Drought Happens: Get Used To It! Will Technology Help Us To Survive? By David W. Eckhoff Presented at the University of Utah Marriott Library on Acknowledgement Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge some special people. First, I want to thank Bill Gould and his great family for making this all possible and for giving me the opportunity to make some wonderful new friends. Thanks to you, Bill, and to your entire family. We've shared some brief but wonderful times together and I hope we get to do so in the future. Second, thanks to Joan, my wife and my partner of forty-three years, who has been at my side always -- at moments like this and when I was named Utah Engineer of the Year. These times are special for me. Third, my thanks to Kevin Hunt, my boss, who taught an old dog some new tricks such as how to be consistently supportive in an age where sometimes the bottom line becomes the greatest driving force. I may have resisted your authority, but your positive attitude won out in the long run. Thank you very much. My thanks go also to Linda Hansen who did such an awesome job of putting the Power Point presentation together and preparing the draft manuscript. I really do appreciate her dedicated efforts. Thanks to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln ( www.drought.unl.edu ) for documentation and images used in this lecture. NDMC has been an outstanding resource for drought information, planning and local assistance. Drought is not the most popular subject in the world. When I mentioned to a friend that I was going to talk about drought and technology, he said, "Won't that be about like talking about death? How can you put a positive technological spin on that?” Actually, as opposed to death, I think there are some bright spots in the drought mitigation future. I will review some of these in this lecture, but I'm also going to discuss some of the downsides of drought, because you can't have one without the other. I do want to focus on technology, but I also want to talk about how people respond to technological advances. Probably some of the more sobering aspects of drought are the severe economic and human impacts that have resulted, particularly in the previous two centuries.
We will review the hydrologic cycle , particularly as it expresses itself here in Utah and more specifically along the Wasatch Front. We have a unique situation in terms of how our water supplies are developed, how we subsequently store them and transport them, how we utilize them, and what we do with them when we are “done with them.” How Do We Use Water? Water Conservation Technology What is Drought? Drought is a normal, recurrent feature of climate, although many erroneously consider it a rare and random event. It occurs in virtually all climatic zones, but its characteristics vary significantly from one region to another. Drought is a temporary aberration; it differs from aridity, which is restricted to low rainfall regions and is a permanent feature of climate. Drought is an insidious hazard of nature. Although it has scores of definitions, it originates from a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time, usually a season or more . . . . Other climatic factors such as high temperature, high wind, and low relative humidity are often associated with it in many regions of the world and can significantly aggravate its severity. Drought is a normal - it's hard to believe, normal - recurrent feature of climate. It occurs almost everywhere. It occurs in the most humid of climates. It occurs in the driest of climates. For that reason, defining drought becomes confusing. It depends upon regional differences: differences in needs, differences in water use, and, differences in perspectives of the people that live in those regions. Aridity
Drought is usually measured scientifically on what happens to soil parameters, such as soil moisture deficit. But the real impacts are on crops (damage) and, ultimately, on the financial resources of the farmer, his family and his community. We who live in an urban environment think we suffer damage because our lawns turn brown. But for the most part, our impacts are really minimal, especially when compared with some of the impacts of drought in the nineteenth century. The next definition is sometimes a hard thing to comprehend. Drought is a natural hazard , which puts it in the same family as flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and insect infestations. I guess, except for the volcanic eruptions, that might be a definition of Southern California . These other phenomena are all natural disasters with which we have learned to cope. The difference being, for the most part, that drought takes place over such an extended period of time. Hurricanes cause a lot of damage, but they are in, they are out and they are gone. We get together, we clean it up and we move forward. Flooding tends to have a similar pattern. We get inundated, houses get washed off the hills, the damage occurs. We clean it up and we get on with our lives. Conversely, droughts, especially like the one we are experiencing now, last for years. They are persistent. We are now considered to be in the fourth year of drought in Utah . There is some likelihood, despite the rain we had last weekend, that the drought may continue into next year (it has!). If it does, I can assure you, we will see some vastly different impacts. We will see water shortages not only in the agricultural sector, but also in our municipal and industrial sectors. Other factors, such as high temperatures, high winds and low relative humidity, serve to exacerbate drought. That's Utah ! We are dry. We are hot. We have a lot of wind, especially in the western parts of our state. When we were working on the West Desert Pumping Project, we found the average wind speed to be in excess of ten miles an hour. That is one of the reasons the West Desert is a desert. Wind keeps it consistently dried out and it exacerbates drought effects. Aridity is certainly prevalent, but it's not drought in itself. Two things about drought that are most important are its intensity and its duration. These come into play when we examine the different kinds of scientific drought definition. The three scientific definitions that I will discuss today are: (1) Meteorological Drought , otherwise known as “Mark Eubank” drought; (2) Agricultural Drought; and (3) Hydrological Drought . The two are significantly different. They generally affect different sectors of our society and our economy, and they are sometimes out of phase. The figure below from NDMC depicts graphically the relationships between these three "stages" of drought and their predominant impacts. The downward-pointing time arrow on the left indicates increasing duration of drought. The central boxes illustrate the shifting and increasingly damaging impacts as the drought persists, moving from Meteorological to Agricultural to Hydrological Drought conditions. Many of the weather-related contemporary news events focus on the upper box. Although the continuation of the drought situation leads from meteorological drought to agricultural drought, this condition is frequently not considered to be newsworthy. Significant long-term effects are part of hydrologic drought. If the current drought extends to five years, we are all going to be in trouble. Resultant low reservoir conditions are a real threat to our urban water systems as well as many agricultural systems. Plus, recreational activities of our urban population are affected, and this is prime fodder for TV news! Meteorological Drought
If we look at the normal monthly precipitation in the figure above and then compare it to our pattern of water use, we have an excellent demonstration of the root cause of water deficiency. In the wintertime we are down very close to zero use on a relative scale and we peak out in the summer, usually in July and August. Supply and demand are definitely out of phase with one another. The monthly average precipitation across many parts of Utah tends to be, although low, rather uniform. If you looked at the same kind of graph for the Central Valley of California, even Southern California , for May through September, precipitation would be essentially flat - nothing. They have a very, very distorted supply-demand situation. Agricultural Drought Hydrological Drought I am told that the current level of Deer Creek Reservoir is the lowest it's been since The Hydrologic Cycle and Drought Impact
The winds have moisture with them, but they also pick up enhanced evaporation from Great Salt Lake [1]. The two factors then combine and the "juiced up" air mass heads for the mountains and is lifted [2]. We have a unique situation because we have an abrupt high mountain range directly behind a large body of water. They align in the path of prevalent winds during the precipitation cycle. As the air mass is lifted, it's cooled and when it's cooled, we get precipitation -- in the summertime rain [3a] and the wintertime snow [3b]. Rainfall then runs off (or the snow does later in springtime) into the mountain creeks [4]. These creeks may have smaller impoundments [5] that preserve some of this runoff for release at a later date. Irrigated agriculture derives much of its water from these creeks with their limited storage [6]. Thus irrigated agriculture does have some ability to withstand a drought. But much of the irrigated agriculture that takes its water from surface streams has now been severely impacted for a couple of years. Similarly, municipalities obtain much of their water from mountain streams [7]. About 35 percent of the population of the State of Utah depends exclusively on surface water for its water supply, mostly in the smaller communities. Some major cities do the same. This water must be treated [8] before it can be distributed for consumption. Many of you have seen the water treatment plant at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon - a classic case. The treated water is piped to the urban residents and businesses for use [9]. After the cities use water, they send it to the wastewater treatment plant [11], where it's treated and discharged back into the river [12]. Along the Wasatch Front virtually all rivers flow into the Great Salt Lake . Very little re-use of treated wastewater takes place there. Additional supplies that cities have are ground water aquifers. Many of our municipalities rely on groundwater wells [10] for a significant part of their water supply. Finally, originating in the Uinta Mountains are major rivers [13]: the Provo River , the Ogden River , and the Bear River , each of which flows into a large impoundment [14]. Deer Creek and Jordanelle Reservoirs are located on the Provo River . From these large reservoirs pipelines convey water to the cities [15]. You can see why cities are a lot more resilient, more drought resistant, than some of the other water users.
Finally, the least impacted are our cities and towns, because they have so many types of water supply, including the creeks, small impoundments, diversions from the larger creeks and rivers, large reservoirs and groundwater supplies. Combined, these sources provide long-term drought insulation. Generally, only hydrological drought has significant impacts on cities. Some Drought Comparisons
Flood costs are only about a third of that total and those due to hurricanes only about a sixth. So that puts droughts and their impacts right at the forefront of all our natural disasters. Nationally, the most recent extreme drought event was in the late 1980s. We had severe drought throughout much of the United States . The costs of that were pegged at somewhere around $40 billion. That's a sizeable chunk of change. The worst recorded drought was either in the 1930s or in the 1800s. The problem we encounter in trying to compare the impacts of droughts from the 1800s with those that take place today, is that it is like trying to compare the baseball pitching records of the 1920s with those of 2002. It's an entirely different game now. It's played differently than it was before, although we still have four bases, nine players, a pitcher, a catcher, and a batter. Similarly, it is difficult to make meaningful economic comparisons between widely separated periods of time. I would like to quote couple of accounts of events that took place in the 1870s: Want and privation were more widespread on the upper Midwest and central prairie frontier during 1874 and 1875 than at any other time during the settlement of that region. Even with the combined efforts of private relief, county and state aid, and federal help, there was untold suffering. Many of the men left home in search of work, leaving their wives and children alone, fearful, and in dire need. Army investigators found home after home where the mother and children were facing cold and hunger, hopefully awaiting word from the absent husband and father, or praying that help would come from some relief agency. The women displayed almost unbelievable courage in face of the most terrible circumstances. Reports of those who handled relief are filled with statements describing how women refused to give up. One little girl told an army officer that her father believed the family would starve when the present supply of flour was exhausted. But she quoted her mother as saying: ‘God will take care of us.’ During the next few months the army distributed 1,957,108 rations to 107,535 adults and children in Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Colorado. Although there was not enough food to provide each needy person with a 30-day supply, in many cases this help seemed to be the difference between life and death. Sufferers in Kansas received more than half the total amount of food distributed. A farmer from Reno County wrote Governor Osborn that his family of six had drawn rations for 20 days, including 25 pounds of corn meal, 18 pounds of pork, and 3 pounds of beans. On February 6, 1874, a single girl, Jennie Flint, of Murray Centre, Minnesota, wrote to Governor Davis that she must apply for assistance for herself and her 71-year-old father “. . . as we are here in this far western country and very poor withall. We have no money nor nothing to sell to get any more clothes with as the grasshoppers destroyed all of our crops what few we had for we have not much land broke yet as we have no team of our own we have to hire one in order to get it worked what little we have to sow so you see it is rather hard on us to hire so much and get along. We managed to raise a few potatoes and some corn and a little buckwheat and that is all we have to depend upon. We are very bad off for bedding not having but two quilts and two sheets in the house and have to make them serve for two beds. We have to use our clothing that we wear on the beds to keep us from suffering with the cold and then it [is] most impossible to keep warm for our house is so open. . . . we have not got our house plastered as yet only on the outside with mud could not get any lime to do it with for we had no money nor could not get any. We almost perish here sometimes with the cold. . . . Now if you will be so kind as to send us some bedding and clothes and yarn to knit us some stockings with we have no wool nor yarn. Or send us some money so we can get them ourselves we would be thankful.”
Out of the past 100 years there were nineteen years in which there was extreme drought throughout much of the Great Basin . In other words, on the average, about one
Another interesting fact is that in 100 years of record, from 1896 to 1995, each and every year some part of the United States had drought (see chart, next page). Looking at the percentage of the area of the US that had severe and extreme drought going back to 1895, I would pick the period of 1920-1940 as being one of the worst.
Source: National Drought Mitigation Center
The figure at the right represents a longer-term historical view of the 100 years from 1895 to 1995. The darker colors show the time that the Palmer Drought Severity Index was greater than three (3.0). There are places, particularly in Wyoming and Colorado , where this has occurred twenty percent or more of the time. From There & Then to Here & Now The current national situation is not good, as shown in the figure below . Red covers virtually everything from California to Iowa and from the Canadian border to Mexico , and it is severe. We are experiencing some monumental impacts.
What about Utah ? We are right in the middle of the "red blob." The current drought has been called (by KSL and the Deseret News) “the worst ever.” Most stream flows in the state are now down to around the ten percent level, with some less than one percent. Three towns, including Park Valley , Oak City and Ponderosa Ranch are hauling in water. If it continues into next year, there will be more communities that will be in similar situations. The negative result is that ranchers are liquidating their herds. The problem is that they are getting bottom dollar for their livestock. In late August and early September, they were selling about twenty-five hundred animals a week. Most of them were not getting out of the animals what they had actually put into them, much less making a profit. It is the end of the road for many of them.
In early 1936, drought covered the entire state and, in terms of its intensity and duration, it had greater than a 25-year recurrence interval. What do you know? In the mid-1950s, less than twenty-five years later, we experienced another 25-year recurrence drought. Then, in the 1970s, again less than twenty-years later, we sustained another 25-year drought throughout much of the state. It is something that we should take notice of! Drought occurs periodically and it does have some adverse long-term impacts. As I mentioned previously, surface water provides a great deal of the water supply in the state. It is estimated that 81 percent of the state's off-stream water originates as surface water and about 35 percent of the state's population relies strictly on surface supplies for domestic supply. That is one of the reasons that, even though we do have reservoirs and wells, if this drought continues for another year, we are going to be seeing some serious municipal water supply shortages. How We Use Water The biggest inside water users are toilets – twenty-six percent. Next are clothes washers – twenty-two percent. Almost fifty percent of inside water is consumed by toilet and clothes washer use. Another area that really impacts your usage is that of indoor plumbing leaks that can average about fourteen percent of the water that flows through your meter. So, the inefficiencies of your internal system - leaky washers, faucets that are left on and things of that nature - use a significant amount of water. Right now, the typical American household washer uses forty-five gallons in a cycle of wash. That's a lot of water. (More on this subject later) We, in Utah , have been accused of using water excessively. The United States Geological Survey indicated that we are usually first or second in the United States in per capita water consumption and that our total usage is 321 gallons per capita per day (gpcd). The way the numbers are reported, our usage appears to be blatantly excessive; however, their numbers include all the water used in our homes, inside and outside, and in commerce, industry, parks, golf courses and other uses. The total water use is then divided by the number of people. We would expect the number to be large, especially knowing that we pour a lot of water on our lawns, parks and golf courses. But is it excessive? The Utah Division of Water Resources (UDWR), in an independent study along the Wasatch Front, found indoor use to be about sixty-eight to seventy gallons per capita per day. Outdoor use averaged 115 gallons per capita per day. So the residential total of The USGS found that our outside water use is 143 gallons per capita per day. By itself this number sounds enormous, but is it? Almost all of our outdoor water use is for irrigating our landscaping -- sod, flowers, etc. We have very high evapo-transpiration rates in Utah and consequently high irrigation requirements. In order to assess the reasonableness of residential outdoor water use in Utah , we used the following approach: “Take an average size lot (which at the time of the survey was about three-tenths of an acre); it has about 0.16-acre of landscaping. Apply a reasonable amount of water to that. Divide by the average number of persons per household.” The result: it adds up to about 140 gallons per capita per day. So, although the 143 gpcd seems high (and is high), given our average lot size at the time, it was a reasonable use of water. On the other hand, we really must change some traditional thinking -- both the average lot size and how we landscape and irrigate. Water used for institutional and open spaces -- parks, golf courses, churches, cemeteries, etc -- amounts to another 45 gpcd. That figure compares to one the USGS said was 55. We think the two numbers are pretty close. From the USGS total of 268 gpcd, we can account for 253 gpcd in these use sectors. We can't reliably estimate commercial and industrial water use since it depends upon the location and we would have to go out and review every water user in the state. We believe that for the lifestyle we have, the type of homes and the size of lots we have, we have used water reasonably. Given the physical circumstances and community standards of the times, we do not believe that water usage in Utah has been excessive. A more recent UDWR study showed that residential water use has dropped down to about 183 gallons per capita per day. Thus, we are seeing that some water conservation is already taking place. To help achieve further reductions, the governor has put together a water conservation team whose goal is to reduce water use by twenty-five percent in the municipal and industrial sectors. Water Conservation One of the areas where we can really save is the toilet. Replacing old toilets can save water - lots of water. A recent Seattle study measured water use in single-family homes before and after installation of high-efficiency toilets. About half the toilets installed were standard 1.6 gallon per flush (gpf) models. The other half were dual-flush toilets that offer a 0.8 gallon flush for liquid and a 1.6 gallon flush for solids.
Clothes washers are also important. Replacing your old clothes washer with a new high-efficiency model can save water - lots of water. Clothes washers are typically the largest indoor water users after toilets. The Seattle study measured water use in single-family homes both before and after installation of high-efficiency clothes washers. Three different makes and models of clothes washer were tested, all three saved water
We also ought to take a look at what we are doing outside, because we currently over water our yards to the extent of about forty percent - a tremendous water loss. How might we reduce our usage in this area? Technology has some answers. Landscape Irrigation Technology
Communication and Publicity
Another excellent water conservation example is Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah . The new turf installed over the summer in the stadium is not really grass! In fact, it is a revolutionary synthetic grass called “Field Turf.” The surface looks so much like real grass it can fool fans and players alike. But while Field Turf looks like grass, there is one important difference -- it takes absolutely no water to maintain. That's a big savings for the University and the State of Utah . When the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium had a natural grass surface, 2.4 million gallons of irrigation water were applied during the last twelve-month period . I commend the University of Utah for having taken this bold technological step forward and replacing the grass with Field Turf. The university also has several other water conservation projects underway. Wastewater reclamation needs to be seriously considered. Others have already done so -- extensively. California leads the nation in wastewater reclamation technology. One of the obstacles is the use of certain words. For example, “Toilet to Tap” is not exactly something you want to talk about at breakfast. And, in fact, that is not what happens, but sometimes the media get carried away with what they publish or broadcast and we have to live with it. In Utah , the approach should be as follows: rename the wastewater treatment facility “the water reclamation facility” and make some additional investments in processes and treatments. We should recover the water and, instead of dumping it into a stream and allowing it to run right back into the Great Salt Lake , reclaim it for a variety of non-potable uses in our communities. One of the challenges is that wastewater reclamation requires more processes and it requires transmission pipes to deliver it to the locations of reuse. These projects cost money. There is a seasonal water demand in Utah that is not experienced in California , at least not to our extent. There are also some reclaimed water-quality issues, but wastewater reclamation is a direction that we must go. We need to seriously consider it and we can learn a lot from California .
The Irvine Ranch Water District is also practicing major wastewater reclamation; about twenty percent of their total water supply now comes from reclaimed wastewater and is a large chunk of their water supply need. It helps them reduce their imports. Eighty percent of all business and community landscaping is now irrigated with reclaimed wastewater. They are also supplying about a thousand acres of irrigated agriculture: fields and orchards planted with a variety of fruits and vegetables. I think it is a classic good example of what can happen. The Irvine Ranch has also added filtration to polish the treated effluent. The effluent is pumped to a dual media filter where it flows down through anthracite coal to remove some of the dissolved organics. This process is an engineered mimic of what happens in nature; all they do is concentrate the natural process and speed it up. When the water leaves the filters, more than ninety-nine percent of all contaminants have been removed.
Orange County Water District has their version of wastewater reclamation in Water Factory 21 . They have even taken the process a couple of steps farther. In addition to the steps that are being taken at Irvine Ranch, Orange County has installed reverse osmosis that not only will reduce the mineral content, but also ninety percent of the smaller organic contaminants. Ninety percent of the total dissolved solids - organic and inorganic - are removed. In 1990, IRWD sought to move from a traditional flat rate structure to meet a variety of District needs and goals. Because of drought, IRWD faced an increasing need to conserve water to meet state and regional water usage cutback goals. Reductions in water imports were a stark reality. Furthermore, wholesale price increases were imminent. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California planned price increases or “new demand charges” for higher than historical use. If supply quantities were not reduced, the costs for increases were expected to jump substantially. There were also some significant political issues. The elected IRWD Board wanted to break the historical dilemma of requesting customer conservation that resulted in realizing reduced revenue from the demand reduction and subsequently having to raise water rates. The district, after a thorough study, developed a Residential Allocation Protocol. The residential allocation is based on indoor water demand (gallons per capita per day) and outside water need (evapo-transpiration rate over the size of the landscape area). Adding the indoor and outdoor numbers together makes the residential allocation. Water bills are based on the residential customer's actual water usage compared to the residential allocation. Consumers can use as much as they want, but the costs escalate rapidly as the residential allocation threshold is passed. The following table shows the billing rate multiples for the various usage tiers.
The results have been significant and impressive. Residential water use dropped nineteen percent initially and leveled off at a twelve percent reduction with the adoption of the water budgets and incentive rate structure (compared to 1990 use). Landscape water use has decreased fifty-four percent. Over 85,000 acre feet of water has been saved by landscape meters in seven years (1991-98). Saving landscape water has resulted in $35 million in avoided imported water purchases by the agency (customer savings). You and I can have a positive and meaningful impact on water conservation and drought mitigation. It is a wonderful example of the citizen activist achieving good things for the community. Furthermore, the list of categories is not extensive and you can use your own judgment as to which specific things you want to do. The main choices are: 1. Conserve at home -- indoors and outdoors. 2. Promote conservation with your neighbors and friends. 3. Support programs that promote Conservation and Smart Growth. 4. Log on to the Internet for additional information. Home ConservationLook around your home. Do you have the older toilets with the larger flush tanks? Consider replacing these water wasters with newer low-flush or dual-flush units. They look much nicer, too. What about your washing machine? Wouldn't a nice low-water use machine with front loading be an improvement? There may even be rebate programs available through your local water department. Additionally, check for leaks . Leaks can waste an incredible amount of water, and it's a total waste . Now, check your landscape irrigation system. It is automatic? Most are. How often do you set the schedule to actually meet the evapo-transpiration needs of your landscaping? Plant needs vary substantially during the season and the really hot period only lasts for about six weeks. If you have questions about this, call your water department and ask for help. Most departments have landscaping and/or water conservation specialists that can provide a wealth of information and practical assistance. If not, they can usually refer you to someone who can help. Conservation Promotion The Utah Division of Water Resources - www.conservewater.utah.gov The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District - www.jvwcd.com KSL-TV - www.ksl.com
For information on Smart Growth visit the Envision Utah web page at: www.envisionutah.com
Conclusion In the 1870s, John Wesley Powell conducted an extensive natural resources survey of the West. His remarkable observations included the following, which he reported to Congress: “Much of this vast area [west of the green swath, below] is suited for grazing, but unfit for dry farming.”
Railroad and land companies, town-site promoters and all types of speculators considered Powell a troublesome ignoramus who had better stick to his books. Unfortunately, the provisions of the Homestead Act were continued onto the Great Plains and the misery endured by many of the homesteaders was monumental. Drought was not only a problem, it was a killer. And, it was not unpredicted, just conveniently ignored. We face similar resource limitation problems today. As we have seen, it's both an issue of average supply and an equal issue of the variability of supply, of which drought is a classic example. Characteristically, we tend to ignore both if they might restrict our perceived standard of living requirements. Thus the socio-economic factors must be acknowledged if we ever hope to be able to deal with drought and similar natural disasters. In California , a recent piece of legislation, and the subsequent commercial “bellyaching,” illustrates this point very nicely. The bill regulates greenhouse gases from cars and will include light commercial vehicles in the future. Many scientists say greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, contribute to global warming, which can alter crop yields, water supplies and ecosystems. The evidence is incontrovertible, in my opinion. We simply must cut down on the emission of these gases. The automobile industry opposed California 's new law and responded by stating: " It will force the industry to design vehicles that are smaller, lighter, more expensive and less powerful, and reduce consumer choice." Shades of the 1870s! I can't imagine a worse situation than “reduced consumer choice.” We're all in this together and we need to focus on those things that will enhance and support quality of life - and it's not necessarily quantity and consumption. We really need to pay attention to the world around us and its sustainability and not withdraw into a make-believe utopia where we think we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it, just because technology has provided another “drive up lane.” Quality of life is not a “fast food” category. |
We are currently experiencing a severe drought in Utah and throughout the Western United States . It's very extensive. It has lasted a long time - about four years, and the forecasts are not reassuring. It's been compared to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Although the old records are sparse, it probably equals, in many respects, some of the bad droughts that occurred in the 1800s. Outside of the fact that we know it's a drought by our experiences, how do we precisely define it? A drought, in a sense, is like illness. So you're sick: What are the symptoms? What are the prognoses? What are you going to do about it? The drought problem is very similar, because there are many facets. 
very much of here in Utah , but has seen extensive technological development in Southern California . I will discuss modern lifestyles and how they affect our view of this phenomenon of drought: how might we modify our lifestyles so that we can better accommodate drought in the future, and better achieve the things that we want to accomplish as a society? I will also review economic incentives and disincentives associated with water conservation. It's nice to have everybody cooperating on a volunteer basis, but sometimes you have to resort to the pocketbook to really make water conservation work. 
Farmers and politicians call Utah 's fourth straight year of below average snowpack a disaster. But a University of Utah political science professor who writes on Western water issues says that ignores a simple fact, “Deserts are supposed to be dry. It is a mistake to talk about drought as a crisis,” says Dan McCool. “We are always in a drought. That is a definition of a desert. It is ignoring that Utah is a desert, and that's causing the problem.” 
affected by drought. Why is this? It is because soil moisture tends to get depleted so fast that it can affect everything from the germination of the seed, to the development of the immature plant, to plant maturation, to the growth of the fruiting body on the plant, to the harvest. So you can't just say, "Things are dry, and, therefore, it affects the crops." It really depends on the degree of dryness and what stage the crop is in. But you know what? It really doesn't make that much difference when it's as dry as it is, for as long as it's been, for many of the farmers here in Utah . It's the end of the road for many of them. The game is over.
1977, maybe even longer than that. That's roughly a twenty-five-year span - what these drought intervals tend to be. It is beginning to pose problems for the people who rely on these reservoirs. Guess what? That's us. We live in the Salt Lake City urban area and Deer Creek is one of our principle water supplies. So urban users are frequently the largest group impacted by hydrological drought. 
The most severely impacted by agricultural drought are the “dry farmers” and their grazing lands. They get whatever water falls out of the sky and when it doesn't come, they dry up. We have a lot of dry farming in Utah and those people have essentially been put out of business. The next to be impacted, moderately so, are those in irrigated agriculture, because they rely on creeks and small impoundments that don't have a lot of capacity to carry them over in multi-year droughts. 
Not necessarily because the drought was more intense than many others on record, but because the duration on that event definitely exceeded ten years and caused a lot of misery and suffering. It encompassed the “Dust Bowl” years of the mid-1930s. The data indicates that drought probably started in the mid-1920s and extended right up to 1940. Then there was the drought that dominated the 1950s, which most of us don't remember and, as mentioned above, the event of the late 1980s. We can also see the current drought starting in 1997 or 1998.
In addition to the drought impact, fires, particularly the ones that raged in the Uintas, scared off tourism to an estimated extent of about $50 million. Randy Julander, the Utah snow guru who generally is not prone to give dire predictions, did predict today's drought. In fact, he believes that we are in the worst drought (from a physical and a hydrological standpoint) that we have ever seen and it is likely we may see more of it next year (2003). There were three particularly bad times in Utah , as summarized in the graphic below. 
One of the several advanced technology studies under way is being conducted by the Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) in Southern California . This study is testing a prototype landscape irrigation controller that can provide weather-based irrigation adjustments via a broadcast signal at a reasonable cost. The field trials were in Irvine , California , in forty selected single-family homes served by IRWD. Each home's existing automatic irrigation controller was removed and replaced with the new test apparatus. The irrigation schedule for these homes was controlled via a remote satellite signal. The controllers were able to reduce total household water consumption by roughly thirty-seven gallons per household per day, representing a sixteen percent reduction in estimated outdoor use.
Mark Eubank, Chief Meteorologist for KSL-TV, also deserves kudos. Mark is not only a professional meteorologist, but he also understands how to communicate weather-related features to the average person. He's been able to interpret this drought, communicate it to people, talk about water conservation, and publicize it in terms that people respond to and can understand. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for Mark and his efforts. 
The figure shows the results of our conservation efforts this year and you've seen this chart during Mark's weather forecast on Channel Five. This year has been drier than last year. In normal circumstances we would have been expected to use more water than we did last year. In fact, this year as of about the first of September, we have used seven percent less water than we did last year. All of these water conservation publicity efforts have really paid off so far, and we can't revert to our old habits.
The Whittier Narrows Plant was one of the first water reclamation facilities in California . When it first came on line in 1962, I had the privilege of working at this facility doing some special research for the University of California . Originally, it was a standard primary and secondary wastewater treatment plant. It had physical treatment and biological treatment. The treated wastewater was disinfected and applied to spreading grounds to replenish the groundwater. All the “residuals” were put back into the sewer and sent down to the original treatment plant at the end of the main sewer line. They have now added tertiary treatment and additional processes and are still reclaiming the treated wastewater; however, California 's requirements have become a lot more stringent. In order to recharge groundwater with reclaimed wastewater now, it must be put through these tertiary processes.
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