Central Valley Case Study

The Central Valley is the home to countless people and is one of the rapid growing community in California. In the past 10 years, the population increased to more than 1 million new residents and according to USGS, the current population in the Central Valley is approximately 4,125,450. The Valley is extensive, flat valley that covers about 40 to 60 miles wide and extend approximately 22,500 square miles that enclosed with 18 counties. In this region, it is one of the world’s most productive agricultural are grown and this is the fundamental land that “Feeds the world”. Also in calculation, about 75% of irrigated land and 17% of Nation’s irrigated land is here in the valley.
While the population is growing and food is needed at an extreme
pace as well, the essential key to cultivation is water. In 2014, the state governor of California proclaimed a state of emergency and ordered officials to take actions in water agencies. California had an emergency with the shortage with water because of severe drought, but recently California received and restored some of the water due to a few changes in the weather. With this weather changes, most of the society are now feel at ease about the amount of rain that the population got in the past year and think there is no more problems with water, but it is not so simple. After how the nation drastically went through trouble with extreme shortage of water, it is difficult to recover the previous damages with just a rainfall. Since the Valley is the main place where the central primary source for many food products throughout the United States, there should be should improvement that should be done before there is another problem happens again. According to USGS, more water is used each day for irrigation than other field of water usages, the total water use has been declining since 1980, and California uses more water than any other state. In the Central Valley where are many farmers and producers for agriculture, water is needed a great deal.
At a time like this, farmers and producers in the Valley have the most challenging problem to deal with, while the government cutting off the water system and they have a complication with how and where they are going to get the water from.
While putting off the farming, this cost and lose a great deal of money to the economy. However, there is another way of getting the water and it is from underground, this is where farmers use the method of digging deep under the soil to get the water. Here is another problem, when this method is used, it can be caused major destruction to the environment and leads to another issue. It is like a never-ending domino effect of one dilemma after another. In one of the Core reading assignment, farmers from the Valley discussed the usage of with the groundwater system. The article is called, “Farmers say, ‘No apologies,’ as well drilling hits record levels in San Joaquin Valley”, it explained some problems with property rights, the cost, and workers with the regulation of how the water should be in the agriculture with government. It first stated, “As farmers ramp up drilling and install larger, more powerful pumps, aquifers that had quietly flourished beneath the soil for thousands of years are dropping at dangerous rates” (Sabalow, Kasler, Reese, 2). The cost of pumping is low and there will is no loss of evaporation but the supply form groundwater is pollutants have a long residence time. The groundwater is renewable only if it has a
sufficient recharge zone and within a live aquifer.
Then later added, “It’s accelerating a phenomenon known as subsidence, in which some parts of the valley floor are sinking. The problems of groundwater overdraft are most pronounced in the San Joaquin Valley, but they’re not limited to there” (Sabalow, Kasler, Reese, 2). Not only there will be no more water, but the whole geographic of California will change.
There must be another solution that can help with this water trouble, and there is a way to take some action right now. In this proposal, we came up with some renovated and creative ways of how there can be some improvement in the field of farming. It can save up a large amount of money to the farmers, government and communities. After all, the nation use most of the water for farming, why not start with some adjustments here in the Central Valley and the scarcity of water in agriculture can improvements in a long term.