Water, Water, Everywhere...

Where’s the world’s largest source of water? It’s right off the coast of California, the Pacific Ocean.

As we continue to grow as a state and continue using up our natural resources, the demand for water is increasing as the supply diminishes from use and population increases.

It’s been reported recently we are in the third year of an extreme drought. Efforts have been drafted for us to follow this June 1 by restricting further our water usage by cutting back watering our lawns to one day a week. Again, this is just a Band-Aid.

By continuing building new housing tracts and projects, the demand for water will increase exponentially unless we find an additional source of this limited supply.

Yes, we all have tried to conserve our water consumption by installing low-flush toilets, artificial lawns, low-usage dish and laundry washers and modifying our habits by taking shorter showers, but this isn’t enough.

We rely on our water supply from the Sierra Nevada snowmelt, the Colorado River and diminishing levels of water from our local aquifers from the Santa Clarita Valley that we continue to put a strain on.

This is not enough to quench our thirst from this natural resource that is drying up, but wait, what can we do? Isn’t it time we tap into the largest source of water just off our vast coastline, the Pacific Ocean?

The Southern California region has many climates but is mostly a desert with arid climates like many countries around the world.

How do these countries overcome their thirst and usage of this valuable resource?

The dreaded “D” word comes into play, DESALINATION PLANTS. There are more than 120 countries that capture and produce their largest source of water, with Saudi Arabia providing more than 117 million cubic feet of water per day (this is from an April 25, 2017, report).

This country has more than 27 desalination plants as 21 are located along their coastline.

What are we doing to feed our thirsty population? Will building a BULLET TRAIN to San Jose and beyond fill our need? This project is over budget and behind schedule, utilizing our taxpayers’ money, benefitting only a few people and probably not to be seen in my lifetime or yours.

Do we really need a “bullet train to San Jose”? Like the song says, “Do you know the way to San Jose”? I do, but what is more important, faster transportation to a faraway town or having ample supply of this liquid lifesource...WATER. We can’t survive without it.

Even our Central Valley farmers are feeling the squeeze. If they don’t have water to irrigate the produce we eat, we all lose, and then we must import products for us to eat and survive. Water is a very valuable source of life

Unfortunately, short-minded politicians in the early 1960s cancelled a major proposal that a team of engineers submitted to the state that my father worked on to build a series of desalination plants up and down the coast of California, supplying a growing and burgeoning population. The powers that be turned down this futuristic idea, stating, It’s going to cost too much money to build as we currently have an ample supply of water coming from the Sierra Nevadas.

If we only had forward-thinking politicians, knowing that continued population growth was ahead, along with food production and consumption...

The money spent building this dream train could’ve been used building up our infrastructure, instead of relying on “status quo” mentalities, and now the problem of water shortages has reared its ugly head again, causing us to rely on Band-Aid measures reducing our consumption of this limited resource.

It’s time to get started building a supply chain of desalination water plants so future generations will be able to have a reliable water source to use.

Corey Fredrickson

Valencia