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

[Ron Byrd <byrdelc@directcon.net>]

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

Sacie Lambertson wrote:

> The article Bion posted regarding the future water problems in the West
> prompts me to write about  where we are living temporarily, ie  Claremont
> California east of LA,  an area very much the subject of the article.  So.
> Cal is really an amazing place, far nicer than our hereto brief visits
> indicated.  Aside from #s of people and freeways of bumper to bumper 75
> mph traffic, the first thing I noticed is the lushness of the place.
> This is pretty astounding because without water, everything west and south
> of the San Gabriel Mt range (which defines the LA basin) is as much desert
> as the other side, where the Mojave Desert is. The Central Valley to our
> north, where much of our food in the US is grown, without irrigation,
> would also look like a desert.  The illusion of verdancy here is pointedly
> obvious when you see an empty lot of dry stone on parched earth next to a
> bright green yard . I think the average annual rain fall is about 8 inches
> and if it comes down hard, much of what falls will simply run to the ocean
> via concrete creeks and rivers.  For the first time in ten months it did
> rain last week, fortunately a nice gentle rain.  Everyone waters, usually
> through an underground irrigation system and sprinklers, often during the
> heat of the day; even the precious little xeriscaping one sees requires
> some water to keep plants alive.  The water bills are high, but then all
> here is costly.   What  is spent to keep grass green here is no different
> than any other part of the country where there also is no penalty for
> using large amounts of water.  The water that feeds the LA basin  and most
> of Southern. Cal. comes from an impressive  system of resevoirs and vast
> miles of pipes, sourced primarily in the Sierras and the San Gabriels,
> this to my mind being better/more natural than water sucked out of
> aquafers, as in Colorado and Kansas   Even after the recent dry winters
> with little snowfall, there is no policy limiting water use.  I haven't
> talked to any neighbors who consider the potential scarcity of water.  I
> rather suspect everyone considers the use of it their god-given right.
> This is really an amazing place.  The farmers have another story.
>
>  For the farmers it is another story.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
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> ______________________________________________________________________

--
Ron Byrd
Vice President
Sunstar Precision Energy Corporation
http://www.specenergy.com
" We turn SUNLIGHT into ELECTRICITY "



______________________________________________________________________
This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by REPP/CREST, creator of
Solstice http://www.crest.org, and BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of
Environmental Building News and GreenSpec http://www.BuildingGreen.com
______________________________________________________________________