 |
| Thomas Buschatzke |
I was reading an article in the New York Times this morning about How the West Overcounts Its Water Supplies and I came upon this little gem.
Thomas Buschatzke, the director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources, acknowledged that pumping from wells could dry up streams, but said the current law kept the two resources separate, and “it would be a huge upset to the economy to do away with that.”
Thomas Buschatzke is the poster child for water idiocy in the west. Let me rephrase his statement so you, gentle reader, can understand it.
Thomas Buschatzke, the director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources, acknowledged that pumping from wells could dry up streams, but said the current law kept the two resources separate, and [“we'd rather avoid a huge upset to today's economy due to our blatant disregard for the obvious and instead drive full speed at a catastrophic future that won't be my problem because I'll be spending my state retirement benefits in a place that has plenty of water”]
To be honest, little surprises me about Arizona politics. And I'm not at all surprised that politicians pass real problems on to the future while solving imaginary problems (see:
immigration) today. I don't live in the west. Part of that is due to the fact that there is a stunning disregard for water reality. Americans need to get serious about the use of water resources or they're not going to need their guns to protect themselves from the federal government. They're going to need them to guard their aquifers.
I hate that guy.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention pockets of native Golden trout that could go away and never return. It is sad how poorly managed the water is out here.
ReplyDeleteI've been listening to radio stories about that book (Killing the Colorado, or whatever it is). Boggles the mind.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to southern California for grad school, I was rabid about conserving water...for a month or so. I took a bucket into the shower with me, and would use the extra water to water our native drought-tolerant plants. Then I saw my neighbors running sprinklers, half the water running down the street. There was no incentive, at least not financial, to worry a bit about water.