Living With Drought

Garden Editor Bob Smaus is to be applauded for the steps he and his family have taken in reducing their use of water. However, his reply to his critics (“Editor Doing His Part,” June 23) demonstrates the dilemma we all face in Southern California.

Smaus states “water . . . is a renewable resource and although we will never again have as much water as we did during the past few decades, thanks to a burgeoning population, we will have adequate water for gardens.” Of course, in Southern California, water is not so renewable. We average less than 15 inches of water a year. This is a semi-arid to desert region. We import our water from areas to our north and east.

My point is, we can’t fool ourselves as we have in the past into thinking the rains will return and we’ll have adequate water again. We must squarely face the problem that this is a land of little rainfall and we must get used to having little water or find alternatives that do not deplete other regions (e.g., Mono Lake).

We have to learn always to conserve water just as we should conserve petroleum. We in Southern California must master living with our climate, not against it. If we do not do this, we will simply stumble from one water shortage to the next, depleting the water resources of other areas like a gambler borrowing money to bet on a sure thing.

GREG LONGENECKER, La Canada