I know a lot of you don't watch television and especially any news to do with the Dallas/Fort Worth area but this probably applies to any large city near you too. Recently, the DFW area instituted their Summer water rationing program again. Right now they're only fining people something like $250 to $2,000 dollars for watering their yards during the restricted period. When we lived in the small town of Granbury, we did like all good citizens and did our best to conserve water. A couple of years ago, one of the major local television stations ran a story on the water usage of the top five multimillionaires in the DFW area. These are the Ross Perot types. The top five were using a MILLION to TWO MILLION gallons a month! When they interviewed a man from the water board or whatever is in charge of the water, he said that they were paying for the water and could use as much as they wanted to. Do you believe for one moment that if my water bill had been, say, a thousand dollars one month that someone wouldn't be out planting a hefty fine on my waterlogged ass? Now, that's just the top five big boys. There must be thousands of millionaires in the DFW area. The poor blue collar worker is out washing his car in the evenings, on his grass, using water conservative toilets, saving bath water to flush commodes, etc. Now, this isn't to say that we all shouldn't be doing this at all times but the point is, it's the little guys that are doing the conserving. Of course, it helps lower our utility bills but how long do you think it will be before the water rates go up? New well needed or another water plant? Who's going to end up footing the higher bill? Everyone! But the rich won't care what water cost because they can afford it. And they're the ones that caused us to pay higher rates. Just for clarification, this isn't "rich bashing". Just pointing out the difference in the way we're treated What could they be using that much water for? Oh, their expansive lawns, ours is dying. Their swimming pools? Their manmade rivers with their waterfalls? God forbid that they should be forced to endure such a hardship as not hearing the flowing water while they try to relax in the evening.

Alan, I'm bringing this up to take some of the heat off of you. We've got to watch out for each other. There ain't a lot of "us" on here and one of "us" hasn't been posting a lot lately.

Joy, I put this under Social Issues because I couldn't find "Soap Box"!

Wildman, (not ranting, bitching!)

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2002

Answers

For what it's worth, Wildman, I recently read that the top consumer of electricity in one power company's area in Washington was a dude who was the owner of one of the big, BIG cable tv companies. Can't remember his name at the moment.

His power bills for last year averaged some thirty thousand bucks per MONTH.

When interviewed, he expressed surprise, saying he had the house computer guided for energy efficiency, always hassled the kids about turning off lights, etc.

Amazing.

By the way, what if we (in areas where it's not already too late) managed to prevent cancerous population growth. Maybe we would be able to avoid all this rationing business?

Like right now, in Jackson County, Orygun, we've got enough water to last maybe fifty years, they say, at the present rate of growth, if we don't have two drought years in a row. (this is only dealing with municipal, industrial, and agricultural water supplies, by the way, since we have NO idea how much water is available from area aquifers for rural areas)

So in fifty years, Jackson County can join all the rest of the country in the water rationing rat race, because they've overpopulated the area vis a vis the water supply, or they can do some serious planning for the future NOW.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2002

Hmmmm. A category named "Soap Box" . . . Probably too dangerous! ;-)

I cannot imagine what they're doing with all that water. Do they have leaky faucets or toilets? I'm guessing it's huge lawn irrigation or something like that. Waterfall features usually just reuse the same water (with some added now and again for evaporation). Weird! Was Ross Perot one of them (I have no idea where he lives).

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2002

Joy, I did a home repair on a bathtub in a trailer house once. The fitting busted after I fixed it and no one lived there. When I was called back the water had been running for days and the front and back yard were flooded and the ditch in front of the house was full. That was only about three thousand gallons! I cannot imagine what they could do with a million gallons and yes, Ross was one of them.

JOJ, you just got to wonder about the mentality of some people. Unless he's running a football stadium, turning off a few lights isn't going to affect his bill very much. And yep, population growth has a lot to do with the rationing. But it's the old Catch 22 syndrome. More people, more money. More utilities, more money. Scarcity of services, more money. Just seems like "money" is the common denominator, doesn't it? But, on the other hand, if you stop taking people into the city, then you have to put them someplace. There goes the forest and farm land. You see where this is going, don't you? Guess we could do like the Chinese and limit each couple to one child. That would go over big, wouldn't it? But not to worry, we've got a lot of vacant land in Canada and most of Mexico is uninhabited. Plenty of expansion! And isn't South America just a short drive away? Guess what? It's just something else that we can't solve! Wonder where the furture generations will get their water?

Wildman, (glad he's on a well)

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2002

As for being on a well, what're you going to do when the water table drops? We were just talking about water on one of the other threads not too long ago (I'm too lazy to look for it). I mentioned that Perrier was thwarted in opening a plant in central Wisconsin (since we still have pretty good and plentiful water). There are water demands everywhere.

And I'm still scratching my head over millions of gallons of water consumption/usage/whatever. Okay, what ILLLEGAL activity takes lots and lots of water. Or wait, maybe they're bottling it right from their taps and selling it (for big bucks of course)? I've read reports that a lot of bottled water has proven to be nothing more than tap water. Hmmm, maybe that's the answer!

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

They use it by washing all that money. Its gotta be crisp n' clean so it doesn't mar those solid gold money clips. :o)

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

Wildman, we have been at water conservation level II for the past two years down here (soon to be level III). Our water reservoir is nearly at 25% capacity. One irrigation district has already SHUTOFF any more water being used for crop irrigation, so you know things are bad when you are paying taxes for something you can't even use.

But drive down many city streets and you'll find God who knows how many businesses watering the streets (landscaping irrigation gone amuck). Our university system is even worse; lawn sprinklers going on at 1:00 in the afternoon. Idiots.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

It seems that is the way things work most times Wildman. The rich get richer and the well not so rich get poorer.

I hate to admit it because I have 4 kids, but JOJ may be rrrrrrrrright about the population. I just can't see population control going over very big in this country. It seems that we are so used to pretty much having what we want that most people won't cut back on anything until there is a crisis.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

My personal opinion as to who wastes the most water would have to be the golf courses AND the theme parks!! Why can't people play golf on brown greens??

Population control is a touchy subject, but where ARE all these people (that are children now) going to get their water if something isn't done soon?!! We are on an artesian well that's drilled through the ledge and, so far, we've never run out of water (25 yrs. on this well). But well drillers in my county are booked up to six months in advance! So I guess some folks are out of water.

Speaking of rural well water, doesn't alot of the water that is wasted just filter back down through the ground into the water table again to replenish the dug wells??

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

I read somewhere that in some places, they are placing water meters on wells. Gonna make you pay for water out of your own well. It's mind boggling anyone could use that much water and electricity. That electric bill per month is more money than my family lives on in one year.

We've been racking our brains to think of a way to repair the cistern in this old farmhouse. But everyone who knows anything about them has told us that it's too far gone. Maybe sometime we can replace it. Rain water catchment systems have got to be more widely used. I've made several rain barrels out of trashcans, because I prefer rain water to water my plants. Also, if we had a cistern, we wouldn't have to run the water softener, which uses electricity and a lot of salt.

Simple is better.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

Marcia, I think you're right. The water is never destroyed. It soaks back into the ground and eventually makes it back to where it started or it evaporates and comes back in the form of rain. The problem comes when too many people are drawing off of one source.

Vicki, when we left Granbury, Tx. they were talking about putting meters on the private wells. Their reasoning was that the water was coming out of the same aquifer that the city was using and the water belongs to the state? I think not but then I've seen them take over and destroy a neighborhood by eminent domain so they could build a shopping center. Supposedly better for the majority but it all comes down to money! That shopping center brings in a lot more tax money than that neighborhood did.

Denise, thanks for your thought about the population control. Thanks for opening up something that will probably get me slammed. I wouldn't even think of instituting population control. However, I might think about limiting the number of immigrants that we let into the U.S. every year. I don't remember what the last number I saw was, but it was staggering! But, in their defense, they probably know more about conserving resources than any of us. Most of them have lived in extreme poverty and survived. If we were to ever run out of water, we might find the U.S. populated by immigrants! (I know, we're all the original immigrants) We'd kinda be like the dinosaurs.

J.R. the water records are public records and wouldn't it be interesting to see who the big users are in your area? Maybe contact one of the supposedly "investigative reporters" at one of the television stations? Like Marcia said, I'll bet that even though the irrigation water is shut off, the golf courses and theme parks are still operating!

Joy, I can't imagine that much water usage either. Maybe they have theme parks at their compounds. I remember a bottled water company that was thwarted but I don't remember where it was. I also remember a story about the bottle water being tap water. And unfortunately, I don't know remember which ones were really spring water.

Wildman, (Gonna start drinking (booze) again)

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

Wildman, I hadn't thought about it from that angle. I live in an area where I don't see much immigration like maybe some others living in other parts of the country. That was a good point.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2002