Skies Remain Dangerously Blue

Jerome is a small town . . . its population somewhere under 500 . . . and it's forms of communication with its residents  borders on colloquial.  A sign in the post office asked residents to please conserve water because the overflow from storage tanks was running only intermittently.  When I drove past yesterday the overflow was dry.

Jerome is an old copper mining community that once boasted a population of 15,000.  With a current population of only 400-plus
the town is experiencing the initial indications of a water crisis.

Jerome's water comes from an aquifer beneath Cleopatra Hill, captured in 3 water storage tanks and gravity fed to the town below.  The aquifer is replenished by precipitation.

In the last 6 weeks there has been about 1/8 inch of rain, hardly enough to reach the aquifer let alone replenish it.  As I've said in previous posts, if you want to see what the desert will support, "Just look out your backdoor."  It isn't much, yet the tree planting, car washing, and yard/garden watering go unabated.

This on 3 - 10 inches of rain annually.

There Once Was A Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

In a largely forgettable piece titled, “Dear Mom”, penned years ago by Katie Lee, she suggests that population increase is at fault for many of our difficulties with the availability of natural resources.

The piece follows the theme of, “There once was a woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn’t know what to do."

Population may be one of the problems we face, but problems with water will surely  be an attendant difficulty.

Evidence of this is considerable, mostly by rising water rates.

We tend to view the minor increases in our utility rates and accept it without question.  We don’t consider that the stuff we are charged for is…or will be…in short supply.  That’s our capitalistic system…we get fair warning.

Ask Katie and she will tell you that the world (as we know it) is ending.

Query Charles Bowden and he’ll tell you that thirst is one of the least desirable ways to die.

Exaggeration?...Hyperbole?  Maybe. 

What disturbs me is that we are balancing a variable such as population with a finite resource such as water. 

I have little confidence that we’ll fuck less.  I have all confidence that when we’re thirsty we’ll turn the tap and expect water.

It will end.  Just ask Katie.