Water Scarcity in Arizona

The State of Colorado has suffered from a water shortage in recent years; a difficult situation which is easily visible when viewing the quickly shortening length of the Colorado River. Lake Mead, for example, is roughly 130 feet lower than it once was, marked by the stained rock which towers above the current water level. “The river has become a perfect symbol of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource: it disappears. In fact, the Colorado no longer regularly reaches the sea” (Zielinski, 2010). Legislation was implemented early on to address this issue, though the results were (perhaps not surprisingly) rather unanticipated, regarding

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

Arizona has an incredibly large dependence on the Colorado River and groundwater. In fact, 39% of all water usage in Arizona is comprised of Colorado River water. Any dependence of that scale on any resource that originates in another area is always a major risk, as any major disaster or drastic change to the source of the river can cripple the state’s water supply. Furthermore, while Arizona does house the majority of the Lower Basin of the Colorado, the Colorado’s Upper Basin is shared between 4 other states, all with their own water needs and all with a susceptibility to drought. On the other hand, another 40% of all water Arizona uses is from groundwater sources. However, the Colorado River and these groundwater sources in the Colorado River basins have lost over 65 cubic kilometers of water over the last 9 years, with nearly 2/3 of it from groundwater loss due to over-pumping. This is because

Arizonans see California’s drought and water restrictions plastered all over the television and newspapers. Many Arizonans remain concerned about the well-being of Californians, while some may mistakenly think that it is not Arizona’s problem. I was one of those people, and while investigated the idea, discover how Arizona is in a bad situation because of it. What I, along with others, did not understand is the years of planning, legislation, and engineering that took place to get water to Arizona and the rest of the Southwest. The Southwest is an arid environment that relies on one river, the Colorado River, to deliver water to seven different

Arizona is running out of water, and Central Arizona, the region where metropolitan Phoenix is located and inhabited by most of Arizona’s population, approximately 4.5 million out of the 6 million, has been one of the hardest hit (“5 Reasons to Panic about Arizona's Water, and 5 Reasons Not to”). It is essential that Central Arizona reduces the water intake of its industries, agriculture, and households because Arizona has been in an extended drought since the 90’s, and it is expected to continue (Schultz). The drought is causing Arizona’s water sources, primarily reservoirs, the Colorado River, and underground, non-replenishable aquifers to diminish. In fact, the Colorado River is shrinking each year which is a serious problem because the Colorado River supplies millions of people with water across seven states (“Colorado River

This essay is a review of the article “Growing More Food with Less Water”, written by Sandra Postel. According the article, our global freshwater sources, including underground aquifers and rivers are stressed beyond their ability to provide freshwater. Agriculture redesign is necessary with the two primary goals being to cut water demands of mainstream agriculture and bring low cost irrigation to poor farmers. Typical irrigation, crop furrow flooding is a main cause of wasted and polluted water. This article discusses alternatives to typical irrigation. These alternatives have been tested onsite by farers and surveyed.

People and businesses in a variety of situations and sectors are helping out with the cause. City residents are cutting a surprising amount of water. People are taking shorter showers, switching out inefficient appliances, not washing their cars, and letting their lawns go dry. Water agencies are actually offering rebates for people that switch out their innefieciant shower heads and toilets. People are also saving water through, “xeriscaping, which means “dry landscaping,” homeowners replace thirsty grass with drought-tolerant native plants like wildflowers and succulents” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). The Santa Clara Valley Water District is even paying residents $1 per square foot to xeriscape their properties. Another method for conserving water is water recycling. It’s a method to cleanup and reuse wastewater. In Orange county there’s a Groundwater Replenishment System (GRS) that cleans 70 million gallons of wastewater per day. More plants like this are planned to open up in the next couple of years. California restaurants aren’t even allowed to serve water unless the customer specifically asks for it. The biggest water saving technique is drip irrigation. Drip irrigation, “allows water to seep slowly into the roots of plants through a network of tubes and valves at the base of a plant” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). While this technique is significantly more efficient than sprinklers and flood irrigation, it’s still not as widespread because it costs a lot to install the necessary equipment. About 40 percent of farms still use flood irrigation. Californians are finding many different ways to save every drop they can, but a whole lot more can still be done to save the maximum amount of

Everyday, billions of people use water all over the world. They use water in drinks and food. They use water for bathing and hygiene. They use water in agriculture and industry. They use water for so many things. However, there are many problems with the usage of water around the world. In his editorial, “Our Water System: What a Waste”, Michael E. Webber explains how America has a water problem, and how that problem can be solved.

In Stop Water Abuse by the Almond and Pistachio Empire by Wenonah Hauter (Source C), Hauter suggests that restrictions on irrigation should be made in arid areas of California. These dry areas of California

California is going on a four-year drought, having many devastating implications that are being felt by everyone in the state. The population hit the hardest has been the farmers of California. California, being economically driven by its agricultural production, is losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every year due to the lack of water. Farmers’ use 80% of water the state produces, directly influencing their production (Mieszkowski, 2014). The country heavily relies on California for much of its produce such as tomatoes, nuts, avocados, strawberries, broccoli, grapes and various others (Cooley et al. 2015). In 2014, harvested acreage was 6.9 million acres, the lowest it has been for the past 15 years. Farmers are now being forced to use significantly less land then before, but also ditch old irrigation techniques and implement new techniques to better conserve water; maximizing production as much as possible in order to combat the drought.

The water users of California have been asked to cut back water use whenever possible. This means shorter showers, drought resistant landscape, and low flow options for faucets and sprinklers. Farmer’s alike have been spotlighted to cut back on water use for it is calculated that they consume 80% of the state’s developed water supply (pacisnt). Although cutting back is a way to help conserve what is available, it is imperative that a new supply of fresh water be found before California overdrafts itself to no supply at all.

According to the Association of California Water Agencies, more than 50% of California's residential water use occurs outdoors, and a typical lawn consumes an average of 57 in. of rain a year (Koroma). A way to combat this is by offering the owners of homes with large lawns could be given subsidies in order to help implement desert plants into their gardens. Practices like these, called xeriscaping, help owners not only save water but also money. Artificial turf, or synthetic fibers put together to simulate grass, also stand as an option. This resolves the conflict of having to constantly water the lawn in order to keep it green. If these techniques are efficiently implemented and kept up, they could reduce as much as 30 percent of our daily water usage (EPA

Water plays an important role in the urban development supply as well as sustaining ecological activities. In the southwestern United States, the Colorado River is the principle water source for parts of seven southwestern states in the U.S. and two northern states in Mexico. With a total drainage of approximately 243,000 square miles, the Colorado River offers water supply for more than 33 million people and thousands of native plant and animal species. The majority of the flow in the basin come from the Rocky Mountains’ snowmelt, yet most of the water usage occurs in the semi-arid and desert regions of the lower basin for irrigation and thermoelectricity (Benke and Cushing, 2005; Maupin, 2010). In recent years, due to below average river

With our water aquifers running out of water fast and our farmer pumping out water as quickly as they can, our aquifers will not be able to replenish themselves fast enough to survive the constant water use, and if the Californian government were to just implement a law regulating how much water these farmers use, the state of California may be one step closer to solving the problem of groundwater depletion. Currently, when a farmer digs a well in California, they have no limitations on how much water they use nor do they have to tell anybody how much groundwater they use (Pool). In California, farmers use eighty percent of the state 's groundwater, and without the

(Hasan and Özay 2002, 73-74). As Albiac (2008) reports, development of pipe network distribution and drip irrigation methods in other countries led the farmers to have remarkable irrigation efficiency in drought (143). Such technologies have already been used in China, but they are not widely spread in China’s agriculture. One investigation in China on rice paddy irrigation systems development was performed and it revealed that using the fry-foot paddy irrigation (when no water flooded the field) instead of flooding irrigation (when the rice field is completely flooded) significantly (40-60%) reduces water consumption (Xiaoping, Qiangsheng and Bin 2004, 351). Furthermore, drip irrigation method was applied in arid Northern China and it raised the water usage efficiency (Du et al 2007). However, introduction of new irrigation technologies faced some difficulties in China. As Hodstedt (2010) noticed in his article, the water saved by these technologies such as drip irrigation systems was simply spent on more food production and, therefore, did not reduce the water shortage. Also, as he reported, this caused two other environmental problems. Firstly, the water, which was the supply for underground water and aquifers as it was lost by deep percolation and leakage, became unavailable after the water-saving technologies were introduced and this strengthened the aquifers depleting along with its overpumping. Secondly, after