(I’m turning over the reigns of the blog today, for a day at least, to my friend Charles Sagray. You know him better as Mr. Plumber. I think water supply and conservation is an important story to talk about! I hope to have Charles continue to guest blog in the future. -Ben)
You may have seen a story gracing the front page of Yahoo.com yesterday about the cities that are most at risk of running out of water. You may have been alarmed to see San Antonio come in #4 on that list and be called as an extremely high risk to go dry by 2050.
The article was written by 24/7 Wall St., a website that mostly produces pieces on investments. Its content appears on some big sites – places like Newsweek.com, Huffington Post and AOL.
So we contacted SAWS through Twitter and asked for thoughts on the article. A SAWS representative said it appears the column seems based on politics, not facts. According to SAWS, San Antonio already has its 20-30 year water needs set and the utility is currently planning the 50-100 year supplies, as well. The spokesperson also pointed out that SAWS over-plans, so if a project doesn’t work out there is a back-up plan in place.
Saying all that, it’s important for all of us to realize we sit on top of our main water source, the Edwards Aquifer, and we should all work hard to do our part to not strain our resources. Simple things like low-flow toilets, tightening up leaks and watering our yards at the right time can make a big difference!
(photo courtesy of The U.S. Geological Survey)
