Fix our water woes

I listen to all the news on

TV, paying particular attention to mentions about water and drought. But what cornered my attention was the announcement that the state was experiencing a wonderful surplus amounting to almost $97 billion — that is a billion with a capital B.

So, what about this good fortune for the state? On the downside is the fact that we are in a major drought. Nowhere in all this news — both good and bad — do I hear anything about how we might alleviate this terrible drought with all this extra money. Why not? Do the folks who work in the water industry have a creative thought about what to do in the long run if this drought continues for more than a few years? Apparently not.

I believe that the answer is to build more desalinization plants — along with this a way to store the water that would come from those plants. That may mean — horror of horrors — they would have to put water back into the ground. Nowhere have I heard anything about new groundbreaking for this very doable endeavor.

Why not? I think it's because those guys making 6-figure incomes don't want to lose some kind of power that they may have determining who gets how much of the snowfall that is not going to fall next year. Lake Powell is going bone dry and not going to be replenished any time soon. How are our elected officials going to act when the water runs completely dry?

The catastrophe of 6 million people going days without water is too horrific to imagine. It is not a new crisis. Lakes do not go bone dry overnight. Leaders bury their heads in the dust and pray for rain that is not coming. We must act to save every drop. It may be the last we will have.

— Joseph H. Balocca/Vallejo