Water, water everywhere...
Think about how you consume water in your living space. Do you conserve your water use or is it just something you just don't think about? Whitefish has water use restrictions in place and a plan to implement even more limited household water use if necessary. Kalispell is looking at water conservation plans for the “agricultural demand” summer months. Will those high-demand periods and summer month restrictions become the year-round norm?
Come those high consumption times, if we are facing water use restrictions and don’t conserve, where will the water be coming from for us to adequately:
-Hydrate our families and cook our food
-Flush our toilets, run our showers and baths
-Wash our dishes, floors, clothing, pets and vehicles
-Water our lawns, vegetable gardens and landscape features
-Hose down our decks and driveways, fill our swimming pools and hot tubs
-FIGHT OUR FIRES
We keep building and building the new businesses, the new homes and the new housing without any thought as to how we will be hydrating the increased population and their needs. Where will the increased supply of that precious resource come from? Melting out the glaciers? Siphoning from Flathead Lake during drought times? Look at Lake Mead in Nevada. Or the water supply lakes in California. Our snowpack could be drastically reduced in any given year.
I think the powers that be in our planning departments, city councils and commissions need to think more carefully about our water suppy, consumption and conservation as much as they should traffic and demands on traffic, emergency services, sewage, air quality, trash disposal and the increased demand on public services when looking at their approval of new developments and business parks. Water is life, seriously!
Water is a precious resource and is not infinite. When we look at the monumental drought conditions many, many communities across the state and nation face, wouldn't it behoove us to act in a conservative manner to protect that resource, starting yesterday?
I once lived in an area (it was not a resort community) that regularly restricted our water use year 'round. Our water supply came from a great reservoir in the Sierra Mountains. If a household of four went over 200 gallons a day (that was a generous amount in those days) of metered water use, they faced a monetary water penalty. For many, they just paid the fine for their “necessarily” excessive water use. It really was a joke since the fine was paid, education nor enforcement was not there and what was the fine going to do anyway, buy more water? That was not the answer to deal with excessive use. However, many homes after the continued years of drought became great examples of conservative water use: xeriscaping in residential and public use landscapes, using rinse water for ornamental irrigation and implementing household water supply faucet restriction objects. Out and about, hotels recommended that guests re-use their towels and bedding during their stay. If you wanted water in a restaurant, you brought your own. Water conservation became a habit, and a good habit at that.
We all need to look at the big picture and that is, where will our water come from and will it be there when we need it?
If you don't already think about conserving your water consumption, please begin now and get a start on responsible stewardship of our natural resources.
Skeeter Johnston, Whitefish