Residents Grapple With the Drought

You proposed that “Southern Californians could lick the drought” (“Why Gamble With Our Water,” editorial, April 4) and save 200,000 acre feet of water via three simple steps: No hand washing of autos, no hosing off sidewalks, cut lawn-watering by half. Hats off for your conservative thinking.

On the other hand: A bucket of water and some judicious spraying is more efficient (water and energy wise) and cheaper than a carwash; electric and gas leaf-blowers not only pollute the air, but are noise hazards (and even restricted in some cities); dead lawns don’t absorb pollutants or create oxygen.

If one conservatively estimates that 15 million people live in Southern California and that by installing and using low-flow toilets, each person could save 7,000 gallons of water per year, that’s over 100 billion gallons saved per year. Every year. And everybody can participate.

That’s also 100 billion gallons of sewage that will not need to be treated (or spilled into the ocean). Or siphoned from the shrinking migratory wetlands of the Owens Valley. Or diverted from priceless ecosystems like Mono Lake.

We need to stop looking at the “end of the hose” and start looking at what that “hose” is connected to. That newspaper in your hand isn’t just 25 cents worth of paper; it’s 4 trees, 15 pounds of air pollutants, 1.25 million BTUs of energy and 2,200 gallons of water. As Earth Day rolls around, maybe it is time to think about the world, instead of just Southern California.

MARC RIES

Anaheim