Water

By Jack M. Mobley

We need to take action now to ensure California has sufficient water now and for the future.

The demand for water is and will continue to be a major challenge for California. Some years we have plenty of water, such as in 2005 to 2006, while this year we have been experiencing less rain and snow than anticipated and we are having to draw down our reservoirs to dangerous levels.

More storage capacity is needed now to satisfy the demands of our growing population. It only makes sense to have more reservoirs to store the water during the strong storm years, help control flooding, generate more clean hydroelectric power, and have more water available during years of drought. Unfortunately, the creation of these reservoirs could mean flooding potentially environmentally sensitive areas. Through good planning we can lessen the impact on the environment and still increase our storage capacity. We need to be making those decisions now and avoid the disaster which has devastated the Southeast U.S. this year. Time is not on our side in this area