Posted by David Zetland at http://aguanomics.com/

Water Chats -- McCloud

I met with Debra Anderson and Brian Stewart in McCloud, a small "town" just east of Mt. Shasta.

McCloud is blessed with an amazing water supply: Water springs flow straight from the ground, gushing more clean, cold, volcanically-enhanced (!) water than the community can ever hope to drink.

And that's the problem...

Nestle wants to bottle that water and sell it to people elsewhere in the State.

Well -- the problem is NOT that Nestle wants to bottle the water but the terms under which Nestle wants to do so [Prior posts].

Debra, who is president of the McCloud Watershed Council, spoke with a mixture of concern and outrage over the handling of McCloud's water -- worrying that the local population is too enamoured of a deal that promises the "good old days" [i.e., the company town security that the saw mill provided] and/or has not considered how Nestle may choose to interpret a contract [here] that gives it a lot of leeway.

Brian is involved in local politics but spoke as a "general member of the public."

Listen to our one-hour and six minute [23MB MP3] chat to learn more about how a community of 1,200 people reconciles political, economic and environmental concerns as it tries to maintain and improve its quality of life. [By amazing coincidence, a caller asked about McCloud when I was on KALW a few days later. I was very happy to have enough knowledge to answer his question.]

Bottom Line: There are costs and benefits to every decision, and McCloud's people are wrestling with a decision that could enhance or destroy their way of life.

I've been getting updates from the friendly folks at www.useitwisely.com around water resources and the most recent tweet I found was the "100 Ways to Conserve" list that they compiled most recently.

I must say, I truly appreciate these helpful hints and here are a few that I haven't heard in the past:

#10: For cold drinks keep a pitcher of water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap. This way, every drop goes down you and not the drain.

#17: Collect the water you run to rinse off veggies and water the houseplants with it.

#28: Put food coloring in your toilet tank. If it seeps into the toilet bowl without flushing, you have a leak. Fixing it can save up to 1,000 gallons a month.

#61: Next time you add or replace a flower or shrub, choose a low water use plant for year-round landscape color and save up to 550 gallons each year.

#75: Drop your tissue in the trash instead of the toliet and save water every time.

Check out the complete list here and challenge yourself to adapt 5 of them. 

I think personal sustainbility is KEY to combating issues like water usage, global warming and others- however, i think there needs to be a closely related effort to monitor industry and agriculture when it comes to water usage and how better to have those facets of American life recognize their usage and how to better manage it.  To do this without "blue washing" is key and necessary when it comes to the sustainability of water on this planet.  These industries use 80% of our fresh water in the United States. How do we work on that?

Hey, GOOD loves water too!

Check out this little infographic.

In this day and age, it is all about information synthesis. This is why I want to inquire from the general DROPPER public (except James) about the idea of teaming up with this NY-based non-profit called StoryCorps to record some of the upcoming events, especially the Water Challenge. Basically they are awesome. StoryCorps is dedicated to recording and archiving the personal histories of as many people as possible, of listening as an act of love.

Check 'em out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wufu80pmJE

 Also, on an unrelated note

http://www.good.is/?p=15220