A Question For Steve

#1 10-17-2007, 02:30 PM

Hey I was wondering how you guys out west actually have enough water for the large cities of Las Vegas and Phoniex? It doesn't make sense to me how the southeast is about out of water while the real desert has enough for the millions who live there.

aslkahuna · #2 10-17-2007, 11:05 PM

Actually water issues have always been important out here (and even triggered local wars). The main source of water for the two cities you mention is the CO River and there are some problems now due to the ongoing drought. LAS and PHX are, in fact, starting to face some serious issues WRT water especially with the wasteful sponge called Southern California downstream and cities upstream now want their share as do the various Indian Nations along the way. Here in Sierra Vista we have different water issues that involve unrestrained growth and the need to protect one of the few free flowing rivers in Arizona that are left. We are in an arid region so we live with scarce supplies. The SE US has always taken water for granted-an attitude that is troublesome when people from back east move out here since they never learn that they can't use water here like there.

Steve

CaribWx · #3 10-18-2007, 12:58 AM

I lived on a small sailboat for 5 years, sailing the Bahamas, Caribbean, Bermuda, and the US E Coast. We got by on 5 gal/day total for 2 people & a cat. That includes water for drinking, cooking, showers, shaving, cleaning, etc. Toilets flush with salt water (salt water not included in the 5 gal/day). We swam & showered some with salt water, but always had to rinse with fresh water, as the salt feels cruddy & you never really dry!

We've lived on land in a house for 2 years now, and I still turn the water off when I brush my teeth or shave, and we never flush the toilet for #1. Never run the water while doing the dishes...only to wet them & a quick rinse. The only wasteful thing I do with water now is I don't turn the shower off while I soap-up...but that's becuase the temperature of the water would get all screwed-up.

Once you get used to conserving water, it seems just as natural as it did to waste it.

If you want a long-term solution...many cities have crumbling infrastructure anyway...when work is done to infrastructure, dual water systems should be installed. There's NO reason you need to flush your toilet with drinking water.

2 types of water should be delivered to you...drinking water, and filtered reclaimed water. You'd use the filtered reclaimed water for washing your car, watering your lawn, washing clothes, and flushing toilets.

Drinking water would be supplied to all sinks & ice makers & showers.

Then...you'd have 2 waste water systems...toilets would flush into a sewer system. But most other waste water can be filtered & reclaimed...water from showers, sinks, clothes washers, dishwashers, and especially storm sewers...that can very easily be filtered & delivered back to you as clear (but not drinkable) water (with further purification, it could even be turned into drinking water, but we won't go there).

Many new communities are being built with dual water systems.

Yes, I know I'm certifiably crazy.

aslkahuna · #4 10-20-2007, 01:37 AM

Not really, in fact treated effluent is mandatory for public landscape watering (including golf courses) in Tucson and treated effluent is being recharged into the aquifer both there and here since natural filtration will make it potable again. I don't have the option of using treated effluent on my lawn but I have over the years reduced the watering of my lawn from three times a week to twice a month now.

Steve

pman · #5 10-20-2007, 02:40 AM

Every time I go to Hoover Dam they always give the same presentation about how southern Cal has boomed so much that the CO River shrivels up before it reaches the Gulf from the water drained off of it. And it's very noticeable when you drive across CA on I-8 and you see the massive irrigation works to water the farms around the Salton Sea. It amazes me still how there's enough water even today to fill the demand of that many millions of people.

#6 10-20-2007, 04:06 AM

Why do you guys have lawns out there? Why not try like a desert landscape so to say for a front yard? I've heard about people doing that.

pman · #7 10-20-2007, 05:28 AM

Well I can only speak for what I've seen, but a lot of people in Phoenix do have desert-like yards with rocks and cacti (including my cousins who live there). And when I used to live in San Diego, our yard was half sod half rocks.

aslkahuna · #8 10-20-2007, 09:42 AM

Climatically speaking, Sierra Vista is an arid grassland climate so grass is acceptable if you know what kind. I inherited my lawn when I moved here and my son was then about 5 years old so it didn't seem like a good idea to have a yard full of rocks or plants with stickers and thorns for him to play around in or,later, for the dog to run around in. My grass can do without a lot of water. Southern California has been able to get along by stealing CO River water from the allocations for the other states as well as destroying some lakes and valleys and by grabing water from Northern California. One reason why many NoCAs throughly dislike SoCA.

Steve

pman · #9 10-20-2007, 07:32 PM

Steve, how's the Lake Mead water level doing this year?

Every time I go to Vegas (haven't been back in 18 months) it seems like it's lower than the last. The height of the previous waterline above the current level was incredible.

picassoscat · #10 10-21-2007, 03:18 AM

I have family in Tucson and they used to have green lawns and shrubs in the 60's and 70's, then the State started their native lawns program. Now most people have yards of native plants. It also help to control the polan issue as Arizona was beginning to develope allerg problems,--that after everyone moved there to get away from bad allergies.

I think water will become even more serious and we will all be conserving no matter where we live. I've never understood why we didn't have more desalination plants ages ago.