Southern California Water System Turn

Southern California Water System

Turn on the tap and fill a glass with water. It's a simple act that most people in developed areas of the world take for granted. But ensuring that the water is pure and getting it to the tap is not simple.

In 1876, Los Angeles' isolation made it unattractive to San Francisco's robber barons, but a spur line finally reached LA just in time to service the upstart southern Californian orange-growing industry. The first commercial grove proved so successful that a second crop was established in what is now Orange County.

By 1889, more than 13,000 acres (5200 hectares) were planted in citrus. LA's population jumped from 2300 in 1860 to more than 100,000 in 1900, despite the fact that there was no natural harbor and the fresh water supply was woefully inadequate.

Construction of a harbor at San Pedro, 25 miles (40km) south of city hall, began in 1899; the first wharf opened in 1914, the year the Panama Canal was completed, and 8000 miles closer to the Atlantic seaboard, San Pedro became the busiest harbor on the West Coast; bringing drinkable water to the growing city required a more complex solution.

In 1904, LA's water bureau superintendent William Mulholland visited the Owens Valley, 230 miles (370km) northeast, and returned with plans to build an aqueduct to carry snowmelt from the mountains to the city. Voters approved the plan, and by November 1913, Owens River water was spilling into the San Fernando Valley at a rate of 26 million gallons (120 million litres) per day.

LA's population soared to one million by 1920, and two million by 1930, which was primarily due to the discovery of oil. During WWI, the Lockheed brothers and Donald Douglas established aerospace plants in the area, and by WWII the aviation industry employed enough people to lift LA out of the Depression.

Today, the daily flow of water has increased to 525 million gallons (2.4 billion litres). The rest of the city's water, as well as Southern California's electricity, come from dams on the Colorado River, 200 miles (320km) east.

Fresh water is one of our most important natural resources because it's needed for survival and there is no substitute for it. Unlike energy, which has many alternative forms there are no alternatives for water. Most of our earth is covered by water, but only a tiny amount is available for fresh water. The amount of accessible fresh water varies from country to country and region to region.

Groundwater originates as water or melting snow that seeps into the soil and finds its way down through cracks and spaces in rock until it is stopped by an impermeable layer of rock, where it forms as groundwater. The porous layers of underground rock in which the groundwater is stored are called aquifers. The overuse of an aquifer near coastal areas can cause salt water intrusion which happens when an aquifer is depleted faster than it can replenish itself, so water from the ocean filters into the systems.

Pesticides being used on agricultural areas find there way into groundwater, sewage, industrial waste, and garbage dumps and all contribute to the areas water woes. This is a major problem in the Great Reef aquifer which stretches from Southern California to Colorado. Large amounts of industrial waste are put into the system in California and the chemicals spread through the water effecting people who live in he Colorado area. Pesticides that have widespread use in California also have the same effect.

California as a state has been is water crises for decades, particularly in Southern California. The closest, most convenient resource is Northern California. The geography of Northern California is a water haven for the southern part of the state. With lakes, rivers and reservoirs, there are abundant water sources. Unfortunately these resources are not sufficient for the entire state. They are perfect for the surrounding area, but not for the southern, dry part of the state.

Although one state, the North and the South have set up trade agreements over water. The South is given a set amount each year and the remaining water is kept by the North. This is not a problem if the water resources are at a secure level for the year.

Ironically, Fountain Valley, California, is responsible for managing the groundwater basin under north and central Orange County, an area covering about 350 square miles south of LA. The groundwater supplies more than 20 cities and retail water agencies, which in turn serve more than 2 million Orange County residents.

Activities to maintain water quality include managing the groundwater basin, water recycling efforts, purifying lesser quality groundwater to make it usable, advancing purification technologies, and monitoring the quality of water in wells and in the Santa Ana River, the main source for refilling the groundwater basin.

Routine tasks by staff, such as creating graphical charts of river water flows and reporting water quality trends in wells and displaying their location on maps, are simpler today than they were in the past. This is due in large part to new Microsoft.NET software that many hydration agencies are using as part of modernizing and the new Water Resource Management System, or WRMS (pronounced "rims").