Here are 5 things the drought-parched West could do before taking Midwestern water
Hmmm. I found a recent letter to Midwesterners published rather insulting. I think the West needs to solve its own problems without making problems for other regions at a huge cost. Who is going to pay for the water transfer anyway? Certainly, Midwesterners don't want to. A few suggestions for Western states:
Stop building golf courses that use tons of water and get rid of most of them.
Stop planting grass and plants that don’t belong in a desert and watering them day and night to grow
Replace water parks with something that fits into a desert area
Stop developers from building more homes and promising 100 years of water usage. Obviously, you are running out much sooner. City planners are not doing a good job about growth and water management in a region that was way overbuilt 20 years ago.
Reduce the asphalt and concrete poured to make roads and parking lots. No trees or greenery certainly doesn’t keep things cooler.
Westerners come to the Midwest in summer and use the lakes there to cool down. So the comment about Midwesterners coming West to escape cold is a two-way street. People could always decide to just move to a place with water.
Germaine Juneau, Uzes, France
Memo to the West: The Midwest has droughts, too
Before you ask others to share, please stop squandering that which you already have.
A quick internet search will tell you that the Coachella Valley has over 120 golf courses. Those golf courses use around 300 million gallons annually. Comparatively, a Midwestern golf course uses about 15 million gallons a year. To help fight drought conditions, these courses have sought to decrease their water usage ...10%.
Looking at a map of the area, you can see nearly every yard is filled with lush green grass and has its own swimming pool. And this is not simply an old picture that does not provide the latest truths. Earlier this month, the Desert Sun posted an article about how the Coachella Valley has some of the highest water usage per capita in California.
To some folks, the rational solution is to divert some of the Mississippi River to the Colorado River to enable the squandering to continue. This may come as a surprise to you, but we have droughts here in the Midwest as well. When we do, we don't seek to drain Lake Superior into the St. Croix River to get additional water into the Mississippi, we cut down our usage. Perhaps your area should try the same.
Paul Robert Ference, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Consider where you live
Those who have chosen to live in the arid Southwest and West and over-consume their available water sources shouldn’t expect the rest of us to provide them with yet more water any more than those who have chosen to live at sea level or below should expect the rest of us to continually bail them out of flooding. (It makes one wonder if humans really are the most intelligent of species?)
Not that I relish the thought of a gazillion people moving back here to the upper Midwest or anything. I’m just sayin’ ...
Mary McBee, Tama, Iowa
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 5 things the drought West could do before taking Midwestern water
