Category drought

Tennessee town has run out of water

The volunteer fire chief of Orme Tenn. wakes up at 5:30 am three days a week and makes a dozen round trips to a fire hydrant in Alabama, filling a fire truck with water, and bringing it back. At 6…

Town in San Diego has no water left

Firefighters drained the Ramona reservoir to fight the fire. Now there’s no water left and little possibility, considering the ongoing serious drought, that it will be replenished any time soon. What happens to a town of thousands when there’s no…

California has enough water

The trick is to conserve the valuable state resource, make wise decisions about how to use it and cut waste. Here’s how: Conservation. (Drought-tolerant plants. Metering. Smart watering systems.) Store groundwater more efficiently. (Especially during years with surpluses) Reuse wastewater…

The future is drying up

Thoughts and quotes from the superb New York Times magazine feature story on drought in the southwest. The problem Lake Mead, the enormous reservoir in Arizona and Nevada that supplies nearly all the water for Las Vegas, is half-empty, and…