It was fifty-one years ago when I was put upon by my English teacher to fight my way through "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - the renowned poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The poem was 159 years old then, having been completed in 1798. It's now 210 years old - time marches on.
In those days I always had "other things" to do, so I thumbed through my textbook to estimate the time and effort it would take to do the assignment. Only then did I realize why we'd been given a week to read it; the poem was a monster, more than 600 lines long.
Even so, I was soon fascinated by the word-pictures and feelings Coleridge penned into this great work. In the poem's most famous stanza, he provides a perfect description of the predicament facing the ship's thirsty crew; "Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink." They were at sea, but they might as well have been stranded in the desert; with their technology, all the surrounding salt water was useless
As any thirsty person knows, freshwater suitable for drinking is critical for human survival. Dehydration occurs when your body loses too much fluid. This can happen when you stop drinking water and/or lose large amounts of fluid through diarrhea, vomiting, sweating, or exercise; serious dehydration will result in death.
In the modern world, water for irrigation is also critical to our survival. Farming could not provide food for the world's populations without the irrigation of crops. After drinking, irrigation is the most important use of water. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, almost 60 percent of all the world's freshwater withdrawals go towards irrigation.
Every water use has some loss. For home or industrial use about 90 percent of the water used goes back into the ground for eventual reuse, but for irrigation only 50 percent is reusable, the rest is lost to evaporation into the air, transpiration from plants, or in transit.
In 2000, the freshwater withdrawals for the U.S. were an estimated 137 billion gallons per day (that's billion with a "b"). Irrigation was 40 percent of total freshwater withdrawals when you include thermo-electric power, 65 percent when thermo-electric is excluded.
Not surprisingly, the majority of irrigation withdrawals (86 percent) were in the areas of the 17 western States where average annual precipitation is less than 20 inches; those areas cannot support crops without supplemental water. California, Idaho, Colorado, and Nebraska combined accounted for half of the nation's total irrigation withdrawals; California was the big dog by far, using 22 percent.
Nature, and the way water is used, can affect both the quantity and quality of the supply. For example, personal and industrial use can insert salt, bio-solids and chemicals and agricultural runoff is a problem. Pollutants from farming and ranching include sediment, nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, metals, and salts. Drought is a constant risk, and for coastal areas, saltwater intrusion is a threat
Luckily, we can usually measure the quality and flows of the water accurately. The system's ability to take a punch is also a way to measure its strength. When a federal district court curtailed pumping from the Delta to protect a species of endangered smelt, we saw the system's knees buckle. Those reductions cut back the state's water reserves by about one-third in the winter and spring. A water system should not have a glass jaw.
I have no doubt that many Californians are suffering from "crisis fatigue." It's earthquakes, HIV and global warming, oil and energy, crime and education, Iraq, Iran and Georgia, the economy and housing and all the rest, but when you're thirsty, it all seems worse. So, if you have any space left on your crisis list, just add "water wars" - because you're going to see a lot of it coming to a state, county and city near you and soon.
Marty Richman Got a question or a comment? Send us an email.
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