Private Water vs. Public Water Use

We were discussing hauled water and the conversation took a natural turn to private water companies. I wonder if private water companies restrict usage differently than public municipalities? I would think they would. I noticed in the Daily Courier the council decided not to curtail water usage for landscape irrigation.

The article called the restrictions "heavy-handed." It seems like we are struggling to provide water to the community and here was a simple measure to manage usage. I want our community to be a beautiful place but I also want the future protected. When you think about where our water comes from and the expense of our future needs, it doesn't seem as "heavy-handed" in my mind. See the courier article here regarding the current cost of the Big Chino Pipeline. Also, considering that we are in an official drought, is this even responsible?

If you read the article there's a reference to the recently defeated annexation effort. It's being tied back to the impact fees the City had hoped to recoup from development. It seems like talking about abandoning the pipeline over costs and then not taking some stand on water usage is a contradiction of intention. Grandfathered rights would probably be an intelligent decision. I know, I know, it's the old "I got mine - now go away" mindset, but we have to start somewhere. New construction and development would be a reasonable place to implement policy changes. I think we pay now or we pay a lot more later. It's like Hubble's Law of the expanding universe in reverse; the closer we get to the future the faster it's coming at us. No doubt water is going to be more of a driving force in our political climate.

The New York Times had an article realted to water in the Southwest a few weeks ago which is among the best I've read so far.

I think people making decisions about our water future would be well served to read the article.
There is probably more than a whole blogs worth of information in the article and I'll probably be referring to to again.

Overwhelming Start

Okay, I get it... there's a ton of people tuning into water issues everywhere. It seems like I can't go a single day without some confirmation of the problem. Last night I was watching the Travel Channel as I eased into a restless nights sleep. The topic? The Colorado River. If you missed it and get the Travel Channel, here's the schedule. It's worth a watch. The Colorado River is the main player when it comes to water in the Southwest.

So I'm off to a bit of an overwhelming start. Besides being new to blogging, I need to catalogue the information in some coherent form. As I work on a meaningful depository of articles, blogs, documentaries, websites, etc., I realize how green I am. (Yes, pun intended). Right now I'm tracking these in a word document with the hope of posting each along with some editorial content, but that may not be realistic because it's coming faster than I can even assemble it. So maybe watch for a post of the list. I plan to include that in the website and add comments inside the blog.

The number of environmentally sensitive blogs is really taxing based on a narrow search. I'm not sure how this one will play out in the long run, but I guess you have to start somewhere. I'm open to suggestions for content and hope to roll it out over time.

Water In The Southwest

Well, I'm starting this blog as part of my own educational trek on the water issues related to the Southwest with an emphasis on Arizona. For whatever reason, water has been on my mind a lot lately. Not that it was ever in doubt that water was vital, but I'm amazed at what a limited resource it is. How limited? I'm not sure, but I'm working on it.

It seems that some new article or piece of information appears everyday on my small radar screen. Maybe I'm more tuned in now, or maybe it really does need my full attention. I created FreshWaterFootprint.com, (under development), as a one stop resource for water issue related to the American Southwest. This blog is an extension. Of course, I'll cover national and global information, but will narrow my scope to the issues that have an immediate impact on Arizona.

I'll post articles and sites I think will benefit this blog. The most important reason I'm creating this blog is so everyone can join in. So do!