February 22, 2023
I\’m not sure that any water saving measures: dams, freshwater bays, desalination and just plain conservation will work until we change our culture regarding water. If every Californian would realize that water is our most precious resource (truly more precious than oil or gold or almonds) then we might have a chance of removing the threat of drought. But it will take each one-of-US to embrace a culture of water conservation (think Dune) to make this work.
A case in point:
Last week Tuesday (2/14) I awoke to find a stream of water in front of my home that was gurgling from a crack in the pavement. Being water conscious, I immediately telephoned DWP to get someone out here. The agent told me someone would be out within the hour.
Lo and behold, the DWP was there in 5 minutes (they\’d already responded to another call in the area). The DWP Service Man made a quick inspection and said — it looks like you have a burst water main. This made sense to me. And off he went — because he didn\’t have the equipment necessary to staunch or stop the flow. I assumed the big crew would come back later that day.
No one else came that Valentine\’s Day and I don\’t know how many hundreds of gallons found their way to the storm drain and then to the L.A. River. And there\’s no telling how long that water main had been broken before the water made its way up to the street in front of my home.
The next Morning (2/15) I telephoned the DWP again and was informed that my address was on their list and that they serviced sites according to priority (any water wasting is a priority to my mind — but I guess some wasting is larger than others). But around 9am a sizeable crew (5-6 DWP guyz) showed up with equipment and a hole filling material. I thought, OK — this isn\’t too bad: that the leak would be sorted out in about 24 hours after its discovery.
But all this crew did was drill about four holes (to relieve built up pressure?); and, after hanging out for a-couple-of-hours, went to their next call (I\’m guessing).
So now the water was really streaming out — it looked like a spring! I\’m pretty sure that quite a few thousand gallons made their way to the sea on Wednesday and Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning.
On Thursday Morning (2/16) — I went out to get my paper at about 7:15am and thought: I have to call DWP again. But before I could make the call the DWP fleet showed up and they looked like they meant business that day.
And sure enough — they fixed the leak and were done by noon.
Now I\’m no water engineer — but I feel that everything accomplished on Thursday might have been accomplished on Tuesday — with many thousands of gallons of water saved in the process.
Perhaps the most difficult entity to convert to a new water culture will be the alleged custodians of California water.