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Recommended reading: No water, no development - editorial from the LA Times

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 7, 2008 at 6:47 am

From the Los Angeles Times, this editorial:

During the 20th century in Southern California, city founders made a religion out of building bounteous — and sometimes boundless — suburbs in the most unlikely locations. They assumed that the water their new communities needed to thrive would somehow flow to them.

For the most part, if they made their claim early enough, they were right. Because the state and federal governments poured billions of dollars into dam and canal systems that carried water over vast distances, past far-flung burgs, engineers could almost always find a way to get a little more of it to thirsty towns. In tract after tract, water followed development, rather than the other way around.

In the 21st century, this ethos of expansion must come to an end. California’s water supply is finite, but its population is growing. Forecasters believe that the state, which has 38 million residents today, will have 48 million by 2030. In many places, formerly dependable groundwater is now polluted or depleted. Prolonged drought on the Colorado River — combined with increased demand for its water from growing states such as Nevada and Arizona — almost certainly will reduce water deliveries from the east. Diminished snowpacks in the Sierra and environmental restrictions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta almost certainly will reduce water deliveries from the north. And it’s unclear how climate change will affect California’s water supplies.

It’s a matter of common sense: It is time for development in California to follow the water. Even as our state continues to grow, sprawl can no longer be our birthright. Hydrologically remote regions cannot depend on new sources of imported water for human needs, much less for verdant lawns.

Read the rest of this editorial from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

April 7, 2008 · Filed Under Development & Water

Comments

One Response to “Recommended reading: No water, no development - editorial from the LA Times”

David Coffin on April 7th, 2008 8:56 am

The strange thing about the editorial piece is that they are trying to have it both ways.

On one hand the editorial says “In the 21st century, this ethos of expansion must come to an end. California’s water supply is finite,” but on the otherhand they go on to state “Even with water supplies in question, California can build to accommodate its millions of new residents. But it must build smart.”

Building smart means to them “cut yard sizes and impose landscaping restrictions on new and existing neighborhoods…Homeowners must get used to the idea of living near higher-density, water-efficient infill. They also must accept tiered pricing for water, which would discourage outdoor use.”

Gee, I can’t wait till we see ten’s of thousand of new apartments buildings popping up in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills.

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