New York’s Most Valuable Resource - Water

New York has abundant fresh water resources. Current information is showing water shortages now in the U.S. In the future it is predicted that water will be the most precious resource in the world. If we choose to protect our natural water resources, New York will be economically well placed. Water is our asset and our economic future.

Parts of America use up to 80% of their fresh water resources, that means a slight drought or increase in usage will create a water shortage. (1)

the South, Southwest and Western parts of the U.S. water sources are continually being depleted by(2): - human consumption

- agriculture

- and by the water-intensive practice of hydro fracking

Hydrofracking takes away our fresh water resources:

an enormous drain and depletion on our drinking water sources and aquifers,

Frac fluid or ‘produced’ water from the hydro frac process, makes potable water forever undrinkable and non-recyclable

Hydro fracking would continue the statewide drain of drinking water to the point depletion (non-renewable)

- One well, for one level of shale would use 75,075,000 million gallons of water

- Eighty wells, for one level of shale would use: 6 billion gallons of water

- 6 billion gallons of water is the same amount that 235,000 people use in one year -

- the major difference; the water people use is recyclable, once water is used in hydro fracking it is toxic and can never be used again for human or animal consumption, and is toxic to the environment.

80,000 wells - 6.6 trillion gallons of toxic produced water, takes away water from 258 million people, forever.

The projected number of wells that the NatGas co. want in New York State is 88,000 to 200,000. Do the math.

If New York allows hydro fracking to happen here, New York is throwing away one of the most viable sources of economic stability that we could possibly ever have, our water. New Yorkers would then be joining the rest of the nation and the world in the immense struggle for drinking water. The economic impact devastating to say the least.

Water and aquifer depletion, Loss of Irrigation Water Means the End of Agriculture

Western United States aquifers are being depleted and are not replenishable. In cities and thousands of small towns water consumption can only be supplied by taking it from agriculture. (2)(3)

The USDA has reported that:

in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas - three of the leading grain producing states - the underground water table has dropped by more than 100 feet, and is continuing to drop. (2)

Wells have gone dry on thousands of farms in the Great Southern Plains and Southwest due to the depletion of the vast Ogallala aquifer under the Great Plains, loss of irrigation water means the end of agriculture. (4)

Colorado has one of the world’s most active water markets (5):

Fast growing cities and towns buying irrigation water rights from farmers and ranchers

Upper Arkansas River basin, Colorado Springs & Aurora bought water rights to one third of basin’s farmland

California(6)

2003 San Diego bought annual rights to 247 million tons of water from farmers in the Imperial Valley for the next 75 years

2004 Meteropolitan Water District, purchased 137 tons of water per year from farmers for the next 35 years

Farmers are losing cropland and irrigation water to non-farm uses:

suburban sprawl consuming large tracts of farmland

Numerous hydraulic fracturing wells

The quantity of water needed to extract gas from shale can be prohibitive, particularly in the western U.S. where virtually all water is spoken for. Considering carbon emissions, water requirements, local water pollution, and overall environmental devastation from processing billions of tons of gas shale, civilization would be better off if the gas were left in the ground.

(1)Business Insider, March 2010

(2)USDA Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators 2000 - Feb

Pillar of Sand, Sandra Postel (W.W. Norton & Co. 1999)

(3)Plan B 4.0, Lester Brown

(4)Ogallala:Water for a Dry Land, 2nd ed. John Opie

(5)Water Projects Forecast to Fall Short of Needs: Study Predicts 10% Deficit in State, Joey Bunch Denver Post July 2004

(6)Pact In West Will Send Farms’ Water to Cities, Dean Murphy New York Times Oct. 2003

FACT(1):

Globally 1.2 billion people live in an area without adequate water supplies.

Global water demands will increase by 40% in the next ten years.

By 2025 two thirds of the world will live under conditions of water scarcity.

China -

Great Northern China Plain (Beijing, Hebei Province, He Qingcheng),- this aquifer is almost depleted, this is the last water reserve.

Millions of villagers in northern and western china have to move because of lack of water.(7,8)

(7)Chinas Regional Water Scarcity and Implications for Grain Supply and Trade, Environment and Planning A, vol. 33 (2001) & National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook 2008

(8)Northern Cities Sinking as Water Table Falls, Michael Ma, South China Morning Post Aug 2001

Saudi Arabia - due to a major aquifer depletion, they will be phasing out wheat production entirely in 2016(9)

First country to admit publicly how aquifer depletion will shrink its grain harvest (10)

(9)Saudis to Phase Out Wheat Production, Financial Times, Andrew England, April 10, 2008

(10)Financial Times, April 2008 Saudis to Phase Out Wheat Production, Andrew England

Shortages of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future. Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. Globally economy grows, so will its thirst.

Ban Ki-moon Secretary General of the U.N.

Green technology will eventually give us an alternative to fossil fuels,

but there is no alternative for water.