Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
THE NEW WAY OF LIFE
As hundreds of water battles rage on across the country, the reality
of our water supply's future becomes clearer. The current and
growing shortage isn't just an isolated case. Experts agree that
even without factoring in drought or climate change, water short-
ages and disputes over this fi nite resource aren't likely to go away
anytime soon. That's especially true in the West, where increasing
populations exert pressure on already short water supplies. “There
are so many demands on the limited resource that unless there is
something like a widespread ocean water desaliniation effort, there
simply is not going to be enough to go around,” says USDA's Rippey.
More water restrictions have become a way of life across the
country. Those restrictions take many forms, can be voluntary or
mandatory, and can be as minimal as suggested use of low-water
plumbing and cutbacks on outside yard watering or as stringent
as laws that stipulate the type of plumbing required, forbid out-
door watering, limit indoor use, and impose fi nancial penalties for
violations and exceeding certain water use limitations.
The root of the water crisis historically is not so much
population growth but change in the way we use water, change in
per-capita water demand, says Joseph Dellapenna, internation-
ally known water law expert and professor at Villanova University
School of Law in Philadelphia. “Many people think, 'I don't take
more showers than I used to; what do you mean by change in
demand?' Everything we consume consumes water, and as our affl u-
ence has grown, we have all consumed a great deal more water.
“While the population of the United States doubled between 1950
and 1980, per capita water consumption increased sixfold during
that same period. It has leveled off but at a much higher level,” says
Dellapenna. “Factor in continued population growth—at this very
high level of water consumption—with global climate change or, as
I like to call it, 'global climate disruption,' which wreaks havoc on our
expected patterns of precipitation. Even with the most modest concep-
tion of global climate change, there are very good reasons to under-
stand that dry areas like the southwestern United States are going to
become larger and drier. And formerly humid areas are becoming
drier. This is most obvious in the southeastern United States,” he adds.
