five key points to understand about the drought in order to continue the process of conserving resources for our future generations.

1) The majority of California's water supply comes from snowpack that melts flowing into lakes, or streams. The climate change causes record breaking temperatures for the winter seasons leading to a decline in storms that replenish the snowpack. The consumption of California's water is at a higher pace than the environment can produce, and causing us to see the effects.

2) Water on the surface is not the only source, because there hidden supplies beneath the surface in aquifers, or groundwater. These resources have been being used to make up for the lack of resources above the surface, but the aquifers in the Central Valley are being depleted at an exponential rate. These use of these resources have not been regulated in the past, but the legislation to regulate was passed in 2015.

3) There is a 25% water restriction to reduce demand, but the majority of water used in California is used by farmers for agricultural purposes. With no restrictions put on the farmers they are abusing the groundwater supply to sustain the growth of their farms due to the lack of water available above ground. There will be a larger step towards conservation once the legislation changes from "reporting" water use to the state, and evolves into a full on "regulation" of water use by the farmers.

4) To think the California is the only state dealing with a drought, or water scarcity is a misconception. Much of the West is dealing with similar issues, because snowpack is below normal in Washington, and Oregon as well. Areas from Las Vegas to Phoenix to Los Angeles have all been experiencing a drought for over a decade, because the Colorado River Basin has been declining as well. If these resources continue to decline this will grow from a regional issue into a national issue, and a global issue not far after that (Some would argue we have already reached that point).

5) This is NOT the FIRST drought in California. There was a drought in the 1970's, but at the time only 20 million people resided in the area while over 40 million people live in the region now. Californian's have improved their efficiency in water use immensely over the years, but the resources used as back-up are non-renewable, and once those are depleted we will be stuck looking for new conservation tactics to sustain an environment suitable to inhabit.

For further information check out https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150406-california-drought-snowpack-map-water-science/

Keywords: California, Drought, Water, Crisis, Scarcity, Conservation, Resources, West Coast, United States, Regional, National, Global, Ojai

By Austin 'AJ' Holman