Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
however, voters—divided along geographic lines with those in the south vot-
ing in favor and those in the north voting against—rejected the construction
of this canal. Yet the idea of a canal or tunnel is being reconsidered today, and
its proponents argue that it would allow for water exports to the south with-
out the harmful pumping of water in the southern delta. A tunnel, they say,
would also protect the delta from seawater intrusion should an earthquake
breach the levees protecting this water source. h ose opposed to the tunnel
are concerned that it would allow for the diversion of too much water away
from the delta and the San Francisco Bay estuary, causing increased salinity
and further ecosystem declines.
We now understand the impacts that water development has had, and
continues to have, on the natural environment and wildlife in the west-
ern United States. Policymakers have begun to restore water resources and
aquatic habitats, which means that all of us must make water conservation
an even higher priority, realizing that we must share this life-giving resource
with the natural world. h is will be even more imperative in the future, since
our water resources may be further taxed as global warming brings changes
in climate, sea level, and the hydrologic cycle. h
is topic is the focus of the
next chapter.