Environmental Issues in Southern California

Today we met with Harmonie Hawley, she is a professor at the University of California Fullerton, but she was born New Jersey. This was good because she understood the issues that were being dealt with in California, especially Southern California, were a lot different then the issues being dealt with in New Jersey. She also explain stuff that other speakers would have figured was common sense.

The first thing that she talked about was water use in Southern California. The main difference is that in Southern California there is not a lot of surface water and in some place there is not a lot of sub-surface water either. So most of the water that is used has to be piped in, coming from as far away as the Colorado River. For cities near the coast desalination is an option, but as of right now the technology is too expensive to be efficient so there are some plants built but they are not in use. Fullerton is in Orange County and their water is managed by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The MWD manages water for 6 counties, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, San Diego, and San Bernardino. This area is the most populated area of the state. They get their water from three sources, the Colorado River Aqueduct, local sources, and the State Water Project. The MWD gets about one eighth of their water from the Colorado and the State Water Project pumps from the California Aqueduct. This aqueduct is 450 miles long and runs down the center of the state. One difference between the water in California and the water in New Jersey is when we think of big rivers we think of the Hudson or the Delaware, huge natural rivers. In California to make sure that no water is wasted then have lined all of their rivers in cement and turned them into huge drainage ditches. Another difference is that water is more expensive in California, because since it is piped in from such far distances a average water bill in New Jersey would be about 300 dollars a year but in California it would probably be more three times more expensive at about 1000 dollars a year. The part that I found most interesting was when she started to talk about salt water intrusion along the coast. I always just figured that salt water intrusion was formed when wells that were too close to the ocean were over pumped, but in California the aqueduct is too close to ocean and over use are putting the entire aqueduct at risk of salt water intrusion. THe good thing about California is that since it is on a subduction zone, there is the Newport-Inglewood fault that is acting as a natural barrier between the saltwater and the freshwater. The problem is there are two small gaps in the fault where salt water can get through but there are numerous pumps located at those two spots that continuously pump water into the gaps acting as a wall.

The second part of her discussion was on air quality. Everyone has heard about how terrible air quality is in california. It is not because they have more pollution then in New Jersey it is that they a mountain range right next to the coast and thats where their cities are. On both coasts winds blow off the ocean and across the land. On the east coast the blow through the coastal cities and dissipate the pollution but on the west coast they blow through the cities and get trapped on the mountain range behind them. The wind loses all of its power because it cannot make it over the mountain range. Due to this the pollution is not dissipated and collects in the cities and is a much greater health risk than on the east coast. This is called photochemical smog. The thing that I found interesting what when she started talking about particle size. It is broken up into PM2.5 and PM10. The number is the size of the particle and it is measured in micrometers. Anything under 2.5 will not be caught by the cilia in your nose and throat and have the potential to be a lot more dangerous. The problem is that particles under 2.5 also cannot be seen. The interesting thing is that an area with a lot of PM10 might look very unhealthy but your body with protect itself from it but an area with a lot of PM2.5 will look healthy but your body has no way to protect itself so you can be in a lot of danger.

Picture Citations:

"Santa Ana River." Web. 2010.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZ4xi_sMpte0zr7ilYBT46pvNVKHcfFsxztHLb790xZV7vHkXCZR-XD2gNHqHXTKELhXuGNnwebUQS7N6D6osVccI4F8G8NG37YO0lzyC-o-y61dvSAR6E-YxLQBjhzgCCNtE8WQCPss/s640/santa-ana-river-trail-bridge.jpg

"Smog in Los Angeles." Living in a Toxic World. University of Oregon. Web. 2011.

http://livinginatoxicworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/california-emissions-fee1.jpg