Reimagining LA and Water

Who knew (I didn’t) that Pando Populus’s hometown, long known for an unsustainable approach to water in the extreme, is crafting solutions at the hydrological cutting edge.

For better or worse, the city sets global standards. Most are in the direction of consumerism. So it’s good news to see us setting a different kind of standard with water policy — a holistic one, adopting ideas from Heal the Bay and TreePeople.

Here’s an excerpt from an article in today’s New York Times by Jacques Leslie, who describes recent developments in LA’s water conservation:

“These efforts share the basic tenet that all the water in any watershed — whether tap water, groundwater or toilet water — must be considered part of a constantly circulating hydrological whole….

“Though most projects will start too late to address the severe drought now plaguing much of the West, they show how to cope with future ones. Together, these projects will treat polluted and even sewage water, capture rainwater, store water in aquifers, and use (or reuse) all of it, often while mimicking or supporting natural processes. The area’s water administrators who, until recently, thought of watersheds as merely rural concerns now recognize that even in Los Angeles, all living things are linked by their common water course and that its proper management is essential to the administrators’ success.

“In the last decade the tenets of sustainable watershed management have spread across the country. The city of Los Angeles still imports 89 percent of its water, a proportion that underlines the severity of its water needs, but dozens of other cities (including some Eastern ones) are embracing pieces of Los Angeles’s water sustainability approach.”

Read the full story in today’s Op/Eds.