Drought In San Joaquin Valley

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In recent years, a historic drought has ravaged California’s agricultural production. The effects of this event have been felt hardest in areas such as the San Joaquin Valley, and this area’s grape industry is one that has been particularly hurt by this. The decline of grape production and therefore grape-related revenue in the San Joaquin Valley has had big negative effects, and if we do not do something to conserve water soon or find a new water source, things will only get worse for the area’s economic prospects. Before talking about the grape industry in particular, it is important to establish the main causes of the drought itself. Perhaps the largest cause is the simplest one: a tremendous lack of rain. As far as precipitation goes, …show more content…
In May of 2007, a Federal District Court Judge ruled that increased amounts of water had to be re-allocated towards protecting the Delta smelt, an endangered fish in California rivers. “Because of this ruling, in 2009 and 2010 more than 300 billion gallons of water were diverted away from farmers in the Central Valley and into the San Francisco Bay (Committee on Natural Resources).” The “fish versus farmers” argument is one that has been going on for decades, and it has pitted farmers against environmentalists. This is an interesting an extremely controversial argument, and no matter how one looks at it there is no distinctly correct answer; the only thing that both sides can agree on is that we need more …show more content…
This is very much something that people think we might be forced to resort to in the future. However, now might be a better time than ever to get this project started. Recently, a desalination plant was opened in San Diego for about $1 billion (Rogers). With the current technology being used, this plant and others like it will simply not produce enough water to make it worth the cost. Scientists should keep working toward making this process more efficient, because if they are ever able to find a way to desalinate water at a reasonable cost, it is feasible that water supply will no longer be a major
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