Much Of U.S. Could See A Water Shortage

[DeSwiss]

Source: Associated Press

Much of U.S. could see a water shortage
By BRIAN SKOLOFF
28 minutes ago

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. Across America, the picture is critically clear — the nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess. "Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the Denver-based American Water Works Association.

Water managers will need to take bold steps to keep taps flowing, including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.
"We've hit a remarkable moment," said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The last century was the century of water engineering. The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency."

The price tag for ensuring a reliable water supply could be staggering. Experts estimate that just upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071026/ap_on_re_us/vanishing_water

[aquart]

1. Not "decent" water planning. Superlative.

It better be superlative water planning. Dying of thirst is nasty. Ask New Orleans.

[DeSwiss]

5. Planning is not a Republican virtue....

...so if Americans want to have water, they better vote for more Dems...

[olddad56]

42. if the republicans would drink their own urine, it would help a little.

[EST]

57. I thought that was a requirement to join the club!

[defendandprotect]

2. As I recall . . . 80% of water usage or more is by business/corporations????

I also recall reading a story that the Colorado River moved across states to CA . . .
also built Las Vegas?

[ramapo]

3. Agriculture

major waster

[DeSwiss]

7. Yes, they waste more, wayyy more.....

...and then pollute the rest and sell us water in bottles. Peachy

[Lisa]

4. just fixing broken infrastructure could help ...

Yes, it could cost hundreds of billions of dollars ... but some cities lose 40% or more of their water, just to leakage.

And isn't it better to spend the money this way, than on overseas wars!

[DeSwiss]

8. No doubt about it....

...and its the same here in my town. Some pipes that are still in use were installed in the early 1900s.

[Lisa]

26. 6 billion gallons/year lost to leakage -- enough for all of CA, or 10 biggest US cities

http://www.northgeorgiawater.com/html/213.htm

"In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ “2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure” also reported that 6 billion gallons of water per year is lost. The findings of each study state that the 6 billion gallons lost is enough water to serve 10 of the largest U.S. cities or all of California, respectively."

[KamaAina]

46. Actually it is said that Boston loses *two-thirds* to leakage

one of the oldest systems, if not the oldest.

[Massachusetts]

54. We have been working on improving the system for a while

One technology used:

http://www.insituform.com/content/296/how_insituform_rpp_is_installed.aspx

[trogdor]

6. Funny about Upstate NY

We get more rain than Seattle (no kidding), and 100 inches of snow a year, and I heard Lake Ontario is seven inches or so lower than normal. How can that happen? For the unfamiliar, Lake Ontario, despite being the smallest of the Great Lakes, contains the most water because it's hundreds of feet deep. You could throw a dead guy off the Thousand Islands Bridge and you'd need a submarine to find him. Seven inches out of hundreds of feet is more of a warning sign than something to get really alarmed over, but that still represents a lot of water.

I guess that $600 I paid the well-digger to fix our well was money well spent. He dug all the sediment out of there, put a 3 GPM flow restrictor on the pump and increased our max pressure from 50 PSI to 60. Now we're taking better (and shorter) showers and haven't had a problem with the water since he left.

[defendandprotect]

10. I remember Sen. Inhofe at the GW hearings holding up a sign . . .

"Global Warming forgot Buffalo" . . .

While Inhofe is an idiot and trying to suggest that because Buffalo -- I think it was Buffalo -- had like doubled or tripled their usual snow -- that it pointed to their being no GW.

Others tried to inform him that since the Great Lakes weren't freezing any longer -- or for shorter periods -- that when the prevailing winds came over they were absorbing more of the water and then when they went back over land . . . dropping it in the form of snow.

Don't intend this to be an answer -- and am interested if anyone has an answer to your question . ..
"How can this happen?"

[DeSwiss]

13. Some areas of the country will be able....

...to handle the losses better than others. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21water-t.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin">Out west, they're in for a rude awakening. Out-of-control development in desert areas makes no sense. Part of this is due to global warming and changes in rainfall, as well as early warming periods that start the mountain runoffs earlier, exposing the water to evaporation for longer periods. In most cities its just old-ass leaky pipes where huge amounts of water is lost. And a well is not much of a guarantee in all states. Overall, in the US groundwater water tables are falling.

The biggest problem is that our elected officials don't want to deal with the issues because of the price tag and it'll make their rich donors have to pony-up some cash if they can't figure out a way to make us pay for it. Its a tremendously huge problem and no one agency or approach has, or is the answer. Making matters worse, many people want services like water, but they also want their taxes cut. So they elect Republicans who promise to do this, then ignore them once in office and give the tax cuts to their rich buddies.

Meanwhile, the country's infrastructure is falling apart at the seams. Bridges, water pipes, emergency services, you name it. We're spending our children's and grand children's future in Iraq. And when everything starts to fall down and break apart in 30 or 40 years, they'll also have to deal with a bankrupt Social Security system.

In this case, we getting what we don't pay for....

Check out this article from the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21water-t.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[depakid]

14. "How can that happen?"

Evaporation due to higher temperatures and less ice cover is one mechanism.

[ClintonTyree]

33. The water is lower than I can ever remember.....

our dock is completely out of the water. That's NEVER happened in the 50+ years that we've had the cottage in our family. People have shore-wells that are coming up dry. The Marinas are losing business at an alarming rate, many going out of business altogether.

I'd say the water level is over a foot below normal levels for this time of year and it doesn't look like it'll be any better next year. Pretty soon the St. Lawrence River will become unnavigable for Great Lakes shipping traffic; unless they revert to barge traffic.

It's getting bad, VERY bad and I see nothing that's going to turn it around.

[paparush]

9. "Staggering" costs..

I love how the pricetages for projects like these are described as "staggering", while our gov pours tons more $$$ into weapons and wars.

[DeSwiss]

17. As an old-school Repuke once said:

"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talkin real money!" - Senator Everett Dirksen

And $300 billion's not that much, is it? Wasn't that about the same as Exxon made in profits last quarter??? :shrug:

[kestrel91316]

11. "Let them drink Perrier", said Caligula.

[pattmarty]

16. Argghhhhhh!!!! Drink French water?

[OnyxCollie]

52. You could drink Naive er, Evian, if it makes you feel better.

:eyes:

[DeSwiss]

18. And everybody else....

...can get discount water at Wal-Mart's!

[alfredo]

56. Or as bush will be saying "let them drink bottled water from

the huge aquifer under my Paraquayan property."

[zalinda]

12. My incoming water pipe has been leaking for 7 years

It was leaking before I moved in because it was all wrapped up with stuff to stop it. I wrapped more stuff around it, and it stopped more of it, but it still leaks. It is before the meter, and it is a lead pipe, which means I would have to hire a master plumber to fix it. The water department didn't care when I asked them about it. I would have to pay to get it fixed, and I just don't have the money. Besides, I have no idea what is under the stuff that was wrapped around the pipe in the first place, it could become a nightmare that is best left alone. They are supposed to replace the lead pipes some time in the future, I'll let them worry about it when the time comes.

There should actually be a gray water system, at the very least. All the water that comes out of the gutters ends up in the sewer system, which doesn't make sense. Here in Syracuse, when it rains hard, it ends up in the sewer which overflows the system, so sewage ends up in the lake that's in the middle of the city. They need to upgrade the sewer system and had a bid for a really green system that has proven to work, but it would be on the lake, so they didn't take that bid. But what the did do is take a bid to put a sewage plant south of the lake in a residential area populated by ta-da, mostly poor black with a few white sprinkled in. No amount of argument could stop this production.

zalinda

[DeSwiss]

20. If the leak is BEFORE your meter....

...then that should be the utility's repair problem. At least that's they way it is where I live. Check with the utility company.

As for the gray water plan, that's being discussed now, particularly out west. One town is already implementing a program like that in Colorado.

Check out this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21water-t.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[zalinda]

53. I did check with the water company

If it's in your house, it's your problem, is what I was told. I had a lead pipe burst in my house before this, and I had to pay to have it fixed. I can't remember if it was before or after the meter, but because it was lead, I had to have a master plumber fix it, since only master plumbers are certified to do lead pipes. It cost me $80, 20 years ago, and it was a straight fix, no messing with wrappings. The stuff on my lead pipe now, would probably have to be chiseled off, no telling how long or how much work that would take. Yeah, I'm leaving it alone.

zalinda

[BearSquirrel2]

51. Grey Water

> There should actually be a gray water system, at the very least.

You hit it. We will all have to do this in the future. It is unacceptable to use potable water for irrigation (watering lawns).

[pattmarty]

15. If That's the case, that would be a perfect reason to NOT privatize the water!!!!

[DeSwiss]

22. All private utilities are ripoffs!

That's one of the only concessions I'll make for living in the South: TVA.

And our local electric and water companies are also public utilities. Result: some of the lowest utility rates in the country. If there is ever a choice: Don't Privatize!!!

[Lisa]

27. hear, hear!

Privatization hasn't delivered the much-ballyhooed "efficiency" that was used as its major selling point. In fact, people like former UN AIDS special envoy Stephen Lewis have said that privatization of essential services like water/sewage could set back attempts to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (of increasing access for poor communities).

[MilesColtrane]

19. Since the Artic ice cap will be gone soon...

...I expect Bush will announce a War on Southern Flightless Aves.

We must have a reason to invade and plunder the ice for water.

Just look at the sneaky bastards. They hate our way of life.

[DeSwiss]

23. A tuxedo wearing terrarist!!! Yikes!!! n/t

[Uncle Joe]

45. It's our freedom, the bastards are after, we're too casual for their formal ways.

:grr:

[Xithras]

21. These threads make me so glad to have my own well.

AND to live along a river. I think my water table is about 8 feet down, and my well is 40 feet deep.

Who knows, I may end up funding my retirement by "water-farming" to people in the nearby cities. Come out with your bucket, and I'll fill it from my well for a buck. Or something like that.

[DeSwiss]

24. You'll need to figure water security into your overhead....

...so you may want to charge more. ;)

And its recently been reported that water tables across the country are lowering in many areas.

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21water-t.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Vincardog]

34. Lucky you. My well is 650'deep. But then everything is deeper in TX

[Bragi]

37. I've one 310 feet!

Pure water from the Canadian shield...

- B

[Xithras]

44. Actually, shallow water tables generally suck.

I wasn't really serious in my OP.

The problem with an 8 foot deep water table is that my pasture turns to muck after the third or fourth good November storm, and it stays that way until JUNE. In wet years I get seasonal pools that can stick around until mid-July, and we can't spray for mosquitos because of our proximity to the river and Delta.

[Vincardog]

58. Agreed. I enjoy my deep well watter. When the city is stinking because they use surface

watter from lakes that have turned over in the spring, I am drinking cold sweet well watter.

[Bragi]

36. The security costs alone would be more that a buck a bucket /nt

[jwirr]

39. The farm area I was born and raised in Iowa actually does have

what were called "soft water plants" where water is softened and sold to homes for their cisterns. In recent years they have also been selling truck loads of regular water for the dry wells.

[jwirr]

40. The farm area I was born and raised in Iowa actually does have

what were called "soft water plants" where water is softened and sold to homes for their cisterns. In recent years they have also been selling truck loads of regular water for the dry wells.

[Bennyboy]

25. Legalize Indstrial hemp farming...

Uses about 1/3 of the water as cotton or corn to grow.
Uses about 1/15th water to produce goods made from hemp rather than cotton.

[Bennyboy]

29. Hemp...compared to Cotton

Compared to Cotton:

-Environmentally, hemp is a safer crop to grow than cotton. Cotton is a soil-damaging crop and needs a great deal of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

-Cotton crops in the USA occupy 1% of the country’s farmland but use 50% of all pesticides.

-1 acre of hemp will produce as much as 2-3 acres of cotton.

-Hemp is 4 times warmer than cotton, 4 times more water absorbent, has 3 times the tensile strength of cotton. It is also many times more durable and is flame retardant.

-Many high fashion clothing manufacturers have produced clothes and footwear made with hemp. Some of these include: Nike, Converse, Armani, Patagonia, Polo Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta and many more.

-Hemp fabrics were once far more expensive than cotton and other fabrics due to limited supply, but increased demand and availability in recent years have lowered the price considerably.

-Hemp breathes well and wicks moisture away from the body better than cotton.

-Hemptown (Canada’s largest hemp t-shirt supplier) asserts that selecting their hemp/cotton blended t-shirt over an all-cotton t-shirt saves the environment 744 gallons of water. This company has recently been funded by Canada’s National Research Council to create an enzyme that will make hemp fibres as soft as cotton.



Hemp FACTS http://www.hempfarm.org/Papers/Hemp_Facts.html

[gateley]

31. Does Gore address this fact do you know? Maybe if he did people would

begin to consider it. There are so many benefits that we could reap from cultivating industrial hemp. We're shooting ourselves in the foot.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

28. my fave babylon gal has a nice related topic on this.

[woodsprite]

30. We ran our garden the whole summer on reclaimed rain water

that ran off our roof. We have two 80 gal. containers and there were times when we could have filled them several times over during some storms this season. If everyplace had something similar for their non-drinking water needs, it would greatly help. It took very little effort. We even attached it to a solar automatic drip irrigation system for the plants.

We're getting the house re-sided and energy efficient windows installed this month. Our hope is to go eventually go solar, but with the cost of the siding/windows, the tree removal (2-3) and the solar panels will be awhile coming.

[Odin2005]

32. And WHY THE FUCK are we not DOING SOMETHING about this?

If I was in charge I would be funding the construction of desalinization plants and the energy sources to power them RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!! I would be funding public policies and technologies to promote water conservation RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!

[Ilsa]

35. I'd do one more thing:

A gentle form of population control policy by gradually removing the number of dependant deductions and exemptions for federal tax purposes. I don't believe the govt has a right to say how many kids you can have, but the govt certainly doesn't have to support overpopulation with tax policy.

[Odin2005]

48. I agree.

We shouldn't encourage people to pop out babies by subsidizing them with tax breaks. Natalism annoys the hell out of me

[Deja Q]

38. Well, encourage people to get education in the scientific field too.

[underpants]

41. *I* know what will fix this problem... PRIVATIZATION!!!

Not only can the private sector surely do the job better and for less ( do you know of any examples of the opposite being true?) why there is so much money in it cause you see there is much more risk in water than there has ever been.

What could possibly go wrong???

:sarcasm:

[Petrushka]

47. Examples of water privatization going wrong?

http://www.icij.org/water

[ozone_man]

43. Drought monitor.

A useful site for monitoring U.S. drought conditions.

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

[humbled_opinion]

49. Congress should be on top of this now... Soon Atlanta Georgia will be a barren desert

and so they keep pumping water into Florida... It makes no sense.. It shows no leadership either.

[Ice4Clark]

50. CBC did some in depth reporting on Water Privatization

Some very alarming information there.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/
snip:

In the past ten years, three giant global corporations have quietly assumed control over the water supplied to almost 300 million people in every continent of the world. A 12-month investigation by journalists in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America shows that the results range from questionable to disastrous. And it shows how well-meaning municipal governments in the U.S. and Canada can become vulnerable to the persuasive techniques of these high-powered corporate giants.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/business.html
snip:

The water business has gone from being seen as a low-return utility, to a source of "blue gold."

Peter Spillett, a senior executive with Thames Water, calls water the petroleum of the 21st century.

"There's huge growth potential," he says. "There will be world wars fought over water in the future. It's a limited, precious resource, so the growth market is always going to be there."

[lonestarnot]

55. I used to know a water witch.

:shrug: