Conscious Choice Seattle: Water Mark

July 2005 | Viewpoint

Water Mark

This summer’s drought is opportunity on tap for some activists

By Bob Condor

You won’t find an activist who is actually happy about the still-present drought here in Washington. There are just too many farmers and growers already deeply suffering in the Yakima Valley and other eastern locales in our state.

But the drought does represent a chance to focus on water as a precious resource. Forget all that Rain City stuff. Don’t let the global warming doubters talk you down.

Conservation is the conversation among activists and researchers. All input is welcome.

For instance, Michael Scott, a staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, has authored a new study showing this summer is more trend than fluke. His findings indicate global warming could result in severe drought conditions in parts of Washington state, one out of every two years by the middle of the century.

“Under global warming, the normal year looks much more like an El Niño year, and the odds of having very low runoff available to agriculture go up dramatically,” says Scott. If you are wondering, El Nino warming of Pacific waters has occurred every three to seven years.

A diminishing snowpack was one reason why University of Washington students undertook a water consumption mapping study for the Sustainable Seattle organization this summer. It hopes to post, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, water use statistics to inspire responsible water use (check out www.sustainableseattle.org).

“I have thought about rallying neighborhood watch groups around the water conservation issue,” says Jeremy Valenta, a project coordinator at Sustainable Seattle.

This year’s snowpack is about 35 percent of normal and is less than 2001, the last time we experienced a statewide drought. But the Seattle area water scenario is improved, mostly because our two utilities that rely on water, Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light, have more diligently monitored climate data. The result is better management of reservoirs, such as using less water for cleaning the reservoirs and limiting spills intended to improve water quality.

In fact, officials at City Light recently participated in a downtown global warming conference co-sponsored by Sustainable Ballard. The reason? Less snowpack means less water for turning the turbines that fuel electricity.

Bob Royer of City Light explains unstable weather and droughts are “no good” for hydropower plants.

Moreover, City Light is conducting feasibility studies related to plug-in hybrids, the next generation of alternative fuel cars. These plug-in hybrids will encourage overnight charging (when electricity use is naturally low) and, of course, release fewer greenhouse gases to hyper-heat the planet.

Another plus compared to 2001: We are consuming less water because of public awareness efforts put in place four summers ago. People are willingly buying appliances and fixtures that use less water and energy.

’Sea’ this point

Whenever the drought is discussed—along with the more universal issue of the world’s potable water supply—there is a nearly automatic group musing.

“Why can’t we just convert salt water to drinking water,” someone will ask.

“Costs too much,” another person mutters.

“Too bad,” is the reply. “We sure have a lot of oceans and seas.”

Hal Furman, director of the New York-based U.S. Desalination Coalition isn’t about to take “too bad” as an answer. His organization commissioned a 2004 study showing 70 percent of Americans favor using federal funds to facilitate construction and operation of desalination processing plants to remove the salt from seawater. Only 10 percent of respondents were opposed to desalination.

There is a lot of desalination research in this country, but not much here in the Pacific Northwest. Regular droughts can change the local mindset.

"There’s no question the technology is viable, it works,” says Furman, who runs a coalition representing 14 water utilities. “We’re rapidly reaching the point where we have no alternative."

One block to desalination is the high energy use to remove the salt. The energy bill represents about half to three-quarters of operating costs. Furman continues to lobby Congress and any government body that will listen to allow energy grants to offset the energy costs because water is so precious.

He is getting more attention around the country. Dry conditions and horror stories from places such as southern California and Las Vegas help the listen-to-this quotient.

In Western Washington, there is a temptation to not worry so much even if some local rivers are at the lowest points in decades. Fish might be endangered but no one expects water rationing.

But now is a perfect time to do more than forego sprinkling the lawn or running more water than you truly need. Some orchard owners in Eastern Washington, for example, will get only about one-third of the usual irrigation water this season. That might be comparing their apples to our oranges, but we’re all picking fruit from the same Earth.

Opportunity is on tap for all of us no matter how big or minute the drought effect.

Bob Condor is the editor of Evergreen Monthly.

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