At Least 36 U.S. States Face Water Shortage

[RedEarth]

Source: alternet.org

At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages within the next five years, according to U.S. government estimates. Available freshwater supplies are dwindling across the country due to rising temperatures and droughts, while increasing sprawl, population and inefficient resource usage are leading to rising demand.

"Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the American Water Works Association. Rising temperatures due to global warming have increased evaporation rates across the country and reduced the availability of important water sources. One of these is the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies a significant portion of California's water. Across the West, similar trends are expected to reduce flows of the Colorado River, which supplies water for seven states.

Meanwhile, rising sea levels are expected to cause saltwater to infiltrate freshwater aquifers in coastal states, rendering that water unusable.

California uses about 23 trillion gallons of fresh water per year. The United States as a whole uses more than 148 trillion gallons for all purposes, including agriculture, manufacturing and other uses. Other threatened regions include the Midwest, where the Great Lakes are shrinking, and upstate New York, where reservoir levels have fallen to record lows. Georgia's crisis has already arrived, and Florida's is expected to hit soon.



Read more: http://www.alternet.org/water/82378/

[rockedthevoteinMA]

1. This truly is a frightening prospect.

Where I live we had a drought last August; a bad one. No one was allowed to water their gardens, except by hand. Neighbors were calling the cops daily to report misuse of the city water.

However, if you drove to the rich neighborhoods in town, none of them shut off the sprinkler systems for their lawns. :mad: I wonder what they will do when they can't shower or brush their teeth...

[HouseofMayhem]

4. WELCOME TO THE DESERT, BAYBEE!

And howdy from NM--"It's not weeds, it's XERISCAPING!"

[Ilsa]

5. We don't need more people. Tax policies should encourage

less birthing, not more.

[Zhade]

2. Huge kick

I live in Cali :scared:

[amandabeech]

3. I wish that advocates of large-scale immigration would read this.

It doesn't even go into the paving over needed of farmland for waves of townhouses and shopping centers.

I think that we've reached carrying capacity or are over it.

[tom_paine]

6. It is only fitting that we should reap the environmental disaster we have sown.

It is very difficult to have sympathy for an enslaved, weak-minded people such as we Imperial Subjects of Amerika.

Free People, it's easier to have sympathy for them, but that is not a description that can be applied to the Amerikan Subject Populace, whcih is surveilled from brith until death, and who have little to no System of Checks and Balances, let alone a function Bill of Rights, to protect us.

Further we ALL let it happen, we are the rough moral equivalents oft he Germans who brought Hitler into power.

Oh, you can say, "But we haven't done nearly as much evil as the Nazis did, by several orders of magnitude."

That may be technically true, but it's only because the Bushies are still too busy pretending that America is still free. When they no longer have to bother pretending, likely some 20 years from now, perhaps much sooner, THEN and only then will we see not only what the Bushies Penultimate and Final Solutions to the Liberal problem are, but how willing the Imperial Subjects of Amerika are to carry out these evils, whatever the exact details of them are.

My prediction: The Imperial Subjects of Amerika are 80% likely to be VERY WILLING. That % goes to 98% if we are in economic calamity, or if the Bushies hit us again like they did on 9/11.

Point is, how can I be sympathetic to such people, including myself? We had it all, and gave it away ithout a fight, just like the 1930s Germans.

[BigDaddy44]

7. I don't know when this study was done....

But if they say 5 years, it may be we're good for 6. The west got absolutely pounded with snow this winter. Great for snowpack.

[Infinite Hope]

8. ALL Lawn irrigation should be banned nation-wide. Grass naturally goes dormant during dry periods...

...and then comes back green during wet periods. There's no reason to water grass. IT DOESN'T DIE!

[conflictgirl]

9. But that wouldn't look pretty!

:sarcasm:

[mac2]

10. My neighbor waters her back yard at night. In the morning

we have her water in front of our driveway and house. She pumps the excess into our drain. Instead of picking up the dog waste she waters it away. Yuck. It leaves stagnant puddles for bugs to breed. We complained to the city but they are like Republicans. They do little to enforce the law of the village. Her water bills must be expensive. She brags about her buried sprinkler system. Yes..she's part of the shortage problem.