Re: [GBlist] A note on why to conserve water...

[Sacie Lambertson <dlambert@grasshoppernet.com>]

> Sacie do you think you could store enough rain water in an underground>
cistern to irrigate your landscaping during the summer months?

No Ron I don't, not with only 8" annual rain fall; it isn't only during
the summer months that yards here are watered, it is year round.  Southern
California is warm country.  We just returned from a shorts and short
sleeved bicycle ride from Santa Monica, through Venice and south along the
beach; ate in the sun in 74 degrees.. No, the 'solution'  in this natural
desert country would be to abandon the idea that one needs to have a New
England green sort of yard.  A combination of xeriscaping  with drip
irrigation and the use of lots the local rock would greatly reduce the
need for water in this area.  One person in our neighborhood has a rock
yard and its beautiful.
Eventually as areas of our country get more crowded, mirroring more the
conditions of Europe or Asia, the American mindset will change but that
won't be in our lifetimes.  In the meantime however, I am convinced that
the problem of diminishing water will be an issue that most Americans will
face in the next several decades.  Sacie Lambertson




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