Brilliant sources such as the CDC, Water.org, the USGS and many others document our water crisis. In the US and around the world we face water shortages, water pollution, and even water rights litigation. The facts and figures are alarming.
Climate change is altering rain patterns. Water covers 70% of Earth but only 1% is available to us as fresh water. Over a billion people lack access to clean water, and 2.7 billion people face at least one month of water shortage every year. The associated lack or sanitization exposes 2.4 billion people to diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever, and two million people, mostly children die each year from water related diarrheal diseases. These statistics and more from World Wildlife .org.
Adding to our water apocalypse, every year wildfires cause as much as $20 billion in property loss, and in 2022 took one hundred and fifty lives. Alarmingly, quite often there is no readily available water to quench fires, so fire workers must rely on fire retardants containing carcinogenic PFAS, and gas-guzzling helicopters to deliver comparatively miniscule buckets of water.
And just when you thought it could not get any worse, realize that states like California send up to four billion gallons of fresh water to the sewer each year to prevent their reservoirs from overflowing with new rains and snow melt.
We must look long and hard to find areas where there is not some type of water crisis, and if we are being honest we have to accept that despite things we can’t control, many, if not most of our water woes are self-inflicted. Even without digging we uncover our stupid behaviors of overpopulating areas with limited water, not building enough reservoirs and opening water intense industry where water is scarce.
Pipelines Are Game Changers
Upon mention of the word pipeline and immediate civil war breaks out between proponents of affordable oil and self-reliance, and those who believe climate change is our biggest environmental threat. I am not here to get in the middle of that mess, but want to clarify, this article is about water pipelines, which have far more upsides to the planet than they have downsides.
Water pipelines can solve many of America’s water woes. They can transport water from abundant locations to scarce locations, bring relief to farmers, wildfires, and even enhance industry
Construction And Engineering Are Not Obstacles
Even with the obvious oil pipeline breaks considered, pipelines to move fluids are largely safe and successful. When we consider that a water pipeline break would do nothing more than irrigate the area near the break, we see that the case for moving our abundant water to help our neighbors makes a lot of sense.
You And I Are The Obstacles
When we start talking about moving water from one place to another and constructing water pipes we run into state property wars and all sorts of government regulations. While I am a fan of smaller government, I believe that it will require making all water resources not majorly contained on private property to be regulated by the federal government. If we added to that a water czar and representative governing board we could get about the business of getting our abundant water to those who are most threatened by not having it. If we don’t make major changes in the regulation of water, the suffering affect economics, quality of life, and the health of many fellow Americans.
