Santa Cruz, water when you want it…but a transcontinental water pipeline?

 

Santa Cruz has just started the pilot desalinization plant to provide water when you want it. So many places have had water problems in the past few years. In 2007, Georgia was gripped in a devastating drought. The Georgia drought was unexpected and seemingly unprecedented, leading to threats of lawsuits. These cycles of too much rain or water and not enough, have plagued mankind for millenniums; even Noah had the problem.

 

In Santa Cruz County we had the devastating effects of too much water in too short a time period, several times, with the most startling being the mountain sliding down in Love Creek, Ben Lomond in 1982. The county had bridges and roads collapse with a frequency not seen before. We had a severe drought back in 1976, and those fears, and the continuing seawater intrusion the farmers are creating by over pumping their agricultural wells, has brought the lack of water concern to the forefront. While the farmers aren’t the sole cause of the salt water intrusion, their land is closest to the ocean and they pump the most water in those areas.

 

As we struggle to find the solution to growth management, water, and water quality, will ultimately be one of the bigger concerns with development here. As we have seen recently some of the water quality touted to be better in bottled water, is false. In fact many public water systems are equal or even better than bottled water. To see how your water quality is, check the national water quality testing. San Francisco was touted as having some of the best water in the country. With the current concern that we are finding amounts of drugs in our water supply, in addition to the usual agricultural and industrial contaminants, this was a pleasant surprise.

 

San Francisco’s mayor had taken a position last year that the city did not need to spend money on bottled water, as tap was just fine. This recent report seems to prove it, and many reports over the years seem to indicate that bottled water in nothing more than tap water, and a scam according to Food and Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group. San Francisco’s Mayor has called on local restaurants to stop selling bottled water. Restaurateurs sell water as a source of revenues, so there is an economic concern as well.

 

With water being a problem, we are now seeing dramatic flooding in Missouri, and in that part of the country. My solution to the continuing cycles we see: a national water pipeline. Yes that is right, a nationwide water pipeline that can tap into the flood water in one area, filter and store the water in depleted reservoirs and supply the drought areas with water. Why not? If it leaks a little, so what, it isn’t oil. If we can build and man with relatively few problems, an 800 mile oil pipeline over the arctic tundra in Alaska, why not water? With the train lines that criss cross the nation, there are plenty of rights of way that can be purchased for this. Think about this as a modern WPA project. With the next president, whoever it may be, saddled with our current administrations economic fiasco, the economic morass may be helped by such a project. Our roads and infrastructures are in need of much repair. A project such as this may help our country avert climatic changes that may be triggered by global warming and stave off future economic hardships for states that face drought. Think about it though, I think it is an idea who’s’ time has come. To read more on the Santa Cruz solution to its’ water problems go to my blog.