California Must Continue to Lead the World, This Time It’s Water

By Daniel M. Curtin
Director, California Conference of Carpenters

Californians can be rightfully proud that strong actions taken by the Governor and the Legislature to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are leading the world in the fight against Global Warming. But it’s not only air we need to worry about, it’s water.

Global warming, even as we take measures to minimize its impact, will have a dire effect on California’s water supply. Think of it as a permanent drought. Because of magnificent hydrological engineering it’s easy to forget that California is essentially an arid state. Reservoirs, canals and the world’s highest hydrologic lift over the Tehachapi Mountains have allowed us to live as if water is an abundant commodity. We’ve thrived because of this great system, a product of visionary political leadership in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But it was designed for a population of 20 million. We now have over 36 million people living in our state. Our water system, already strained to the breaking point, will only get worse with population growth and climate change.

The fundamentals of our water supply are the Bay Delta through which California’s great rivers feed into the San Francisco Bay; the Sierra snow melt, the source of much of those great rivers; groundwater pumping; and the Colorado River. All of these sources have major problems.

The Colorado River is over subscribed. Massive growth in Nevada and Arizona has forced southern California to reduce its reliance on that source. Groundwater wells, tainted by chemical pollution seepage, are becoming scarcer and ancient aquifers are drying up from extensive usage. Climate change is expected to reduce the Sierra snow pack 25% by 2050. Longer, hotter summers mean early spring flooding and an enormous reduction in available freshwater. Lastly, the Bay Delta is currently on the verge of an environmental meltdown. Water deliveries to the south have already been reduced to protect endangered fish. Billions are being spent to rebuild creaky levees for flood protection. Chemical pollution and salinity intrusion threaten the system as well.

The threat is real and it’s not going away. Climate change computer models of the melting polar cap predict long-term drought in the western United States. But the ice is melting dramatically faster than many climatologists expected. Cargo ships between Asia and Europe are for the first time taking the shorter polar route through ice-free oceans over North America. Since 1979, ice covering an area the size of California, Alaska and Texas combined has disappeared from the North Pole. One researcher believes the Arctic may be completely ice-free in the summer by the year 2030 rather than 2070 as he originally expected.

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