Saving water makes sense

In a summer following the driest Southern California winter on record, the only thing louder than the crackling of dry twigs is the deafening silence surrounding water conservation. (See story on page 8.)

To the credit of water agencies, in the wake of water shortages in the 1990s, a greater emphasis has been made to increase storage capacity and provide reclaimed water for irrigating crops, greenbelts and golf courses.

Flooding the market with reclaimed water paid dividends from the very beginning. It reduced the wasteful practice of using drinking water for irrigation. Moreover, reclaimed water provides nutrients that plants need.

Despite the lack of a public relations campaign calling for water conservation in the face of drought, logic tells us that saving water always makes sense.

If people voluntarily reduce their water use, it will delay mandatory controls later on.

Here are a few simple steps everyone can make:

+Fix leaky faucets or malfunctioning toilets. It's amazing how much water is lost a drop at a time.

+Check water sprinklers to make sure they're operating properly and switching on at night to minimize evaporation.

+Don't overirrigate your lawn.

+Don't leave the faucet on while shaving or brushing your teeth.

+Use less water in the bathtub or take shorter showers.

+Replace old toilets and showerheads with low flow models.

+When it's time to replace clothes washers or dishwashers, invest in models that use less water.

Saving water makes good sense because we live in an arid climate where virtually all of our water is imported from somewhere else.

If we get stingy with our water now, we'll be better prepared when conservation becomes a necessity later on.

It's only a matter of time.