Water

It’s time now for a gentler, tree hugging me.

I worry far too much about having enough fresh water. Not just for me fool, I mean the entire planet.

Heck I have a 340 foot water well here that produces the coldest, best tasting water around. 4 out of 4 Border Collies prefer it.

The well was drilled in 1974 and has been producing ever since. This house used to have a 20,000 in ground pool that I know was filled from this well at least three times. We have the same water well for the guest house, barn, and main house. Very rarely have to spend money on the well. We had to install a new pump a few years ago, and every so often I change the sediment filters.

For sewage water we have a septic tank and septic field that work dependably. Once we had it pumped and the guy insisted that Gigi look in to see the crust buildup. That term both about make use puke. We both love crusty bread and would prefer this term be reserved for bread only, and never for accumulated doo-doo.

My friends in the city are on municipal water. This is pumped from the Catawba River, processed, and pumped into their homes. Every month they get a bill for this fresh water and then a bill for their nasty water that the city takes away, processes, and dumps back into a creek that flows back to the Catawba River Basin. Then South Carolina gets their shot at this water, J.

But when you think about it, we have the same amount of water as we did 4 billion years ago and we’ve gone from zero to 10 billion people, all wanting and needing fresh water to stay alive. Plus industry uses a tremendous amount of fresh water.

Cities like Los Angeles suck up water from all over with little thought to the future.

I think there are three things we should do now to protect this resource.

Practice conservation. Don’t over water, don’t waste water.

Homes in desert and drought prone areas (Los Angeles, Phoenix, Vegas) should be using cisterns. Anyone should consider cisterns in new construction. Cisterns collect rainwater, store it, and process it. A single rainy day can collect a tremendous amount of water that would otherwise be runoff.

Homes in these areas should have a process to use their gray water (water from anything but the toilet) to water their lawns and landscape. I have seen this work in resort areas in CA.

You can also do little things. If you have a ½ drunken bottle of water you are about to throw away, please release the water back in the environment by watering a house plant or pour it on the ground. If you toss the water in the bottle, it may be trapped in the landfill for hundreds of years before it is released back into the environment.

Share a shower with your mate. Saves water and it damn fun.

Lastly, consider giving to an organization that drills water for drought prone areas of the world like parts of Africa. A deep water well can be drilled over there for around $1,500 and it changes lives.

Everyone should have fresh, clean water.

1 comments:

TerryC said...

Reggie for President!!!