The Jubail desalination plant in Saudi Arabia is the largest in the world.
The water supply for the small town of Jefferson, Georgia is only weeks away from drying up.The city’s reservoir is more than four feet below normal right now. It’s so low that silt and chemicals from the bottom are being processed through the water treatment facility.The city is now getting its water from Jackson County and the city of Commerce. Without that water, Jefferson’s reservoir would be completely dry."The water here, if we had no other source of water, that would last us two, maybe three weeks at best. If we had nothing coming in," said Jeff Killip with Jefferson’s Public Works department.The city is pushing conservation and has had a good response from its customers. They say the citizens of Jefferson have reduced water use by 25 percent.
The USA desalination plants can be powered by solar power as there won't be many days without it anymore. The states along The Great Lakes are absolutely correct, the 'water shed' to The Great Lakes must stay intact in order for the lakes to replenish themselves year after year. The southern USA should have built salination plants a long time ago rather than shunting water from northern California. The aqueducts of Southern California ADD to the drought as the exposed water evaporates along it's movement from northern sources to southern sources. I have no sympathy for southern states that never planned for this, everyone knew it was coming, where were they? Waiting for federal money from Bush to solve their problems? Ha !
Editorial: Hands off our H2O (click here)
Pass the Great Lakes compact now, before more people start thinking like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Oct. 11, 2007
"States like Wisconsin are awash in water."
Pass the Great Lakes compact now, before more people start thinking like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Oct. 11, 2007
"States like Wisconsin are awash in water."
Those words from Democratic presidential hopeful and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson should send a shiver up the spine of every Wisconsin resident - and spur new urgency in state legislators to approve enabling legislation for the Great Lakes compact.
While not perfect, the compact is designed to provide some protection for the Great Lakes from those who would like to take water out of the lakes' natural basin without returning it. The compact has been agreed to by the governors of the eight Great Lakes states but still has to be approved by the legislatures of those states and then by Congress.
A legislative task force under the leadership of state Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn) worked on enabling legislation for a year but was unable to reach consensus and foundered last month over several issues, mainly involving certain standards and diversion questions. A new task force was formed by the governor, but that committee has barely started to wrestle with the issues and there is no guarantee that it will reach consensus.
The first order of business of any enabling legislation should be to protect the Great Lakes. Any diversion of water outside the natural basin should be returned to the lakes, and communities that ask for water should have in place conservation policies that minimize their demand for water.
But enabling legislation should also allow for reasonable growth in communities such as New Berlin and Waukesha that are wholly or partially outside the basin, running into water supply problems in underground aquifers and willing and able to return the water and enact conservation measures. Enabling legislation should not be so restrictive that it stifles economic growth in the region, and it needs to deal with the groundwater issues raised by the compact.
Stifling growth won't help the environment; poor communities can't clean up brownfields or develop green energy solutions.
Waukesha County is not the enemy. The enemy is people who would open the taps on the Great Lakes without regard for the health of those lakes and their communities.
Approving compact legislation would provide a necessary measure of protection. And it needs to be approved before more people start talking like Richardson.
How important is it for Wisconsin to approve enabling legislation for the Great Lakes compact? Send a letter to: Journal Sentinel editorial
While not perfect, the compact is designed to provide some protection for the Great Lakes from those who would like to take water out of the lakes' natural basin without returning it. The compact has been agreed to by the governors of the eight Great Lakes states but still has to be approved by the legislatures of those states and then by Congress.
A legislative task force under the leadership of state Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn) worked on enabling legislation for a year but was unable to reach consensus and foundered last month over several issues, mainly involving certain standards and diversion questions. A new task force was formed by the governor, but that committee has barely started to wrestle with the issues and there is no guarantee that it will reach consensus.
The first order of business of any enabling legislation should be to protect the Great Lakes. Any diversion of water outside the natural basin should be returned to the lakes, and communities that ask for water should have in place conservation policies that minimize their demand for water.
But enabling legislation should also allow for reasonable growth in communities such as New Berlin and Waukesha that are wholly or partially outside the basin, running into water supply problems in underground aquifers and willing and able to return the water and enact conservation measures. Enabling legislation should not be so restrictive that it stifles economic growth in the region, and it needs to deal with the groundwater issues raised by the compact.
Stifling growth won't help the environment; poor communities can't clean up brownfields or develop green energy solutions.
Waukesha County is not the enemy. The enemy is people who would open the taps on the Great Lakes without regard for the health of those lakes and their communities.
Approving compact legislation would provide a necessary measure of protection. And it needs to be approved before more people start talking like Richardson.
How important is it for Wisconsin to approve enabling legislation for the Great Lakes compact? Send a letter to: Journal Sentinel editorial
