After ten years of planning, the Carlsbad Desalination project began its construction in 2009 in an effort to increase fresh water access and availability. Unfortunately, the desalination of ocean waters has spurred a debate within the categories of environmental impacts, costs, benefits, and efficiency. This paper identifies the social and political processes that enabled the Carlsbad Desalination project to be adopted and implemented. This study investigates and examines the debate if...

For over a century, the County of San Diego has struggled in attaining water resources, while Los Angeles has always been in much more of a commanding position. After studying historical documents, census data, and analyzing archival records, the root causes of this disparity were revealed. Research shows that the causes of this issue can be traced back to early planning decisions made by government officials. Being so, while technological solutions such as desalinization plants could help...

In the Sierra Neveda, snowpack will shrink by 30 to 90 percent by the end of the century. On the other side of the planet, in the Himalayas, about 70 percent of glaciers are set to disappear. These changes are both caused by climate change and will lead to dramatic water shortages for hundreds of millions of people across the globe, scientists said during a press conference Wednesday at UC San Diego. http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2009/05/11_icemelt.asp