California is facing a monumental challenge to meet the water demand of its current and projected population. Climate change, drought in California and the Colorado River Basin, legal mitigation in the Owens Valley and Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, and a rapidly growing population has created a serious water scarcity that will affect every person and business in California this year, particularly Southern Californians. As a result of this, we will all be facing significant water rate increases and water rationing programs being instituted by water districts across the state.
Here are the issues in more detail:
Population Growth –
In a 2005 US Census study, it was projected مياه that by 2030, California’s population will swell to over 46 million people, a 37% increase over the population measured in 2000. 46 million people would also make it the most populous state in the US. Most of this growth is forecasted to land in the central valley and southern California. (Where the demand for water is already high!)
Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado are all predicted to be in the top 15 of the biggest population growth as a percentage compared to their year 2000 numbers. Notably, Nevada and Arizona are expected to increase in population by more than 100%. It is significant to note that all four of these states rely upon the already strained Colorado river for water.
Drought –
After experiencing two years of drought and the driest spring in recorded history, California’s water reserves are extremely low. This led Governor ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER on June, 2008 to proclaim a condition of statewide drought in California.
Statewide rainfall has been below normal in 2007 and 2008, with many Southern California communities receiving only 20 percent of normal rainfall in 2007, and Northern California this year experiencing the driest spring on record with most communities receiving less than 20 percent of normal rainfall from March through May 2008.
This has also led to critically dry water conditions in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins. The statewide runoff forecast for 2008 is estimated to be 41 percent below average.
The Colorado River Basin, an important source of water for many southwestern states including California, has also experienced a record eight-year drought resulting in current reservoir storage throughout the river system reduced to just over 50 percent of total storage capacity.
The counties of El Dorado, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Diego were witness and victim to these record dry conditions after the devastating fires last year, which resulted in millions of dollars in damages.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta –
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is located east of the San Francisco Bay Area at the confluence of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers. The Delta encompasses 738,000 acres, stretching inland nearly 50 miles. Five rivers flow into the Delta area, accounting for nearly half the snowmelt and runoff of the entire state.The Delta region is host to two of the largest surface water delivery systems in the world! Over two-thirds of the state’s population receives a portion of their drinking water from the Delta.
The Delta is also home to a multitude of fish, wildlife and migratory waterfowl. It is the largest estuary on the west coast, and an important stop on the Pacific Flyway. However, water project operations have impacted native fish populations, and the Delta smelt, once the most populous fish in the estuary, is now on the brink of extinction.
In an attempt to protect the remaining smelt population, Judge Wanger, a federal court judge, ruled on August of 2007, that both the State Water Project and Central Valley Project were operating in violation of the Endangered Species Act, and ordered reductions in the amount of water exported from the Delta. It is estimated that this court order dropped the amount of water that could be drawn from the delta by 50%, compared to previous years
