California Water Shortage
California’s Water Shortage 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. One of the main factors of the water shortage is the many polluted rivers and waterways California has. Rivers are polluted with trash and run-off of chemical waste from many different places. Storms as well are a big factor in the polluted water. After many storms run-off from many rivers from neighboring places all ends up in the Pacific at some point. In San Diego run-off from the Tijuana River always ends up on San Diego Beaches. Making the water polluted and filled with trash. The trash ends up in places where water is needed and the water cannot be used because it is not viable. Rivers provide for a large amount of water that farmers need to grow their crops in California. Many farms are built along the many rivers. With pollution in the water many farmers cant use the water that the river provides because it would cause their crops to go bad. And would lead to many other problems and possibly failure and loss of the farms. (Imperial Beach, San Diego, CA) One of the problems in the polluted waterways is that more freshwater is being used. California has many rivers that have unhealthy water so river waters cant be used. Since more freshwater is being used it is not being replenished, more water is being used and less is being put
Cited: Thorngren, J.R.. "Pollution on California." Pollution in California. 07 Jun 2006. 11 Apr 2009 <http://daphne.palomar.edu/calenvironment/pollution.htm>. "Mandatory Conservation Measures." Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. 04 Jun 2008. 11 Apr 2009 <http://www.lvmwd.com/index.aspx?page=44>. "California American Water asks for conservation." Sacramento Business Journal. 31 Mar 2009. 11 Apr 2009 <http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2009/03/30/daily36.html>. "Dry California OKs huge desalination plant." MSNBC. 07 Apr 2008. Associated Press. 11 Apr 2009 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26075457/>. "California Needs to Move Cautiously on Desalination." Pacific Institute. 27 Jun 2006. 11 Apr 2009 <http://www.pacinst.org/reports/desalination/20060627.html>. "Tijuana River Pollution, San Diego." Tijuana River Pollution Pictures. 27 Feb 2009. 11 Apr 2009 <http://www.oceanlight.com/log/tijuana-river-pollution-san-diego.html>. "Oil spill closes San Francisco beache." MSNBC. 8 Nov 200. 11 Apr 2009 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21689998/>. Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "Gov. Schwarzenegger Takes Action to Address California’s Water Shortage." Office of the Governor. 27 Feb 2009. 11 Apr 2009 <http://gov.ca.gov/press- release/11556/>.