Drought In San Joaquin Valley

The San Joaquin Valley Environment: Live Well or Live Long? According to Doyle Rice of USA Today Newspaper, “California is currently in it's fourth year (2012-2015) of one of the state's worst droughts in the past century.” In August of 2014, all of California was declared to be in a drought and over half of the state was in “exceptional” drought, the worst level (Rice). This drought has led to violent wildfires, water shortages, and potentially staggering agricultural losses. Because of the severity of the drought, the California Governor, Jerry Brown, declared a statewide drought emergency to reduce water usage and regulate restrictions on the use of outdoor water. One of the areas in California that would be greatly affected by the drought is the San Joaquin Valley, a place well-known for it's agricultural success because of it's rich environment. The Central Valley of California, which includes the San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento Valley, and the Sacramento-Joaquin Delta, produces about 25 percent of the nations table food with only one percent of the country's farmland (Galloway et al). The drought may be changing that, though. The lives of the San Joaquin Valley residents have been immensely impacted due to the California drought and the valley's agricultural dependency which has taken a toll on the environment.

THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
The San Joaquin Valley, located about center of California, is made up of eight counties: Kings, Fresno, Merced, Kern, Stanislaus, Madera, Tulare, and San Luis Obispo, totaling roughly 27,000 square miles in all. It is occupied by around four million residents with the estimated population to double, increasing from 10 percent to 15 percent of the California population, by the year 2050 (Ajinkya). The valley contains about 31,420 miles of road with the widely used State Route 99 running north to south through it. The California County Agricultural Commissioners' Reports (2012) documents that the valley profits greatly from cultivating more than 250 varieties of crops a year and out of the eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley, seven of those are included in the top 10 agriculture producers in the state. Because of the great productivity in agriculture of these counties, over half of the state of California’s entire agriculture production comes from the San Joaquin Valley. These numbers are to give you a clear image of the size and the importance of the San Joaquin Valley. “The San Joaquin Valley has a much larger population of Hispanics than the nation (48.5% and 15.8% respectively), making the white population the minority.
Because the valley is able to provide so much, in terms of crops, perhaps that is the reason why people may want to move there. The poverty rate of those living in the San Joaquin valley, about twenty percent, was way below the nation's poverty rate of about fourteen percent. The rate of educated people, including adults with a high school diploma, is also much lower in this valley. According to the Joint center for political and economic studies San Joaquin Valley place matters team, the life expectancy of the residents ranges widely from sixty nine years or less, in the impoverished locations, to ninety years or more in more well-off areas. These numbers are to give you an idea of the people who live in the San Joaquin
Valley.

THE ENVIRONMENT
The San Joaquin Valley environment in terms of the air, the water, and the land of the valley are deteriorating, partly due to the drought.
The air quality of the San Joaquin Valley is believed to be the most polluted in the nation, according to the Fresno Metro Ministry in their presentation of “Air Pollution 101.” With California in a drought, problems develop in the water for consumption as well as the water for agriculture, a big factor in the profits that the valley receives. Water companies are then forced to dig into the aquifers, or naturally forming underground water supplies, which have caused the land to sink. All of these environments in the San Joaquin Valley have been affected greatly by the drought in California and have resulted in ill effects to the valley residents, such as shortening their
lifespans.

The Air in the Valley. The air is polluted and that pollution, in the San Joaquin Valley, comes from two main sources: ozone and particulate matter (PM). The Environmental Health Program defines these terms in their report of Air Quality 101:
Ozone is a colorless, odorless gas comprised of three oxygen atoms, found naturally in the earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer) where it absorbs the sun's harmful rays. Ozone that is too close to the earth's surface is harmful and commonly referred to as smog. Particulate Matter (PM) is a generic term used to describe a mixture of fine airborne solid particle and liquid droplets that are present in the air. These tiny particles are invisible to the naked eye, but can cause serious health problems.
Smog is created by chemical reactions and sunlight. Motor vehicle exhaust is a big cause in the smog the San Joaquin Valley receives due to the many cars that use the Highway 99 that goes through the valley and PM problems also occur from the Highway 99 usage from trucks' depositing diesel soot into the air. Agriculture operations require machinery that also factor into the problems of PM and ozone. Dairies, one of the leading agricultural profits to the valley, are also a huge factor in producing ozone along with consumer products such as hairspray and paint. PM problems from construction and demolition arise as many new homes are being built in the valley for the expectancy of a high population growth. Another major issue to the air is the violent wildfires, such as the Kings Canyon wildfire of late summer 2015, that are occurring at a higher rate due to the drought causing dry, easily flammable grass and trees. Surrounding the bowl-shaped San Joaquin Valley are mountains which trap these airborne pollutants near the valley floor where people live and breathe which means that the majority of the air pollution in the valley is not from outside the area but from the more than two million cars of the locals and the farm activities. Central Valley reporter Rich Ibarra stated that with the drought, hot summer days, little wind, and no rain result in high elevated levels of ozone. He also stated that in autumn, though not being as great an impact on the ozone as the summer heat, the dry conditions may lead to dust storms, polluting the air we breathe, still. Residents are breathing in this pollution without even realizing the great amount that they are inhaling until it is too late. Breathing in this pollution causes respiratory problems which may include: irritation of mucous membranes, coughing and wheezing, chest pains and tightness, dry throat, headaches, nausea, and fatigue. Statistics of the Fresno Metro Ministry state that, “air pollution kills more people in the San Joaquin Valley, with more that 2,200 people dying prematurely over the past two years because of our dirty air. One out of six children in the Fresno County has asthma – that's twice the national average and the highest rate in the state (Air Quality 101).” When Andrea Castillo of the Fresno Bee newspaper asked Dr. Jaisi Sidhu of the Sequoia Family Medical Center in Porterville about her if she has seen any changes in relation to patients and the air quality, she stated that she “spends more time each day, treating people with respiratory conditions.” Castillo, of the Fresno Bee, also found out that, “at Sierra View Medical Center in Porterville, the number of patients visiting the emergency room primarily complaining of breathing issues increased by more than 25 percent since 2010.” Air pollutants can deposit back into the land and water bodies and can be an important factor in the declining water quality. The polluted air leads to shorter life expectancy and can cause illnesses; contamination of the water can also cause health issues.

The Water In The Valley. If the water is contaminated by the airborne pollutants, whether by depositing through direct water surface contact or by depositing on land and being carried to water bodies through run off, the residents will face problems. Once in the water, these pollutants can cause the fish to poison people upon consumption, or the fish could die out. Harmful algal blooms could occur; the water will become contaminated and unsafe to drink. This might seem like an exaggeration but in the San Joaquin Valley, the threat is very real. One might say that the people of the San Joaquin Valley may depend on water more than people elsewhere. The residents need water more because many of them depend on having enough water for their jobs, not just for their consumption. Being one of the top agricultural industries, the San Joaquin Valley residents need to have plenty of water for their industry of choice, whether is be for watering their crops or keeping the cows' food (grass) alive, to ensure that they will be able to bring in profit to the valley and be able to feed themselves and their families. One of the reasons why the San Joaquin Valley is highly susceptible to water contamination is because of agriculture pesticides such as the nitrogen-based fertilizer called “nitrate.” Nitrates, once they've entered the body, are converted to “nitrites” (Basic Info. About Nitrate in Drinking Water). If a baby younger than six months consumes water with more nitrate than the maximum contaminant level, or MCL, the baby could become very sick and if not treated, the baby could die (Basic Info. About Nitrate in Drinking Water). Being big in agriculture, the San Joaquin farmers might use nitrates or other fertilizers that could cause harm when it becomes runoff into the water and is consumed. Harmful nitrates can come from farm fertilizers, dairy waste, septic systems, sewage treatment, and decaying vegetation. Mark Grossi researched a study done in the Midwest in relation to nitrates. Grossi found that the study confirmed a long-suspected link between birth defects, including missing limbs, spina bifida, and cleft palate. Although the study was done in the Midwest, research done in 2012 showed that “farm-related nitrate pollution is extensive and expanding in the underground water of Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties (Grossi).” Though not as much as in recent years, the many of the counties in the San Joaquin Valley remain at the top of the list of the agricultural industry.
But with California in a drought, one may ask, how is it that the San Joaquin Valley is still prospering? The answer is simple: aquifers, or as dictionary.reference.com defines it, “any geological formation containing or conducting ground water, especially for one that supplies the water for areas such as wells or springs.” When there is no water from the sky or flowing from the reservoirs, the valley farmers must go underground. Farmers and companies are digging into the ground to get the water that they need. It is a race to the bottom and the valuable aquifers beneath may soon be depleted. Former Sacramento mayor, Phil Isenberg stated in the San Jose Mercury News newspaper, “It's our savings account, and we're draining it. . .at some point there will be none left” (Krieger). The depletion of the aquifers causes another major problem, other than the lack of agricultural jobs, profit, and water. The emptied, or low in water, aquifers cause the land to
sink.