‘Reservoir of Drought’

I must say that I am pleased to see that California residents have reduced their water consumption by 20% without mandatory rationing, but that doesn’t seem to be enough. Yet, these long-term proposals such as desalination plants and reservoirs constructed that supposedly trap rainwater are not only ludicrous but illogical as well. If Southern California Metropolitan Water District (MWD) officials would take a look up north, they could see where all of our fresh water is going. Agriculture is consuming 85% of our freshwater supply.

A savings of only 10% in agricultural water would supply just over half of the needs of residential and industrial users. It is stupid to rely on rainwater to fill up reservoirs; remember California is an arid region. It would be too costly to build desalination plants for our heavily polluted seawater. But no one stops to think that farmers are using over 32 million gallons of water per minute to grow rice crops in the arid California soil.

BRAD JAMIESON

West Hills