Drought Research Paper

Aly Crosby                                                                                                  

Mr. Hitchcock

Chemistry/P.1

5 May 2015

Drought Research Paper

Today, California is facing one of the severe drought on record, Governor Brown had declared a drought state of emergency in January, and directing state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages.  What does a drought exactly mean? It means that the drought occurs when a long period of abnormally dry weather leads to a severe water shortage. The state has to continue to lead the way to make sure California will be able to cope with an unprecedented drought.

A big question is, "What exactly are the causes of the drought in Southern California?" Well according to USA Today Weather, natural weather patterns, not man-made global warming, are causing the historic drought parching California. They also state that the drought is not an uncommon occurrence for the state. Over the past several years, the weather pattern has not been persistent. There has been a Dry Ridge of high pressure over the eastern north Pacific Ocean and Western North America, and high pressure ridges prevents clouds from forming precipitation from falling. They say that this ridge is like a brick wall, the mass of high pressure air has been blocking Pacific winter storms from coming ashore in California.

Since we are not getting any water, we need to learn to save water. So how can water be retained in Southern California? Many California farms have already become more efficient with water, but much more can be done, including changes in irrigation practices to reduce water use and crop yield. Crop yield is soil management to reduce runoff and increase the amount of water in soil. Also, one of the projects they are working on, is simple rain barriers to collect water at a typical home on a graded lawn to capture and retain water, allowing it to seep into the ground instead of running off on to the streets. As the state looks for ways to water the golf courses, ball fields, or flush toilets, it would be far cheaper to re-use the water we already pay for, by investing in reverse plumbing.

Who is really using all the water? If we want to save water, we have to stop the ones using it the most. The chart below shows a big difference between water guzzlers and sippers.

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Places with hot weather tend to use the most water. Coastal cities, which enjoy cooler summers and lots of fog, consume relatively little. Santa Cruz residents use only 113 gallons per capita per day. Crescent City, a fishing town near the Oregon border, averages only 97 gallons a day. But in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Southern California desert areas, where the blazing summer sun requires more water use on landscaping, residents use three or four times that much. In Riverside County, customers of the Coachella Valley Water District use 591 gallons per capita per day.  When cities have few residents but a lot of industry, the numbers can be skewed. The city of Vernon in Los Angeles County, for example, has only 112 residents but dozens of factories, meatpacking plants and other water-guzzling industries within its city limits. As a result, its per capita water use is highest in the state by far -- 94,111 gallons per person per day. Statewide, however, industries account for only about 8 percent of urban water use, compared with 68 percent for residential use and 24 percent for commercial and government use.