California Governor In Crisis About Drought: For Cities And Farmers

Major California Water Cuts Begin

Autumn Barr

The Golden State Governor Jerry Brown has began to introduce new water restrictions, which won’t offset California’s incredibly low water levels, but offer some help in the severe drought.

California is in year four of their water crisis, which led to the big announcement by NASA that “California only has one year left of water.” Governor Brown announced the mandatory water rationing to help reduce the amount of water usage by 25%.

“He’s been asking us to cut back going back to last winter and we haven’t stepped up,” says Jay Famiglietti, University of California, Irvine and senior water scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This is the next logical step and I think it sends a very strong message to all Californians about just how serious this situation is.”

With the extreme rationing of water required, green lawns must go, cities are stopping the use of irrigation systems, “ornamental grass” in cities, such as medians and other grassy areas are no longer able to be watered.

Success for the state to drastically cut their water usage rides mainly on the biggest problem Governor Brown has to with deal is, which is the farmers. The farmers are responsible for the majority of the water usage in the state.

California’s Mediterranean climate allows for fertile soil to grow pretty much any item in demand, year round. The water needed to sustain these crops is quite impressive. To grow an almond crop for a year requires 1.1 trillion gallons of water, this may be twice as much as most crops like the tomato, but is an example of the amount water that California is loosing is drastic and will be difficult for the Governor to create a solution for our crops as well.

2014, was the first year a majority of the Central Valley didn’t receive rainwater or runoff to help with their crops. With the California drought putting more pressure on the government and farmers, it’s forcing Californians to drill deeper and deeper for water.

“If this drought situation is the new normal we are going to have to completely re-think how much food we can grow – and a lot of people depend on California for growing food. “Said David Phippen, an almond grower.

It’s reported that the western US has lost 63 TN gallons of water in 18 months, and 80% of California’s water is used for agriculture.