Water--H 2.0--"This Entry Is Dry"

   Just returned from a 2 hour panel and presentation on the local freshwater aquifer on a recently released report on potential scenarios and depletion of the invaluable resource. Experts from the DNR, local academic Survey departments, regional planning commissions and University researchers collaborated on the effort. I learned that there is little if any collaboration between local cities, counties, and state laws as well as with the utility companies and many other sources of usage. There is a disjoint and fragmented-ness between so many factors that all revolve around the sustainability of our regional water resources, the vital well from which springs all life, physically and economically, in the region. Understatements OR overstatements, there NEEDS to be open communication of scientific projections based on sound research, which of course needs more funding (btw). The best available science and research about these issues comes from - Gasp! - right here in central IL, with the U of I in our backyard and Springfield just an afternoon away. Water is a critical issue, and Central IL, the location of the best soil and freshwater in the world (we have the blackest soil with some of the highest organic matter content along with proven best-tasting tap water), needs to practice the best water systems management practices.

   I received a handout from the EPA's Watersense program to improve water efficiency and awareness of leakages that can be fixed and prevented, along with a 60+ page bound copy of the final water study. Staggering statistics. Fix those drips! Else we, like the wicked green witch of the west, disintigrate and melt away into the dark valley of a dry abyss forever. Or, until we clever tricksy Americans find the next best solution to share the precious freshwater in perpetuity... until 2050, at least, it won't be that bad. One of the [foreign] researchers of the study implied that inferring past that date is too uncertain that it's completely unscientific to include any guesses. 

   So much for caring about the 7 generations hypothesis. "We are not inheriting our resources from our parents, we are borrowing it from our children." in case you haven't heard that, new perspective! Blurp!