Episode 13 - Drought Management

Brent Mecham with his Certificate of Recognition for over 20 years of professional excellence, industry support, and commitment to efficient water management.

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Episode Highlights:

• [3:39] Congratulations to Brent! - Brent received a recognition pin and certificate for being certified for 20 years. Check out BWTL episode 7 to learn about professional certifications.
  
  
• [4:06] Drought Summit - We will be linking to the presentations and a final drought summit report on this website. For now, see the schedule here.
  
  
  • Pat Mulroy was the featured speaker.
    
    
  • The Bellagio fountain uses water through their own groundwater rights and they recycle water through their own facility.
    
    
  • Next year, the drought summit will take place in Orlando, Florida.
    
    
• [8:48] Mitigating drought - Many states continue to work on this by creating and implementing drought plans.
  
  
  • Texas was in significant drought in 2011/2012 - groups got together to figure out better solutions than just turning off the water for certain uses.
    
    
    • Created the Texas Water Smart program.
      
      
  • Public awareness of drought, particularly in the East, tends to come from news.
    
    
• [12:36] Is drought now a way of life? - In the desert climates, it is a way of life for many.
  
  
• [13:43] Users of the water - a large amount of water goes toward environmental use.
  
  
• [16:31] Water Resources Development Act - In the final bill, the WIIN Act, language dealing with the amount of water being pumped to farmers and Southern California was included.
  
  
  • [17:21] John was a guest on a radio show - John discussed the drought language in more detail on The Water Zone - in the 12/15/16 show starting at 5:40.
    
    
• [20:18] Food Waste - In general, we do not think about the water footprint of the food we eat.
  
  
  • When you throw away food, you are throwing away a lot of water.
    
    
  • Additionally, the water used to make electronics should be thought about. For example, during the drought summit, Pat Mulroy stated, "Every cell phone that we import takes 1500 gallons of water to produce."
    
    
• [25:07] Follow-up on the lead crisis - In addition to Flint, Michigan, many other water systems are dealing with lead contamination.
  
  
  • USA Today covered lead contamination in drinking water supplies - 4 million Americans could be drinking toxic water.
    
    
  • 850 small water utilities have a documented history of water contamination - many are in rural areas.
    
    
• [25:58] Follow-up to Dakota Access Pipeline episode - Last week, the Army Corps halted the work being done on the pipeline as they explore other routes.
  
  
  • Around the same time, it was discovered that a pipeline leak (different pipeline) had spilled 176,000 gallons of crude oil into a creek 150 miles from the DAPL protest camps.