Todd Miller Water uses is one of the most critical environmental issues that are being faced today, with California in its current drought, and its people and economy relying on water running out of it means very bad news for California and much of the country that relies on California’s agricultural products. The issue facing California today is that its agricultural production relies almost completely on imported water for irrigation, as the most fertile areas are also in a desert. Although the current drought in California makes the water situation in the south west more known, issues dividing up the limited resource has been an ongoing issue. As far back as 1922 when Congress created the Colorado River pact, to divide the water resources of the Colorado River among the south western states water acquisition has been an issue. Since then as populations have increased so has the use of water, but more than personal use the issue lies with a large agricultural sector that lies in the heart of a desert. The largest consumers of water in California today is agriculture, the Westlands, who own 600,000 acres of farmland require tremendous amounts of water, to keep their farmlands productive and supplying the world with food.1 Up to 80% of California’s water is being used by agriculture but only amounts to 2% of its GDP. | |
This bill would help to solve the immediate problem, but it does nothing for a long term solution to prevent such a disaster from happening again, it simply allows the agriculture business to continue on as usual using water at any rate they choose. The bill should include areas in it that help reduce the use of water by conservation and efficient use. The bill should set a plan to replace traditional irrigation methods with drip irrigation, which places a faucet at every plant with a sensor that detects the moisture content of the soil. This system gives each plant exactly the amount of water it needs to flourish, while placing the water directly in soil around the plants. As opposed to traditional irrigation that floods entire fields, or sprays water into the air, where most of it lands on the leaves of the plants and evaporates before it is used. This approach would save incalculable amount of water and would help California and the Midwestern states during their next drought. There are many ways that the bill could be used to help prevent this type of disaster in the future, it addresses none of them and only allows the agriculture industry to continue using water as much as it wants.
Refrences
(2) Vaughn, J. (2011). Politics of water. In Enviornmental Politics: Domestic and Global Dimensions (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth CENGAGE learning.
(3) Hertsgaard, M. (2014, June 10). How Growers Gamed California's Drought. The Daily Beast.
(4) Sullivan, D. (2014, June 10). Californias drought and D.C.'s dry solutions. L.A. Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-feinstein-bill-drought-relief-california-20140608-story.html
(5) Water use in Agriculture. (2015, January 1). Retrieved from http://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living-2014/reducing-environmental-impact/water-use/water-use-in-agriculture/