"But I don't want to go among mad people", Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
----Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
In the 1930s, the center of the United States became the "Dust Bowl" due to prolonged and pervasive drought. The dust was farmland topsoil wind eroded and blown away in dust storms, along with hopes and livelihoods of farm families. As memorialized in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath", migrant workers and farmers displaced by years of Dust Bowl misery relocated to perceived better times in California.
Now, portions of California and several other western states are experiencing prolonged and pervasive drought which is stressing and displacing lifestyles and livelihoods of residents. Moreover, much of California is naturally dry, and is dependent upon external water sources to sustain population centers and irrigation agriculture. So, the choice now is becoming one of serious reduction in water use or migrating elsewhere, perhaps even back to the center of the country.
The usual approaches to reducing water use have been well publicized, such as
* recycling wastewater
* prohibiting yard watering
* mandating utilities to reduce water deliveries
* mandating reductions in farm irrigation
* requiring installation of low flow water appliances
* adopting inverse rate blocks that rise with volume
These "usual" approaches may produce some success, but perhaps some more "unusual" approaches could also help.
For example, on June 24, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a partnership that would invest millions of dollars to restore the Sierra-Cascade California Headwaters, which is the water source for agriculture and some 25 million residents.
One of the most dramatic periods of conservation in the Unites states was during World War II, when many materials and foods were needed for the war effort, forcing citizens to conserve. Two aspects come to mind: (1) citizens were well educated as to the need to conserve resources; and (2) many items were rationed, a form of mandatory conservation. Could these two aspects be applied to help reduce water demand in drought environments? For example, could a per capital standard of average daily water use be established for households, with high volumetric rates applied to excess monthly use?
Agriculture can pose a more difficult issue. There is a significant difference, obviously, between land that produces annual crops such as corn and land that is used for orchards of fruit and nut trees that take years to mature. Perhaps some land can be taken out of temporary production, with governmental financial assistance. Or, irrigation rights temporarily waived or reduced. However, some farms may have contractual water rights which would likely require mutual consent for reductions.
One unique source of additional water could be human sweat. A Swedish engineer created a device to harvest sweat from clothing and to purify it to drinking water. A sweaty T-shirt is said to have produced two teaspoons of clean water. However, sweaty socks may be more productive. A pair of human feet is said to yield a half-pint of sweat every day. If true, sixteen pairs of socks could yield one gallon a day. Perhaps, here is an opportunity for another government program to establish a sock exchange where people would bring in dripping socks and pick up dry ones.*
Two other solutions may be available. If people in California do not like the drought and water use limitations, they might consider moving to the Midwest, where there has been so much record-breaking rain this year that it is a "Flood Bowl."
Or, if people want to stay in California and want more rain, why not just ask God?
______________________________________________________
* Festa, "Sweat", Discover, July/August,2015, p.98
No comments:
Post a Comment