5 Responses to “Thank you for reading”

1. John Hopgood
   November 24th, 2009 @ 7:33 am

   80% of the water in California is used by farmers for agriculture.
   Why is it that only the cities and individuals are asked to conserve?
   Aren’t there better methods of irrigation that farms can use?

2. EmilyGreen
   November 24th, 2009 @ 7:42 am

   Hi John, good point helped all the more by being true. It’s not just cities being asked to conserve, though there are many good arguments to be made that farms should conserve more than cities. The problem is that, regardless of the waste by agriculture, we in cities also waste roughly a quarter of our water supply on landscaping alone. This has many harmful impacts — low reservoirs concentrate pollutants and leave us without emergency reserves. The run-off from cities is killing the Pacific. West Nile is a 100% elective seasonal killer that breeds in sprinkler run-off. It’s in our best interest to conserve, and nothing about our doing the right thing gives agriculture a pass for doing the wrong one. I hope that helps. Thanks for writing.

3. Adan Ortega Jr.
   November 24th, 2009 @ 8:40 am

   Another factor is that most of the water agriculture uses is returned to streams and rivers or is absorbed by groundwater aquifers. By focusing on the volume of water agriculture uses we fail to address the quality of the water that is returned to the environment. Additionally, wIth less water in the system overall, California farmers are beginning to see higher salt levels in soil from the use of low-pressure conservation devices such as drip irrigation, leading to lower crop yields (and higher food prices eventually)… And like Emily wrote, even if cities took that water, what would we do with it other than create more problems for ourselves?

   Adan Ortega

4. Gayle
   November 24th, 2009 @ 11:21 pm

   And thank YOU for writing!

5. Giving Thanks : AWRA Water Blog
   November 26th, 2009 @ 10:58 am

   […] Emily Green: Thank You for Reading […]

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