An Interesting Water Issue On The West Coast
August 17, 2015 A few weeks ago at the 2015 Environmental Respect Awards event in Wilmington, DE, one of the speakers talked about water. According to the representative from Amman, Jordan-based Agrimatco, water is going to be the world’s next big battleground. “You are already seeing it in our country,” said the Agrimatco manager. “Farmers are under pressure to save water, and I think you will start seeing this across the world very soon.”
This water scarcity is already taking place in parts of the U.S. For instance in California, all sectors of the economy are under pressure to reduce their water usage. For consumers, this has meant foregoing lawns. For agriculture, it has meant millions of acres of land previously utilized for farming are no longer in production.
And the effort seems to be working. By most estimates, Californians collectively cut their water usage in the state by 27% during the summer month of June. However, this is now becoming an economic problem for the Golden State’s budget.
Recently, I spent part of a dinner effort hosted by my wife’s company speaking with a couple that live in a suburb of Los Angeles. They acknowledged that all of their friends and co-workers were doing their parts to conserve water in the state.
Loading ...“Of course, we just got a note from the state government complaining that the fees collected on water usage were down so significantly this summer that they would probably have to rise to make up the shortfall,” said this California native. “So now that I’m doing all I can to save water, it looks like it will end up costing me more than ever for the privilege to do so.”
Like other Californians, this gentleman is anxious to see what 2015’s predicted “Godzilla” El Nino will end up doing to the state’s water reserves. But in the meantime, it sounds as if Californians will get pats on their backs for saving water while their wallets grow lighter in the process.
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