droughtiness

DROUGHTINESS
it seems to be everywhere
this lack of water
the life blood of us all


kxan.com
it was interesting to read an article on straws that are put
down into the lakes from homeowners to suck the water
out of the lakes
these lakes supply the water for several cities around this area
the amount sucked out by these straws is 1.6 billion gallons
enough to empty out the smallest of these highland lakes that
sevices austin and the surrounding cities

the regulators only have one person to try to catch these folks
skimming off the water

they are thinking of putting meters on these straws

seems ok to me


we will be in trouble around here waterwise until
this sometimes island in lake travis disappers again
soon i hope

while in san francisco last weekend i read an interesting
article about the drought there in california
after reading it i realized the drought there is going to
affect us big time when it comes to our food we buy
in the near future
since
thats where most of our food comes from

san francisco usually gets 20+ inches
last year they got less than 4 inches
its the same all over the state
you would think with all those roofs in sf they could
do a heck of a job of collecting rainwater
but
it just all goes down the drains into the ocean
theres very little uncemented asphalted land there


whats those farmers out there doing to water their
plants
when i went to the farmers market i talked to some of the
organic gardeners
their usual sources the rivers and reservoirs are drying up
so
they are sucking it out of the ground
like those homeowners here
there sucking it up in giant straws to use it on
their fields
the problem is the aquifers are getting depleted
as they get depleted
the ground collapses so that
in some places the levels drop 3 feet
which of course crushes those straws


what they gonna do when the aquifers are gone
so
they are doing a lot of planning
water conservation
shutting down production
using rainwater collection techniques to keep the water
on their properties
like swells tanks areas to soak the water in to the soil
not planting part of their fields to act as a sink to soak up water
heck we do that in texas already
especially in austin and san antonio where its all encouraged
these
rainwater conservation methods

their crisis is our crisis
they grow our food
we hope they figure it out
well help if we can

no straws please is what we should be saying around here

at your level
conserve water at home like dont run faucets
use first run shower water in the yard
consider reuse of sink and wash water
shorten shower time
do a rain garden
collect rainwater off the roof
build berms in the landscape to slow down rain runoff
xericise your yard
dont waste any water

we are all in this together
the goal
is to survive

the organicgreen doctor