Is the American Southwest Running Dry?

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted January 23, 2009.

Then there is desalination. I think desalination has a place in the future, but I don't think it is silver bullet. It costs a lot of money, uses tremendous amounts of energy and has a significant environmental impact. But there might be ways that we can use new technology that will help desalination not use so much energy.

I think mostly, we need to start looking at water issues as part of the big picture -- we need big-picture plans regionally and nationally.

We need to adhere to the laws we have, like the National Environmental Policy Act. It always boggles my mind, even environmental organizations don't understand the gravity of the greatest environmental law ever created. If we use it effectively for decision-making, it would solve a lot of problems.

TL: What about a national water policy?

JT: We don't have one. We need to get everyone around the table to help come up with one and implement it. I think we need to start prioritizing what needs to be done. We need regional and local policy, and we need an national overview. The Southwest has its own issues, but so does the Midwest and the Southeast. Infrastructure is one of the main things, and so is groundwater. Many states, like California and Texas, have no laws dealing with groundwater issues. We need to educate people on the issues related to the depletion of groundwater.

I picked on Phoenix a little. But water goes there at the expense of the rest of the state, and it is de-watering the rivers and the ecosystems. We need to look at issues from an environmental perspective. Too often we look at supply but do so at the expense of natural systems. You can't come up with good water policy without looking at land-use planning. Planning with nature is really an important issue. You have to plan within an ecological system, and education is an important part of that.

We need curriculum for schools and to help get teachers to focus on these issues. And on the relationship between energy and water, as well as agriculture and water.

We need to solve our own problem in our country to have credibility in the rest of the world. And we have to be able to help our Native Americans. If we don't help our indigenous people, what kind of credibility do we have with the rest of the world?

Whatever solutions we come up with, everyone needs to be at the table -- Native Americans, the environmental community, activists, engineers, scientists and policymakers.

TL: We recently saw Atlanta nearly run out of water completely. Does any state or region seem to have a backup plan for severe drought and overuse?

JT: No one has a plan, that's why we need to plan now. The "Global Trend 2025" study on the CIA Web site shows that certain regions of the world will really be affected by climate change, and the American Southwest could be a dust bowl. Is there a Plan B? No. We need to start planning a national water policy that looks at each region and what we can do to mitigate. And we gotta do it now.

See more stories tagged with: water, drought, water scarcity, southwest, running dry

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.

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