Do We Have A Water Crisis?
Okay, okay, I promise to move on to a new topic next week. This past Saturday, I decided to be a good citizen and attend a “water meeting” in Prescott Valley. I was curious what one of the local organizations had to say about the water situation. The presentation was geared toward mostly Prescott Valley residents but included some broader reach as well. The presenter was well-versed, but long-winded and I think he lost a large percentage of the attendees after about the first 90 minutes. There were about 200+ in attendance, which I felt was a pretty good turnout.
The first thing that caught my attention was the average age in the room, which was likely well past the half century mark. Where are the younger people? Well, for one thing, most younger adults today cannot afford to purchase property, so water conservation is likely not even on their radar. In a rental situation, they have a water bill, and they might work to conserve where they can to keep that bill as low as possible according to their budget. What is happening with private wells, and even municipal wells, is far from their minds. If they hear that someone’s well went dry, it might as well have happened in another state. Or on another planet. Should they be concerned? Oh, yeah. Until it affects them directly, we won’t see them campaigning in the streets for better water conservation.
All in all, the presentation was very good, and I learned some things I didn’t know about. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the room to receive a few revelations as indicated by the number of gasps when the presenter revealed a piece of startling information. I was doing something during the presentation I didn’t see a lot of other folks doing. I was taking notes. I even photographed a few of the Power Point slides to refer back to. Why? Because I need to do a little of my own research to check the facts. The presenter made a point of introducing a number of shocking items and statistics but also pointed out that his organization is not saying we have a “water crisis.” Really? This is where it gets a little dicey; for me and a few others, though most of these others were not in the room that day.
Please allow me to point out a couple items, and I hope someone who was in the room that day will read this blog. The presenter put a slide up on the screen with dozens of yellow pins on an aerial photo of the Prescott Active Management Area (PrAMA). The presenter said these pins identified residents who have water tanks on their property. There were probably a thousand little yellow pins. The presenter then said these represent people who have dry wells and have to haul water. The room filled with gasps! Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, there are some troublesome areas where wells can go dry or only pump a small amount of water. In these areas, the property owners are very smart to have a holding tank on the property. Ours is underground, by the way, so it wouldn’t be seen on this map. We don’t have an issue where we are and we have a flow pump, sometimes called a booster pump, system that charges the house with water from the storage tank. This system is a little more expensive up front but measurably reduces the wear and tear on the well pump because it is not going on and off every time you run the water and it doesn’t have to lift the water to the surface and pump against the pressure tank. Everyone with a well should be on this type of system, regardless of how much or how little the well puts out.
The presenter said the bottom of the aquifer is 4-800 feet below the surface but later had a slide that showed areas where it is 1200 feet to bedrock. So, where are the municipal wells? Deep. Very deep. (See the blog two weeks ago). Most well owners can afford to only drill as deep as necessary to get to a sip of water at the top of the tub. And the prices are going up. The presenter made it clear he is against septic tanks, greywater use, and effluent use at the surface. He also said there is no direct potable re-use of tertiary water (effluent), even though they have been reusing the water in parts of England for so long nobody knows how many times it’s been run through the system.
The point here is that no matter who you listen to and no matter how many letters are after their name, check the facts for yourself. With the internet today, there is a plethora of information available at the click of a mouse. Not all of it is good or accurate, but don’t listen to one person and formulate an opinion. I wouldn’t expect anyone reading my blogs to do that either. One fact that is inescapable is that there are people in the world who survive on five gallons of water per day. For all purposes; drinking, bathing, cooking. Five gallons per day! Yet in this country we think nothing of using that much every time we flush the toilet.
See you around the water cooler!
The Horticoach