The southern California comprehensive water reclamation and reuse study: balancing needs of people and wetlands in the desert
| dc.contributor.author | Otway, Henry, author | |
| dc.contributor.author | Redhorse, Rebecca, author | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hanlon, John, author | |
| dc.contributor.author | U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-07-15T20:41:49Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-07-15T20:41:49Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1996-06 | |
| dc.description | Presented at Water for agriculture and wildlife and the environment: win-win opportunities: proceedings from the USCID wetlands seminar on June 27-29, 1996 in Bismarck, North Dakota. | |
| dc.description.abstract | The Bureau of Reclamation is conducting the Southern California Comprehensive Water Reclamation and Reuse Study (Study), which reviews and evaluates the potential for using water more than one time before discharging it to the Pacific Ocean. Agricultural and landscape irrigation, other urban demands, and environmental enhancement are uses being considered for reclaimed water. An integral step in the process has been coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to identify environmental projects which could be supported by reclaimed water. southern California has a population of over 18 million and is one of the largest economies in the United States. An economy of this size and the population it supports could not exist without adequate resources, the most important of which is water. Yet southern California is a desert. To explain how an economy the size of southern California's could exist in a desert, one can think of it as a garden. A garden is an artificial environment sustained by a garden hose. Without the garden hose, the garden would not have come into existence, and if the garden hose goes away, so will the garden. Southern California has three garden hoses: the Colorado River Aqueduct, the California Aqueduct, and the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the latter of which is temporarily operating at less than full capacity to restore and protect the environment of Mono Lake and the Owens Valley, the sources of its water. Despite its importance to southern California, however, water imported into the area is dwindling. The Colorado River Aqueduct may have as much as 50 percent of its flows reduced, due to new demands on Colorado River flows from the recently-completed Central Arizona Project. Reduced deliveries to the California Aqueduct from the State Water Project could result from changes to Project operations to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta environment, the source of its water. Water resources are dwindling and the population of southern California is expected to increase and the economy is expected to expand. How can we reconcile this apparent incongruity and resolve the problem it poses? About two million acre-feet of potentially reclaimable water are presently produced, of which approximately 1.6 million are discharged to the Pacific Ocean. By putting reclaimed water to beneficial use, the economy can continue to grow and the ecosystems of southern California can be sustained. At the very least, residents will be able to preserve the water resources upon which they now depend. | |
| dc.format.medium | born digital | |
| dc.format.medium | proceedings (reports) | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10217/210781 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Colorado State University. Libraries | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Ag Water Conservation Policy | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Water for agriculture and wildlife and the environment: win-win opportunities, Bismarck, North Dakota, June 27-29, 1996 | |
| dc.rights | Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. | |
| dc.source | Contained in: Water for agriculture and wildlife and the environment: win-win opportunities, Bismarck, North Dakota, June 27-29, 1996, http://hdl.handle.net/10217/46798 | |
| dc.title | The southern California comprehensive water reclamation and reuse study: balancing needs of people and wetlands in the desert | |
| dc.title.alternative | 1996 USCID wetlands seminar | |
| dc.title.alternative | Southern California reclamation and reuse | |
| dc.type | Text |
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