Water, Water Everywhere!  Will There Be Any To Drink?

Staff writer, Daniel B. Wood, wrote an interesting story for the October 7 edition of the Christian Science Monitor. No doubt most who read it considered it to be nothing more than a routine report concerning the threat of mudslides following the recent spat of brush fires in the Los Angeles area. It certainly isn't the first time an enterprising reporter has written about what happens in watersheds after wildfires destroy the ability of forests to absorb rainwater.

But Mr. Wood's report raises a question we've been pondering for some time - and the question is when are municipal/domestic water users in the western United States going to wake up to the very real threat that forest fires pose in western municipal watersheds.

Just as the City of Denver, Colorado how much taxpayer money they've spent in recent years restoring their watershed, which is located in federal forests west of Denver.

We can tell you that their expenditure runs into the tens of millions of dollars - with no assurance that more money won't have to be spent unless the federal government soon redoubles its effort to reduce the risk of replacing wildfires in beetle-infested watersheds.

Well over half of all municipal water consumed in the 11 western states rises from federal forests. You would think that city and county governments would be pounding on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management doors in Washington, D.C. asking what the federal government intends to do to protect the West's municipal water supplies.

But you would be wrong. Save for Denver, we don't know of single municipality that has asked what the federal government is doing to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in municipal watersheds - without which thousands of western communities face economic and social chaos unlike any they've ever witnessed.

To read Mr. Wood's short report, click here.

You might also want to take a moment to call your mayor, city manager or county commissioners and ask what they're doing to hold the federal government accountable for the crystal clear water the pours out of your taps and showerheads whenever you open them. Trust us: it comes from a forest that is being devoured by wildfire or insects or both.