Downstream and Upwind - Wasting Water and Polluting the Air in California and the West

"We've been using the atmosphere as a free sewer," says Dr. Stephen Schneider, a panelist at a recent UCLA climate change forum co-sponsored by Representative Henry Waxman.  While Dr. Schneider was referring to the continuing tide of global warming pollution we're pouring into the air from our tailpipes and smokestacks, my first thought in response was that we're using most of the planet as a free sewer these days.  One of the places this is most apparent is in our rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, which we tend to actually use as sewers.  Unfortunately though, all of the various free dumping grounds that we're filling up with our waste are connected.  The more we turn one resource into a free sewer, the more it can affect all the others.

As it turns out, in California and many other parts of the country water plays a critical role in connecting some of these dumping grounds together.  My colleagues have insightfully discussed many of the challenges facing our water resources, and offered practical solutions such as using Low Impact Development practices that capture rainfall or allow rain to soak into the ground and recharge groundwater supplies to increase local water supplies, while reducing the amount of energy we use to supply water, or how efficiency and use of other alternative water supplies can be used to stem the environmental and economic harm drought and climate change are causing to the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the source of drinking water for more than 23 million Californians.  But I thought it might be useful to illustrate just how connected these, and issues of climate change, air pollution, and other environmental harms really are, and how important it is that we deal with all of them together.   

For example let's look at what happens when we pave over an acre of open space in California.  This is a fairly common occurrence, considering the more than 750,000 acres of land developed for commercial and residential property (more than 1,100 square miles) in Los Angeles County alone.  Once paved, a one-acre parking lot will produce as much as 16 times more runoff when it rains as say, a one-acre meadow, and create a host of environmental problems that all flow from that extra, man-made runoff.  Rain that would have previously soaked into the ground, been used by plants, or just evaporated instead flows over paved surfaces and is channeled into gutters and storm drains, picking up trash, pet wastes, metals and oils from cars, and all sorts of other toxic pollutants on the way, before it is funneled through our storm sewers and dumped unceremoniously into the nearest water body.  Before the pavement was laid down, much of the rainfall we're now flooding through our storm drains would have soaked into the open ground, percolating to depths where it could recharge the groundwater that many communities use for their water supply.  In fact, as a staggering sign of waste, the amount of water that flows off of a one-acre parking lot in most areas of coastal southern California each year represents roughly enough water to supply two whole families with their water needs for the entire year.  But having wasted it instead, and cut off a source of groundwater recharge, we now need to supply water from somewhere else. 

If we're in southern California, we may need to supply this water by pumping it from the Bay Delta hundreds of miles away, which uses a tremendous amount of energy and causes additional environmental and economic problems in the Bay Delta itself.  We get the energy to pump water across the state largely from burning fossil fuels, which sends vast quantities of greenhouse gases like methane and CO2 into the atmosphere.  This contributes to global warming, which in California and much of the West is expected to have drastic consequences for our surface water supplies.  The California Department of Water Resources has projected that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, California's largest reservoir of freshwater and a source of water for more than half the state, will decrease by 25 to 40% by 2050 as a result of climate change.  As that supply melts away we have to look even farther to find water.  As a result, some twenty ocean desalination plants are currently proposed to supply water in California, each of which would require as much energy, if not more, to supply water even to local users as it takes to pump water halfway across the state.  Which means it would add more global warming pollution to the atmosphere.  Which could cause sea level to rise, in turn causing salt water to flow inland and contaminate the Bay Delta, which isn't getting a steady supply of water anyway because the Sierra snowpack that feeds it is disappearing. 

So by paving over a meadow we've polluted our rivers and coastal waters, spewed global warming pollution into the air, reduced our supply of water both locally and far away in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Bay Delta, and further damaged the Bay Delta ecosystem.  Multiply that one-acre meadow by thousands of acres of parking lots, strip malls, and subdivisions, and we start altering whole river and groundwater systems, turning entire watersheds into free sewers.  And it's a vicious cycle - the more rainfall we waste and the farther we look and more energy we devour to provide water, the more greenhouse gases we produce, and the more we shrink our existing supply of water, making us look farther for water once again.

So what do we do about this?  Well, one way to start is that even at the individual level we need to use, and manage, our wastewater better.  When you water your lawn, or even better, a garden of drought resistant native plants, make sure to water just the lawn or garden, and not the street, the sidewalk, and your neighbors' car, so that we don't waste valuable excess water by letting it run into the storm sewer.  Install water efficient appliances and faucets that use less water to accomplish household or commercial tasks.  Use Low Impact Development practices so that paved surfaces at residential and commercial properties divert rainfall to unpaved areas where it can soak into the ground, or capture runoff from rooftops in rain barrels and cisterns to use for irrigation or flushing toilets later on.  It really can come down to a lot of little practices that add up to a big difference, that stop polluting our nearby waters, and stop polluting the air with greenhouse gases.  California is known for its bright sunshine and endless miles of beautiful coastline.  We should do everything we can to keep our water, and sky, clear, blue, and clean.