California drought reaches dangerously historic levels as federal officials point to climate change as culprit

California’s historic drought has continued into the entire the spring and the Federal government has placed the blame on climate change as to why the water levels have dropped so severely.

According to a White House task force report on the effects of climate change, the cost of maintaining and improving drinking water infrastructure will increase, because expanded wastewater treatment and desalination for drinking are among the key strategies for supplementing water supplies.

The report goes on to say that increased heat and changes to rain will send ripple effects throughout the region and its critical agriculture sector. Drought and increased warming fosters increased competition for scarce water resources for people and ecosystems. These changes will increase the cost of fruits and vegetables as they become more and more scarce.

“Here in California, you’ve seen these effects firsthand,” said President Barack Obama during his speech on the effects of climate change in Mountain View, Calif. ”You know what’s happening.  And increasingly, more and more Americans do.”

Many in Washington have seen the effects of climate change on California’s environment and the president has recently asked them all to act to fix it.

“Rising sea levels, drought, more wildfires, more severe storms — those are bad for the economy.  So we can’t afford to wait,” Obama said. “And there’s no reason why we can’t even go further than we are so far by working with states and utilities, and other organizations to change the way we power our economy.  Climate change is real and we have to act now.”

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been building the support for the “California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014.”

The bill would “direct the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to take actions to provide additional water supplies and disaster assistance to the state of California due to drought and for other purposes.”

The drought storyline has been played out for a couple of months now, when Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency on Jan. 17.

“The driest months are still to come in California and extreme drought conditions will get worse,” said Gov. Brown. “This order cuts red tape to help get water to farmers more quickly, ensure communities have safe drinking water, protect vulnerable species and prepare for an extreme fire season. I call on every city, every community, every Californian to conserve water in every way possible.”

The upcoming months of June, July and August are the months that the governor would fear. With the increased temperature and lack of water will stress the existing infrastructure.

According to the White House National Climate Assessment, extensive use of air conditioning to deal with high temperatures can quickly increase electricity demand and trigger cascading energy system failures, resulting in blackouts or brownouts.

“What they found was unequivocally that climate change is not some far-off problem in the future,” said Obama while speaking about the assessment. “It’s happening now.  It’s causing hardship now.  It’s affecting every sector of our economy and our society.”