To the editor: I’ve the deepest sympathy for workers author Ian James, who has to repeatedly cite such acquainted quotes as: “We’ve obtained an actual drawback”; “All people wants … to chop proper now”; “A near-term disaster is unfolding”; and “This can be a second that calls for urgency, collaboration and transparency” (“The dwindling Colorado River can’t anticipate states to chop water use, specialists say,” Sept. 14).
These quotes are primarily the identical ones we heard 5, 10 and 15 years in the past. However, on prime of that, new analysis within the journal Nature Geoscience strongly suggests our 25-year megadrought will most certainly lengthen to 2050 and past. If that doesn’t gentle a hearth below you, perhaps this can: There at the moment are 682 knowledge facilities within the seven states depending on the dwindling water from the Colorado River Basin. Collectively, these knowledge facilities are utilizing billions of gallons of water straight from municipal suppliers.
Peak water is right here now and we should produce hyper-creative, out-of-the-box options — similar to exploring the potential of a 1,000-mile water pipeline from a supply like Lake Michigan — for a long-term answer.
Sadly for James and the remainder of us, we’re simply treading water till the bureaucratic hand-wringing and common complacency finish — and till there’s no extra water left to tread. This complacency overrides any sense of dire urgency to construct a sustainable answer for the 40 million residents within the West.
John Boal, Burbank
