Water Efficiency

To whom it may concern,

Water is the most vulnerable and essential natural resource on this planet. Of all the water on earth, fresh, potable water makes up on two percent of the total. In North America, most of the fresh water is located in the Great Lakes basin. But since the governments of the Great Lakes area recently adopted a plan to keep the Great Lakes clean and its water from being exported elsewhere, water availability in America is quickly becoming a environmental constraint to our growth and prosperity. In California, drought threatens new development and agricultural production. By far one of the most extensive man-made water distribution networks in the country, California aqueducts ferry around the State's fresh water without thought or consequence of the natural balance of its ecosystems. 60 percent of the water required for the Los Angeles basin is imported from outside the region. For the billions of dollars that are spent to deliver fresh drinking water, one would think that this heavily subsidized system would be attentively cared for. Instead, fresh water is so cheap that we wash our sidewalks and cars, water our unnatural laws during the day, and use it in excess. Even this massive distribution system itself is inefficient and wastes millions of gallons each day from leaky pipes or evaporation. While the cost of desalination remains inhibitive, it is the last remaining alternative source of water left in earth's closed system. In this most recent "green" movement, efficiency has been used synonymously with energy and the recycling of raw materials. What is most deficient in this nascent environmental movement is water efficiency. The government should be eliminating the unsustainable water practices of this country from residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial uses. We should no longer drawn down our aquifers below their natural recharge. We should be promoting drip irrigation, low flush toilets, faucet aerators, the recycling of industrial coolants, and the use of recycled water for non-potable uses like landscaping and restrooms. How will this administration maximize the country's water efficiency in order to secure and protect our most valuable resource?

GUNNAR HAND, AICP