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California water problems add to economic woes
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It is not that Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California did not already have enough problems. The state is over $60 billion in debt; he has had to go back on his promise not to raise taxes--signing a law $12.5 billion in tax hikes--and now on Friday, state officials told Californians they would have to cut back on their use of water by 20 percent.
California has been hit hard by drought and it could cause of another economic fiasco in the state. This will be the third year of drought. Thousands of acres of farmland may be required to lie fallow resulting in higher food prices and spiraling unemployment.
On Friday, February 20,2009, Donald Glaser, regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and manager of the federal water system in California told farmers served by the Central Valley Project that they would not receive any water this year. In addition, 23 million California residents were warned that they will only get 15 percent of normal deliveries. Some cities in California have already imposed the 20 percent conservation order on all customers. Lester Snow at the Department of Water Resources said that he expected all urban water agencies to begin mandatory rationing within 60 days.
One of the problems, in addition to the drought causing water woes, is that California's population that has grown more than 9 million since 1992 and 500,000 acres have been converted to permanent crops like orchards and vineyards, which cannot be fallowed, and the ground water is also rapidly being depleted because of previous heavy pumping.
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