California Drought

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Water is important in our lives. It provides us to live and nourishes our body. It also helps farmers to grow plants and raise animals, so they can provide food for us, but some states farmers are not getting enough water which can affect the state and cause issues within the state. California is one state that has been getting low amounts of water; it has been in a drought for almost four consecutive years. The drought has been affecting California, but mostly the drought is affecting the Central Valley and Stanislaus County. Farmers in the Stanislaus County are having trouble growing their crops because of the lack of water and some residents are frustrated because consumers have to pay more money for the produce that farmers grow. I believe…show more content…
The drought has put many farmers at a finical deficit and this is why they try to grow almond or walnut trees. They are trying the shift to these trees because 99 percent of all United States almonds and nuts are from the Central Valley and Stanislaus County, this will have farmers selling to other states for more money. Although almond and walnut tress take about 10 percent of California’s water, which is a lot more than most crops grown by farmers, but almonds make the most revenue and profit for most agriculturalists. While agriculturalists are making more money by selling almonds and other nuts, this does not solve the problem for the drought and lack of water, it only solves financial problems for some farmers, but not all of them. The drought also affects normal residents living in the Stanislaus County, this is because residents have to be more aware of the drought and keep it in their mind. The drought has a role in local resident’s lives as well because it makes them be more conservative with water usage. They will not only be conservative with water, but the drought…show more content…
A state like Oregon, which gets about 42 inches of rain per year can help out California for a fair price. When talking to my professor, Gail Brumley, who teaches Environmental Science at MJC and asking her what to do in a situation such as the drought she gave me a couple of answers. One answer to help with the water drought and farmers, she said to use water in a conservative manner and to save water from your showers that drip and pour that on to your plants and trees instead of wasting it, by letting it drip down. Another solution she came up with was that we should desalinate water from the ocean. Desalination is where California gets water from the ocean, in this case the Pacific Ocean, and taking out the salt and purifying the water to have it drinkable and help with plants and farmlands. San Diego has one of the largest desalinization plants in the United States, which purifies ocean water and makes it drinkable. In an article called “Nation’s largest ocean desalination plant goes up near San Diego; Future of the California coast?” by Paul Rogers, Rogers says “The $1 billion project will provide 50 million gallons of drinking water a day for San Diego County when it opens in 2016”(Rogers). Although that is an enormous amount of water a day that still will not help anyone in the Central Valley or Stanislaus County because San

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