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Ethan Thompson12/09/08Team CPer 4,5
Research Essay: The San Francisco Bay-Delta
Water is a growing issue in Californiaand as more dry weather approaches and asCalifornia’s population significantly increases,water management becomes critical. Currentlyan acre-foot of water, or about 326,000 gallonsof water is only enough to supply two typicalfamilies per year. This isn’t even mentioningthe 80 percent of California’s water used for agriculture (“Facts”). Therefore, California hasa high demand for water, and one of the primeresources for water is the San Francisco Bay-Delta.For my research paper, I chose to research one of California’s most hotly-debated,ongoing issues throughout the years, the San Francisco Bay-Delta. The Delta is formedwhere the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, fed by rain runoff from the Sierra Nevadaand lower Cascades, meet and merge into the San Francisco Bay. The Bay-Delta containsover 130 species and 730,000 acres of rich farmland and wildlife habitat.The first recorded sighting of the Delta was by a group of Spanish explorers in1769. After the gold rush the population of farmers increased around the delta, changingsome of the marshes into rich farmland by building levees. During late 19
th
, early 20
th
centuries, the Delta was popular for agriculture and fisheries. Flooding in the Delta
 
Ethan Thompson12/09/08Team CPer 4,5 became more prevalent as large amounts of sediment piled up in the delta from thehydraulic mining upstream. Hydraulic mining was finally outlawed in 1884, but the siltstill continued to slowly build up. These flooding problems, along with salt water intrusion, and the need for water in other parts of the state, sparked the interest to createstorage and delivery systems. Thus, the creation of dams, such as the O’ShaughnessyDam in Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1908, began. In 1935 the CVP, Central Valley Project wasauthorized by the government to be in charge of flood control and navigation, water supply, and hydro-electric power generation. Slowly the CVP grew until, by 1951, theDelta became a large part of water exporting. A new project opened called SWP, or theFeather River Project, and started pumping water out of the Delta too. In 1975 both projects pumped a combined total of 4.8 million acre-feet; by 1996 their exports reached9.7 million acre-feet. Throughout history the Delta was always mistreated and not properly cared for, and this has led up to the current issues today.The large piling of silt and sediment in the Delta over the years because of thehydro mining has increased the chance for floods. The islands of farmland today are safefrom the river because of a delicate system of levees. The levees are one of the major issues with the Bay-Delta as most of the Delta’sislands are under sea level, so the 1,100 miles of levees are constantly being built up and repairedcosting millions of dollars annually. The levees arecrucial to protect the water supply, farmland,homes, industries, and some cities that are growing at an increasingly fast rate.
 
Ethan Thompson12/09/08Team CPer 4,5Government officials and Californian residents are worrying about the stability of theselevees and their withholding to future earthquakes. If a major earthquake occurs in SanFrancisco, most of the levees would be ruined. If the levees are suddenly destroyed, allthe water would rush into the under-sea-level islands, forcing the sea water to be pulledinto the delta. This would then result a major shutdown of pumps because of water quality. Additionally, it is estimated that 520,000 acres of farm land and 400,000 liveswould be at risk if the levees were to fail (“California’s Water”).Another issue with the Bay-Delta is the extreme effects the pumping anddeveloping is having on the ecosystem and fish. The delta today has continued to growand is now one of California’s major water contributors, supplying water to over 23million Californians and millions of acres of farm land (“California’s Water”). However,the delta has a very rich and fragile ecosystem, which is being endangered by the pumping facilities. The economic growth of the delta has increased as well over theyears, and now with thousands of motorboats and houseboats, the levees are weakeningfrom their wakes and the natural environment is being jeopardized. Throughout the years,the overall fish populations and ecosystem have declined because of the overfishing, gold mining, flood protectionand land reclamation. Furthermore, creating dams andchanging rivers’ flows has added to the crisis. The Delta smelt, common only to this Bay-Delta, has decreased in population by 90 percent just in the past 10 years (“Layperson’sguide to The Delta”). Also pollution is playing a big factor into the detrimental effects of the Bay-Delta ecosystem as it continues to pollute the waters with chemicals both directly
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willingtonjohn9113

thanks for the explanatory document about Research papers. There's really lot of things that i come to know about how to write reasearch papers .after i watched this document . in addition this site provides http://bestresearchpaper.co.uk tons of tutorials that explains ways to getting research paper professionally."

reply05 / 18 / 2010
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