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Sunday, January 6, 2002 Cities across nation face shortages By Joan Lowy
The local utility, which sits on the shores of the Great Lakes, the largest collection of drinkable water on the surface of the planet, doesn’t bother to meter water use. It simply charges a flat rate based on household size. Many Chicago suburbs rely heavily on groundwater (which is actually underground) for drinking, but no one knows how much water is in the region’s aquifers. Water was always so plentiful that it never seemed important to find out. Until now. Alarmed by increasing reports of suburban wells running dry, the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission looked into the problem, releasing a report earlier this year forecasting water shortfalls by 2020, by which time the six-county Chicago metro area is expected to have added 1.3 million people. With the city and its suburbs prevented by court decisions from drawing more water from Lake Michigan than their current allotment, Chicago finds itself in the startling position of having to conserve water, find new sources or both. “The average Joe on the street thinks we can just talk to those other seven Great Lakes states and the (Canadian) provinces and convince them that we really need this water,” said Sarah Nerenberg, a water engineer with the planning commission. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, and we really need to be looking for other sources.” The lesson from Chicago, say water experts, is that the days of cheap, easy water are over in the United States. If Chicago must scramble for water, fierce competition over water can break out anywhere. Supply and demand It’s already occurring. Water supplies are showing strain in places that once thought them limitless. The problem is exacerbated by population growth, a general warming trend and urban sprawl. A drought in its fourth year in West Texas has worsened the Big Country’s water situation. The city of Abilene is building a pipeline to O.H. Ivie Reservoir almost 20 years sooner than originally planned. The Abilene City Council has raised water rates about 50 percent to pay for the pipeline — and to encourage conservation. The small town of Throckmorton, 70 miles northwest of Abilene, drew national attention last summer for an emergency drive to build a pipeline to supplement its vanishing lake. City administrators in Winters are planning a pipe-building effort this year. The U.S. population, at 285 million, has increased 13 percent in the last decade and 85 percent in the last 50 years. The U.S. Census Bureau projects the nation will grow to more than 400 million by 2050. In the fast-growing cities of North Carolina, experts predict that a lack of affordable fresh water may hinder economic development. Ten years ago, when Erika Schneider moved to a farmhouse on a mountainside near Asheville in western North Carolina, she and her family had reliable water from the gurgling spring they could see from their kitchen window. Gradually, the spring shriveled. Last year, the Schneiders had to drill a well. Beginning next year, farmers in 15 eastern North Carolina counties must have permits to irrigate their fields in a state attempt to crack down on the over-pumping of aquifers. That’s in a state with 3,820 square miles of lakes and an average annual rainfall of 46 inches. “I’m concerned that we might be setting ourselves up for a long-term crisis if our growth rate continues,” said Schneider, 36. “I know people that still just let their faucets run while they are doing other things.” Georgia, Florida and Alabama are locked in a fierce and seemingly intractable fight over the 130-mile Chattahoochee River. The river begins in the Appalachian Mountains in north Georgia and is the main freshwater supply for sprawling Atlanta, which has grown from 2.2 million people in 1980 to 3.7 million today and is expected to reach 5 million by 2025. Atlanta is trying to squeeze every drop it can from the Chattahoochee to quench its spiraling growth. Farmers downstream and cities in south Georgia, Florida and Alabama fear the depleted river will be sucked dry. Water wars Competition for water has traditionally been a three-way fight between farmers, industry and cities. Now, with a greater recognition of the importance of ecosystems, federal and state agencies are increasingly entering the fray on the environment’s behalf. For example, drought this summer in the Klamath basin near the California-Oregon border pitted farmers against fish in a battle over water. In what many experts view as a precedent-setting case, the Bureau of Reclamation shut off irrigation water to nearly 200,000 acres under cultivation to keep scarce water in Upper Klamath Lake for the endangered suckerfish and threatened coho salmon. Farming in the region is a $250 million industry. The loss of irrigation was devastating. The value of farmland plummeted from $800 an acre to less than $50 an acre. Another fight is brewing in Nevada. In October, environmentalists filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of allowing irrigators to drain the life out of a desert lake in Mineral County. A century of water diversions has caused 38,000-acre Walker Lake to drop 130 feet, losing more than 70 percent of its volume. Biologists give the lake only a few years before it is virtually devoid of life. “We want to have it all,” said Robert Hirsch, associate director for water at the U.S. Geological Survey. “We want to have all the agricultural products grown wherever we want to grow them, we want to have all the water we want to water our lawns and for our houses, and we want to make sure there is plenty of water for the salmon and the other fish in our rivers. “We can’t have it all. It’s not that we have to give up in one area to the advantage of the others. We probably have to do some giving in all the areas.” Some water experts are beginning to question whether the concept of granting water rights in perpetuity has become outdated. A careful distribution of scarce resources among competing needs may make more sense, they argue. Water-saving toilets and appliances introduced in the 1980s have cut per capita consumption in many areas, but greater efforts may be needed. Reporter-News resources writer Samuel Segrist contributed to this report.
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Chicago, those who sip pay as much as those who slurp.
E.W. Scripps Publications|
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