Bill McEwen in the article, River Plan Too Fishy for my Taste Buds, points out the river plan has two large flaws. The flaws McEwen explains in the article were: “One, it’s tied to putting salmon back in the river. Two, there is no funding for dams or river recirculation technology that would maximize Sierra water runoff and lessen the economic devastation to some San Joaquin Valley farmers.” (McEwen 1) McEwen supports these claim with examples, quotes from professionals, and reasoning. The purpose of his article was so he could make readers be aware that the river restoration plan won’t work.
With the Colorado River supplying 43% of all agricultural water consumption and 41% of all Municipal and Industrial water supply in the basin, losing access to this resource entirely for one year would cost $1.434 trillion in combined state GDP [2]. Just a ten percent decline in water availability will reduce combined basin states GDP by $143.4 billion, reduce employment in the area by 1.6 million job-years, and reduce labor income by 87.1billion dollars per year [2]. In addition to the shrinking economic production, the cost of living in the area would also start to increase. The water in the Colorado River provides inexpensive energy for the parts of the lower basin states, the cost of the power has doubled from the initial contracts, and if water levels fall to 1000', the costs could quintuple for customers that are bound to purchase the hydroelectric power until 2067 [8]. While the internal economy of the basin would suffer, the effects would also ripple into the rest of the country. The agricultural Imperial Valley in California, for example, provides two-thirds of the country's vegetables in the winter [9]. Without proper irrigation and water supply, production rates
McEwen and Weintraub both state evidence on the information on their articles. They both give support which makes me believe them both. In McEwen’s article “River Plan Too Fishy for my Taste Buds” he states that their is to many problems with legislation and their is no funding, but at the same time everyone els wants to restore the river. In other hand Weintaub in his article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkiling of Hope” he is all for it and he wants the changes.
In the ¨River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope¨, Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Authority, said “We hope to get double duty out of that water by taking it the long way around.¨ As Jacobsma is a general manager of the Friant water Authority, this offers us his experience, his ideas and his thoughts of how we can have hope for the project. President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill in March, the agreement turned into federal law when he signed it. The parties had been working on the restoration plan for more than two years laying the groundwork for the physical changes to come. When the president signed it, it made them get the approval which he supported for them to continue the process. The credibility of the author right has now been believable because he provided us with the ethics of President Obama and Jacobsma. The river will not necessarily end up to its full, natural path along its entire length. Too much has changed in the decades since the dams construction. They would use canals along some stretches to carry the water short distances and to ferry the salmon upstream. This is showing us logos with facts and information it offers an explanation on how to solve one of the problems with the plan. A professor named Peter Moyole, from UC Davis also had his opinion on the project. He said “We have never done anything on this scale”, but we were willing to try it and approve of the
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
The agriculture industry lost around 1.7 billion dollars, due to not having the proper water allocations for the fields. On the west wide of the valley, half of their 600,000 acres of farmland went fallow, because they didn’t have enough water to farm them. And about 14,500 farm workers in the Central Valley lost their jobs. Without the proper water allocations, farmers will have to continue to pump ground water at extremely high costs, which will force people out of the industry and raise the price of the products produced by the those who can stay in. The impact of the fight over water ripples far beyond those just in agriculture, it affects all of
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
Water resources in the state of California have deteriorated drastically as a result of the current drought event in the west coast of the United States. This has resulted in insufficient supplies of water to residents of southern California, as well as the devastation of wildlife and aquatic ecosystems that are characteristic of this area. This policy analysis will provide the context of the issue, as well as possible solutions, followed by a proposed policy plan to reach the policy goal of equitable and reliable water allocation in the state of California, drought resilience, as well as restoration of the destroyed ecosystems.
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
As said here, “It’s more than just for fish. It’s going to be good for recreation… ” (Daniel Weintraub) it shows the positive outlook on the future of the river. The plan is to bring back the salmon, but the people who used to be able to play in and about the river, will get the chance to do so again, bringing back the recreation to the San Joaquin. It’s explained vaguely, ‘“Having a living river will be a benefit to the entire region,”’. (Grossi) The people can only play around in a “living river”, as opposed to a dead river, how does one expect to play in that? The river plan has many people composing contradicting expectations, but the locals will try to make the best of the situation by admiring the water flowing by their houses, as it used to
One of them is that if they would put waste water on the Friant Dam there will be not that much of salmon. There was a huge money spent to let the water flow. It wasn't well spent because they still need to put water on the river. The San Joaquin River Restoration has not reach its goal, but it will. Some failures that occurred in The San Joaquin Restoration Project occurred when San Joaquin River caused lots of water to flood an island. Somewhat I change my viewpoint when I gathered information. My viewpoint remain the same because I feel bad for the salmon because they are not going to be that much of salmon when they put water. My viewpoint has somewhat changed because I feel bad because there is some parts that does not have water in
Another one of the many problems that the severe water drought caused was it has a big impact on farmers, families,business, and many other people in the Sacramento area. In “Addressing California’s Droughts” it states that the harsh drought has been hurting a lot of Sacramento families, farmers, and small business that don’t do so well because of the drought which affects their business majorly (Addressing California’s Droughts).The CBS News explain that the State Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin says “there simply is not enough water in the system to meet the needs of the farmers” (Facing Drought,California Will Not Allow Water To The Farmers, Cities). It is also said that without the water on the surface the farmers have to pump water from underground aquifers (Facing Drought,California Will Not Allow Water To The Farmers,Cities). This happens to alter the farmers and their business because without the water for their crops they end up not having any business because they don’t have any crops grown to
Marty Baum, the Indian Riverkeeper for the past three years, has been a part of the movement to help save the Indian River Lagoon since the beginning. Baum said there is unfortunately no quick solution to save the
A giant environmental issue in the Northeastern part of the United States is the Connecticut River and the pollution to it among other environmental issues that directly influence its seriousness and requirement of restoring the river to the healthiest it can be. The Connecticut River is home to a multitude of different fish and is an essential part of the habitat for other types of animals and species. The 410 mile river goes from the edge of Quebec, Canada all the way down to Long Island, New York taking up 11,260 square miles. It spans along five U.S. States and one Canadian province those states being Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Fresh water is a valuable resource in Texas and it is anticipated that over the next fifty years supply will cease to meet demand. The current state water plan has many inadequacies and is not considered to be very sustainable, cost-effective, or environmentally-sound. Basically for an estimated fifty three billion dollars, the plan proposes to build twenty six new reservoir sites and a series of long-haul water pipelines which would have environmentally damaging impacts (Hardberger). The state water plan does not account for some items that many environmentalists believe to be critical and mistakenly assumes that we will continue to use water in the same way for the next fifty years (Hardberger). The 2012 Texas State Water Plan should be
Water is a precious resource. It is the lifeblood of every living thing on Earth. California is in the midst of a water crisis. Combined with a three (plus) year drought and many people moving into the state there is not enough water to support the crops the farmers need to grow. There is also a tiny little fish that is causing a mess in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta water pumps were turned off to prevent the extinction of the tiny little fish. Some farmers have to let their fields sit idle for the fall and spring planting season. This is causing a lot of problems in California. The pumps need to be turned back on. The needs of the people should come before that of a fish.