Water Folks Agree With The Freddy
It's been frustrating to me to keep hearing people saying we need to conserve water in Eureka and the surrounding area. I've wrote here and elsewhere time and again we have plenty of water and water we don't use just goes out into the ocean.
Thus I was pleased to read in the Times- Standard this morning others are questioning the need to conserve water for the very same reasons I've brought up. Those quoted include the boss at the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District:
“In the rest of the state, where a lot of the supply is interconnected through a series of reservoirs and canals, conserving in one metropolitan area can benefit other large metropolitan areas,” he said. “In our situation up here, we’re isolated.”
In other words, whatever water we use up here isn't at the expense of the parched areas. We also have millions of gallons a day of water considered surplus.
When you think about it, if there was a need to conserve water in the greater Eureka area, it would make more sense to be drawing more water from the Mad River and storing it somehow rather than letting it just run out to the ocean.
No need to applaud, but you can be sure I'm basking in my greatness.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:11 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Except letting it "just run out into the ocean" is EXACTLY what is needed up here. Particularly at this time, with the rivers being unusually low. These millions of gallons can now keep those rivers level up so fish can live! As those fish live, so do all those animals, including us, that depend on those fish.
And of course the obvious; cleaner drinking water for all the animals who use those sources: cows, dogs, elk, deer, bears, ect. And don't forget all of the endangered animals, too.
Now, I'm not saying that we, in this watershed, need to go nuts with our water savings. But we certainly can, and should, do some of those small things: making our showers a couple minutes shorter, getting a water flow lower-er for faucets you tend to turn open too much anyway, making sure your laundry load is a full one ( and not just your favorite outfit that happened to be dirty at the wrong time). Maybe even turn down the flow on the shower while you are soaping up.
Fishing trips a few years from now are gonna be better for it. Heck, with more water flow, the ones now are gonna be better, too.
The water is drawn from the Mad River is taken from wells something like 5 or 7 miles from the ocean. The water we use only affects that 5 to 7 miles as far as levels go.
I read somewhere years ago that local water use takes the level of Mad River down about a foot. Not sure if that's still true, but I believe I read that when the mills were still drawing a lot of water.
It might be different if we drew water directly from Ruth Lake. That would drain the source, but taking it soon before it reaches the ocean seems the best deal all around.
It's not our drought. We should utilize our extra water by piping it to So Hum, Trinidad and Orick. Take care of our own.
I heard that some Mad River water is trucked down to SoHum. Don't know how much.
I heard that some Mad River water is trucked down to SoHum. Don't know how much.
Water in Humboldt County is my single biggest utility expense. I pay exorbitant rates for water I don't use. I never water the yard and look forward to the 2 or 3 months I don't have to push a mower. I can't waste enough water inside the house because I'm paying for it. We all pay for an under used industrial water system in the wettest part of the state. The drought has little meaning to 135,000 residents even in the driest years, many of whom have their own wells. I've been told Arcata charges for the existence of a well? Sell the extra water to somebody and don't charge the non consumers?
Our water bills pale in comparison to places like Sonoma County, at least from what I've read in their newspapers.
They used to be fairly low here. We were paying probably an average of $35.00 a month, and that's water and sewer both. Then the mills closed. They were the district's biggest water users and thus subsidized our rates. Once they weren't paying, everyone else had to make up the difference. That almost doubled the rates.
While Lovelace and Woolley were bringing in millions of grant dollars for their Friends to strip the coast of vegetation they didn't stop to notice that they had subsequently drained protected (federally delineated) Coastal Act Marshes and ponds, destabilizing a coastal aquatic-system.
For repair consider that
Golden Gate Park was created from destablilized dunes. San Francisco built two Dutch Windmills, each capable of one million gallons a day which
when distributed to the dunes, gave us plant and animal habitat, stability and wetlands that we know as Golden Gate Park.
It is binary, on the coast we either keep our wetlands charged or we plan for Salt-Water Intrusion. For decades we have been going the wrong way. Someone is doing very well, not our wildlife, not stability and not wetlands.
I know you asked us not to applaud, but it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. : clapping CLAPPING CLAPPING! :
Well said Fred.
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