But if you can reclaim water on a large scale, you have a strong wall against drought. Michael Kiparsky, executive director of the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley, states: “This is the most reliable way to get water, clean, and then use it to meet other needs.”
And of course, water reform is money. Water levels are declining in the west, and prices are rising again. The price of San Diego’s exports of water has tripled in the last 15 years. This may be important for voters when it comes to supporting water restitution plans. “Money is a force for good, isn’t it?” asks Gloria. “If you explain to them that if we can take care of ourselves – we should not rely on water managers in the north, or a lot of alliances, water supply agreements with other areas – where we can improve ourselves, then there is a great potential for financial management.”
Historically, however, legislators had to fight the “ick factor” of water in order to reuse it. People can’t believe it, even though it’s amazingly white. (I am he has tried it before– it was refreshing and did not kill me.) But Gloria points out that if your government draws water from Colorado or another river, and you are from other municipalities doing the same, you are kale drinking reclaimed water. “Everyone took the water, used it, put it back in, and it’s going down here,” Gloria said. “Then if you think you’re not using water anymore, you’re probably wrong.”
But just as with stock options, it is better to protect your betting with a variety of factors rather than having one item at a time. Any city that saves money on a river or in the same lake is in dire straits, because frequent droughts and climate change bring problems to the market. “Water right now, I think, is our biggest environmental problem,” says Adrian Borsa, a geologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, who studies how water sources store water. Drought is a temporary threat to the West West than any other threat that city planners should consider, such as earthquakes. “No more, ‘Oh, we’re going to have this big 7½ at San Andreas Fault.’ This will happen sometime, but true we are facing the problem of water scarcity. “
That’s why cities in Southern California are developing technology by changing their territories. The program of Carlsbad Desalination Plant manages seawater in much the same way as a recycling plant – passing through toilets. It supplies County San Diego with 50 million gallons of water per day. In Los Angeles, 150 acres Tujunga Distribution Area Be like a giant sponge, moistening the stormwater that then seeps into the river below. Elsewhere around LA, specially designed green spaces along roadsides do the same, collecting water in underground tanks.