[Greenbuilding] low flow shower heads

[Reuben Deumling]

Lee,
here's a little background reading for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater_recharge
"Artificial groundwater recharge is becoming increasingly important in
India, where over-pumping of groundwater by farmers has led to underground
resources becoming depleted. In 2007, on the recommendations of the
International
Water Management
Institute<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Water_Management_Institute>,
the Indian government allocated Rs 1800 crore (US$400million) to fund
dug-well recharge projects (a dug-well is a wide, shallow well, often lined
with concrete) in 100 districts within seven states where water stored in
hard-rock aquifers had been over-exploited."

http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/issues/society/ogallala/ogallala.html
" The withdrawal of this groundwater has now greatly surpassed the aquifer's
rate of natural recharge."

"Is the drawdown a national problem? How concerned should national leaders
be about the depletion of this aquifer? This question raises a dilemma for
some of those immediately affected. While on the one hand there is interest
within the states in generating national concern about the "problem," on the
other hand, there is a strong desire to keep control of the aquifer and its
management at the local and state levels. Because of the local variations in
aquifer thickness, people in the region prefer local responses to local
changes in the aquifer. In fact, a pecking order of preferences emerges from
inhabitants of the region: state involvement is preferred over federal, and
conservation measures are preferred over reverting to dryland farming
practices.

The drawdown of the aquifer raises an important issue that permeates
discussions about the social and political responses to a global warming:
discounting the future. Here is a good example of a choice that society must
make - consume the groundwater resource today or conserve it for future
generations when climate in the region might not be as favorable to
agricultural production as it is today. At which time would the groundwater
resource be of most value? And to whom? Today, other factors have slowed
down the rate of drawdown, such as relatively higher energy prices, low crop
prices, large stockpiles of rain and so forth. Nevertheless, the issues of
intergenerational equity should be addressed now when there is less pressure
to decide one way or another.

Are the policy measures implemented in response to the Ogallala Aquifer
depletion applicable to changes in regional water supplies that may result
because of projected changes in climate due to increasing CO2? The depletion
of the aquifer represents a change in the water balance of the Great Plains
region, as would the suggested impacts of global warming. (Water balance
refers to all sources of moisture in the region; atmospheric, surface, and
groundwater.) With a warming, soil moisture in the region would be reduced,
as would rainfall. By using the Ogallala Aquifer depletion as an analogue,
scientists and policy makers can learn much about the process of evaluating
and selecting socially acceptable policy responses to large-scale
environmental issues. However, regional changes in climate of the magnitude
suggested by GCM output may impose a new set of rules on society for
choosing appropriate policy responses to climate related environmental
change."


On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 12:23 PM, lee Weaver <lgweaver at gmail.com> wrote:

>  >>California gets nearly all its water from Rocky and PNW mountains &
> glaciers for agricultural uses that run-off from the farms ultimately into
> the Pacific and/or urban treatment systems far from the H2O’s use on the
> farm, let alone birthplace in the Rockies.
>
> Yes man doesn't put it back mother nature does via evaporation and
> rain/snow.
>
> looking out my window MT Rainer and it's glaciers are as white as I've ever
> seen them.
>
>
>
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