2.1 - California Flashcards
What is the name of the valley in California?
Owens valley
Why was the Owens river diverted in the early 20th century?
To serve the needs of Los Angeles
Which river has a large supply of fresh water but is always under conflict?
Colorado river
What are being used unsustainably as abstraction exceeds annual recharge.
Groundwater aquifers
Which city will face a great water shortage if water levels continue to fall? Plus their annual 40 million visitors will not be happy about that either!
Las Vegas
What is one of the schemes that Nevada is planning on doing to make up for the high demand of water as the supply of water is low?
Desalination of the sea water. This involves constructing a desalination plant at the coastline of California with a pumping and pipeline system to Nevada
What is one of the other schemes that Nevada is planning on doing to make up for the high demand of water as the supply of water is low?
To build groundwater resources in Southern Nevada, from which they plan to extract and supply 10,000 homes in Las Vegas
What are the biggest problems with big scale projects such as the groundwater resources and the desalination one?
They’re expensive! They’re also enrergy intensive and we can’t be sure of how sustainable they’ll be!
What is the biggest factor affecting the water supply from the Colorado river?
Climate change
