Published: October 31, 2007 01:07 pm      

LUCINSKI: We have water, water everywhere

On Sunday, we spoke in this space about negative natural events. But it was overall a positive column, pointing out how most of those types of disastrous occurrences don’t often happen here and how we should be thankful for that and that Western New York isn’t such a bad place after all.

Three specific categories of negative events were mentioned: Earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. They can all be very serious and fortunately are very scarce in Niagara County.

But, dear readers, I made a mistake. It was not an error of fact or an error of emphasis. It was an error of omission. One natural disaster was left out; one that can threaten the very existence of life should it persist for any substantial length of time. And not only is it a rare occurrence in our neck of the woods, we have one of the world’s chief solutions for it right at our doorsteps.

The disaster is drought.

It, unlike the others, is a slow-motion disaster. The negative effects of the lack of rain build up over days and weeks and months and years. But prolonged drought can make a region uninhabitable or nearly so for many years (see the Oklahoma/Texas dust bowl of the 1930s).

A prolonged dry spell in the Southeast has the Atlanta area scrambling to build new reservoirs. But that’s in the future. Right now, communities are passing water usage bans that would shut down car washes and prohibit the watering of landscaping, even new installed lawns, shrubs and trees. And the weather forecast for north Georgia: Sunny with highs in the low 70s for the rest of the week. No rain in sight.

They’re simply running out of water.

The lack of water pits one part of an area against another. Those new Georgia reservoirs will capture what moisture there is to be dispersed to the community as a whole. But farms and business downstream will see their water availability reduced to a trickle, causing harmful economic and community consequences.

The Southeast is the most immediate example of H2O deprivation but it’s hardly the only one. Again, Southern California qualifies for honors in this category. Taking a tour of the San Diego area a few years ago, it was jolting when the tour guide told us that the area that borders Mexico, including San Diego itself, receives an average of seven inches of rain a year. That’s it. When you look around that area and notice the multiple millions of people who live there and to the north in the Los Angeles region, it’s easy to see why water is such a big issue.

There is also the issue of building cities in the desert: Phoenix and Las Vegas quickly come to mind. The folks who established those towns and the suburbs around them probably knew such a fragile environment would support only so many people. It looks like they might be getting close to that limit.

Us? Water, water everywhere. Even with the unusually dry summer we had this year, the lack of rain was a little more that an inconvenience. Sure the lawns looked burned out and some gardens suffered, but overall there was little long-lasting effect. Local officials in charge of delivering water will tell you whatever problems there are have more to do with the capacity of the system than with the availability of raw water.

Our savior, of course: The Great Lakes.

An environmental group that calls itself Great Lakes Forever says on its website: “The Great Lakes are an international treasure, containing 18% of the entire world’s fresh surface water supply.”

Our region was in danger of squandering that international treasure because we took it for granted. Using the system as an open sewer nearly ruined it for all of us. Fortunately, we’re handling industrial discharges and toxic waste landfill runoff more responsibly these days so the fresh water resources that are the Great Lakes have a fighting chance.

So, assuming that we don’t return to our poisonous former ways and that the fresh water is there for the using, how do we use this valuable resource? Some advocate selling some of it to thirsty regions and using the profits to lower taxes, improve infrastructure and, in general, make life better and more attractive in this part of the country.

Other say fresh water is more valuable as a resource to attract people and development: Keep it here and thirsty people will come.

While others dry out, we revel in the abundance of the most basic of substances: Water. Whatever the decision is on what to do with it, it’s a nice problem to have.

Dick Lucinski is the managing editor of the Niagara Gazette. His columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays.