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Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009

Herbert A. Opalek: Wake-up call on water

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the great poet, literary critic, theologian and philosopher was way off the mark when he penned his famous line "water, water everywhere ..." in his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

It is a fact that each and every one of us in the Valley is aware that we have a real and serious water problem.

A recent issue of the Economist magazine puts it this way: "California is in the third year of a drought that exacerbates its constant struggle to expand its economy and population in a climate that is naturally dry.

About 75 percent of the state's rain falls in the northern part, but about 80 percent of the agricultural and urban demand for water is in the south. As a result, California has over the past century built a mighty infrastructure for moving water. That infrastructure, however, is now creaking and must be fixed.

"At its heart is the delta just south of Sacramento, the largest estuary on the West Coast, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries meet and flow through a vast web of waterways, sloughs and levees and eventually out through San Francisco's Golden Gate. Along the way, huge amounts of fresh water are diverted and pumped south in two aqueducts -- one state-run, the other federal -- through the Central Valley, California's fruit basket, and on to the urban sprawl of Los Angeles."

The article goes on to state that the levees are old and seismically unsafe. indeed, an earthquake could be devastating and flood much of the delta, which is below sea level.

It is no wonder that we should be concerned.

Water is an important essential of our lives. There is no need to go into a scientific exposition of its value.

All we need do is to think of how many ways each and every one of us depends on water; for our crops, our animals, cooking, drinking, bathing, and much more...

Water is so important that it is easy to understand how world religions metaphorically use the term.

Judaism terms the Torah as living water. In this same way we read in chapter 4 of the New Testament Book of John, that Jesus alludes to himself as "living water." Even the Quran mentions, some 63 times, water as God's blessing to humans.

In doing a Google search, it is evident that there are real fears that lack of water in dry and arid areas of the world might lead to an escalation of wars, especially in Africa.

While no major international conflict can be attributed to water, the Middle East is a tinderbox waiting to flame up. The Jerusalem Post laid it on the line when it wrote, "The hand that controls the faucet rules the country."

But let us come back home to California.

We are at a crossroads. We know that there isn't enough rain and snow in a dry year to meet projected demands for water.

California can either continue on its old course toward drought, failed crops, failing fisheries and a poor supply of drinking water, or it can commit to a new, smart-water solution for the 21st century.

Playing hydropolitics (the politics of water resources) is shameful. We must all of us -- government, agriculture, environmentalists and consumers -- get on the same page before it is too late. It is projected that there will not be enough rain and snow in a dry year, like this one, to meet projected demands for water.

We must begin by conserving and being novel in our approach. We do this by lessening water waste, recycling wastewater and capturing rainwater in urban areas before it flows into storm drains.

It is a fact that there is much more water available from these sources than Central Valley ever exported from the delta.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has stated that the water problems of California should be a wake-up call for the rest of the country. We, here at home, must wake up first.

Herbert A. Opalek is CEO of the Merced County Rescue Mission.