Dear HCN,
Allow
me to correct some statements made by Susan Zakin in her article
about the central California river delta (HCN, 9/3/02: Delta
Blues). California is said to employ “profligate use of water.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Southern Californians consume
considerably less water, per capita, than people in nearby states
(and a lot less than in wetter states).
The Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power and its sister agencies have
launched public education programs which have successfully cut down
on water use. DWP is trying to find ways to return water to Mono
and Owens lakes, and just this week decided against an
environmentally destructive plan to store water under the Mojave
Desert.
None of this sounds “profligate” to me
(which my dictionary defines as meaning “utterly and shamelessly
immoral”).
The article begins with a math “story
problem.” If Marc Reisner crossed Western desert for 11 minutes, in
an airplane travelling at 500 m.p.h., he would cross 91 miles of
land. I believe the Western desert is about 800 miles
across.
Valerie Cohen
Reno,
Nevada
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline California isn’t profligate!.
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