Soaring water demand alarming
Demand for water in South Carolina rose nearly 1,000 percent in the last 40 years — three times more than surrounding states. The National Wildlife Federation has sounded a conservation alarm with that finding.
The report
Read the water supply report from the National Wildlife Federation.
The state is thought to be in relatively good shape compared with its neighbors — abundant with rivers and lakes and not so industrialized. But water use rose far more than the 60 percent increase in population between 1960 and 2000, said Amanda Staudt, federation climate scientist.
"This increase reflects in part that South Carolina water use was quite low in 1960," she conceded. But "the biggest contributor to this increase is the use of water for thermoelectric power generation, which accounts for 80 percent of the freshwater usage in the state."
The federation released the report Thursday, joining a series of environmental groups calling for state control of who withdraws how much water from its rivers and lakes, as well steps to reduce electricity consumption and shift to clean energy alternatives — to save water as well as combat climate warming.
More info
An attempt to permit large-scale water withdrawals is now stalled in the state Legislature by lobbyists for both environmental and manufacturing interests.
Lewis Gossett, S.C. Manufacturers Alliance president, on Thursday had not seen the study. But he said the key is how much water is available, not how much you use.
"We can see the need for a water plan, but it needs to be science-based. That's where our disagreement is. Our great concern is, don't throw out the baby with the bath water — don't destroy economic growth with an overly restrictive plan," he said.
Increasing demand for water in the rapidly developing Southeast, exacerbated by recent droughts, is beginning to cause water shortages, pushing the region into Western-style legal "water wars."
The report joins a number of studies raising an alarm that the situation will continue to worsen as water supplies diminish to factors such as saltwater intrusion and drier conditions spurred by climate warming.
South Carolina is suing North Carolina over proposed water withdrawals out of its Catawba basin. The lawsuit is now being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court; it's in the early stage of collecting depositions and other information.
The Catawba flows from that state and joins South Carolina rivers, eventually providing nearly half the water that flows into the Marion-Moultrie lakes, the source of drinking water for most of the Lowcountry.
Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
This article has 12 comment(s)
Posted by zoomru on November 21, 2008 at 1:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well.....
What is the CUB SCOUT MOTTO...
Be Prepared !!
I think it may be time to cruise through this website and see what is used to de-salinate our OCEAN WATER...
www.selsam.com
...well look at this...an Off-shore WINDTURBINE !!!!
Henry Brown .....didn't you use a Wind turbine in your campaign ADD..???
Get BUSY...!@!!!
Posted by theronce on November 21, 2008 at 7:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Desalinization is not new technology. Government would rather create fear than act and access the water to the east of our shores.
Posted by ashleyatwork on November 21, 2008 at 9:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
With the polar ice caps melting I thought we were going to be underwater in a few years.... seems like if one thing is in abundance on this earth its water and we have the tecnology to both clean and de-salinate it. I agree with theronce,this is just fear mongering.
Posted by joelmckellar on November 21, 2008 at 11:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Though I certainly don't claim to be an expert on desalinization, the process takes an extraordinary amount of energy to do, which, given the fact that it's the energy production that takes up most of our water doesn't make much sense. Changing our energy production is the solution, not creating more supply.
We should certainly work to conserve water via demand reduction. Cheap changes to commercial and residential fixtures can yield substantial reductions. It is important also to understand that unlike the midlands and upstate, Charleston sits on enormous amounts of underground reservoirs.
Posted by wjhamilton3 on November 21, 2008 at 12:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We're consuming huge amounts of water irrigating residential and urban landscapes full of non native plants through hotter and drier summers. We need to consider how much water we really need to use. I see huge amounts of water coming out of sprinklers and running down storm drains, all to produce huge amounts of green grass.
Posted by KidYendor on November 21, 2008 at 12:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes wj but as you can see 80 percent goes to power plants. I thought home water conservation would make more of a difference but it is really up to the power plants. This dispels the myth of male sink tinkling to save water supplies.
Posted by theronce on November 21, 2008 at 12:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Joelmckellar, regarding the energy to process the waters east of our coast...over, under, in, and above those waters, there is oil, hydrogen, wind, sun, tidal, and solar sources of energy. Government creates fear of all of that good, free, and natural stuff, then creates an artificial fear of a shortage that they tell us that we cannot get on our own. With fear, they make us ignorant, dependent, uncreative, and inactive. With fear, they have control and power; they do not have to solve anything, even with a glorious wealth of resources all around us.
Posted by yird on November 21, 2008 at 12:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The nursery that runs almost two full miles along HWY 17A in Moncks Corner has hundreds of sprinklers going constantly and hundreds of Hispanic workers with the odds in favor of a number of them being illegal.
Maybe shutting that facility down would slow the depletion of water from the aquifer and decrease the number of illegals.
Just kidding folks, but they do use a heck of a lot of water.
Posted by ColdBud on November 21, 2008 at 1:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
I hope the global warming kills me before we run out of water. You can't have beer without water :)
joelmckellar, you are correct in assuming that delsalination is a very inefficient process. However, with the proper attention and emphasis, that could probably be changed pretty quickly. Americans can do great things, we just often wait until our backs are against the wall.
Posted by martin on November 21, 2008 at 4:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
sprinklers should be outlawed. Use drip irrigation instead and only when absolutely necessary.
Posted by ColdBud on November 21, 2008 at 5:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Outlaw sprinklers?!?!?!? Hopefully not before my fantasy of women wearing white tops and cut off short shorts while playing in the sprinkler after cutting my grass comes true....
Posted by exorcist_pencocky4u on November 22, 2008 at 2:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Posted by ColdBud on November 21, 2008 at 5:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Outlaw sprinklers?!?!?!? Hopefully not before my fantasy of women wearing white tops and cut off short shorts while playing in the sprinkler after cutting my grass comes true....
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
Excuse me ColdBud, but thats always beeen my fantasy.
See, u got me soo worked up I cant spel.
LMAO