There’s no drought around here—of warnings about our water shortage and ideas on how to counter it.
Actually, Southern Californians have done an admirable job in cutting down on water use in the past two decades, necessary to accommodate new growth and home building that kept the economy alive for so long, and hopes to again.
The alternative was to place a moratorium on new homes, a condition experienced in Chino Hills back in the nineties. Blocking new permits hasn’t even been mentioned yet this time around, in fear of putting a damper on an important economic recovery.
There is still much that can be done in the state to conserve water. In northern and central California, there are still communities without water meters. The answer to saving water in crucial times has been to place residents on odd and even address watering during the week.
Since agriculture consumes 80 percent of the water supply, and is of such importance to the state’s economy, more effort needs to be devoted to developing efficient and economic irrigation, such as drip systems. A part of any water bond issue presented for public approval should include funds for this purpose. Drought-tolerant landscaping has become an important part of residential water saving in Southern California, but it is hard to convince residents to give up their lawns when farmers have unrestricted access to the supply.
Another area where more could be done is in the use of reclaimed waste water. While purple pipe systems are becoming more widespread, there remains a psychological barrier among people to using such water, despite it being proven safe. An example is the refusal of fire fighters and their departments, from the state on down, to tap into reclaimable water systems to fight blazes or even fill their water tanks. This must change.
Barring a plan to figure out how to tap into the abundance of water falling on the north and east of this nation this year, or how to change the ocean currents, we will have to depend on an aggressive program to retain more moisture in our part of the country.
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