News of the Arroyo
Title: | Capture, store rainwater |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2005-03-13 |
Summary: | March 13, 2005 - Capture more rainwater, the Star News editor urges local officials. |
Author: | Editorial |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | Saturday, March 12, 2005 - WHEN water officials make statements such as \"all this rain still won\'t erase five years of drought,\' they not only sound foolish but need to do a serious gut check when it comes to capturing rainwater for reuse. This season, rainfall in Los Angeles reached 34.51 inches and is approaching the wettest on record. That should be a windfall for water agencies. Yet, during intense rains about 80 percent is lost to the ocean. This is a problem that can no longer be swept out to sea. We are calling on our water expert in Sacramento, Sen. Bob Margett, R-Industry, to convene hearings on developing new ways to capture and store rainwater during times of plenty for use during times of want. Mandatory invitees should include the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District (USGVMWD), the county Department of Public Works, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), the Water Replenishment District (WRD) and the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster. Getting this alphabet soup of water agencies and these are just a few together will be a feat. Getting them to work together on solutions will take a miracle. We need oversight. These agencies should be held to answer, i.e., their proverbial feet held to the fire. The Watermaster for the year 2004-2005 bought 1.8 million acre-feet of water from Northern California and the drought-stricken Colorado River just for east San Gabriel Valley agencies. This water is much more expensive than well water that collects and is stored naturally underground from rain storms. Such purchases add solids to drinking water and drive up water bills. Speaking of the Watermaster, here is an agency that thrives on importing water, and like other so-called middlemen, skims off purchases for perks, salaries and its own existence. \"We would love to be able to conserve every drop of nature\'s water so that we do not have to buy it,\' said Carol Williams, executive officer. \"But flood control has to take a priority.\' That old excuse, well, does not hold water. We need new answers, not old defensive postures. Andy Lipkis and his group TreePeople are doing something about this problem. They are using cisterns placed underground to catch and clean storm water run-off. At an elementary school in Westchester, a part of Los Angeles County near LAX, the group installed a 110,000-gallon cistern last December under the grounds, just ahead of the torrential storms. The school now uses the collected water for landscaping. That much less water is lost to the ocean. TreePeople is looking to do more projects in other parts of the county, under soccer fields and grassy parks. Amigos de los Rios, the Sierra Club and the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy need to be part of the dialogue. To be fair, locally, we\'ve seen the water table rise 40 feet. Most of that occurred in spreading basins along the San Gabriel River. However, more can be done. These spreading grounds are not used as often as they should because engineers rapidly clear water from behind mountain dams leaving no time for seepage into the ground. Again, there has to be some give in decisions to divert water to the ocean for flood-control purposes. Of an estimated 80 billion gallons that reached the Pacific this season, much more could have been saved. The public should demand that more rainwater is captured and stored and less water imported. They also should fight any water rate hike until the storage of rainwater a free gift from the heavens is increased. |
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