Letters to the Editor: There's water for more homes. Why that doesn't justify endless growth
To the editor: It's one thing to ask Californians to conserve water because of this catastrophic drought and the consequent water shortage. It's another thing, albeit finally an honest one, to tell us to drastically reduce our usage so more homes can be built, thus exacerbating all the problems of unsustainable, constant growth and overpopulation. ("Does California have enough water for lots of new homes? Yes, experts say, despite drought," May 31)
I don't know why it's so hard for the powers that be to acknowledge that this area of the earth was never meant to support the roughly 40 million people who live here now, let alone more in the future.
The fact that we're talking about drinking recycled sewage water and causing dead zones in the ocean by desalination should be throwing up bright red flags that we're going down a dystopian slippery slope. I understand that greed has a way of affecting a thought process to allow justification of the unjustifiable, but it's really OK to say when something is enough.
Tim Viselli, La Cañada Flintridge
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To the editor: Water for homes is but one part of the quality of life equation. California is not only the most important food producer for the people living here, but also for the nation.
If the recent wake-up call on foreign energy dependence isn't enough, then our food source dependence should be an even greater wake-up call. We can't eat houses, native ornamental plants or the asphalt streets that millions of new homes require.
Steve Gurnari, Escalon, Calif.
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To the editor: Your article states that Angelenos use 44% less water per person than they did four decades ago and defends California's continual residential construction.
What the article doesn’t mention is the state population in 1982 was 24.8 million. Today, we are at around 39 million people. Even with conservation efforts, that’s a substantially higher amount of people compared with four decades ago.
Asking coastal towns to build wastewater recycling plants is not a fix-all, since the ocean life in the vicinity of the plant will be compromised.
The bottom line is that the state cannot continue to support such substantial population growth with its current water resources.
Karen Mack, Costa Mesa
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To the editor: Instead of waiting around for water to drop from the sky, it's time to build desalination plants for Southern California.
There's a lot of water in the Pacific Ocean, and California has a $97-billion budget surplus. About 16,000 desalination plants around the world are currently in operation. Desalination might be expensive, but it works.
In the coming years there will be more people, less farmland and a greater need for food and water. Shouldn't California at least try?
Anton Holden, Los Angeles
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
