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Water is observed by many as a boundless entity that flows from the Earth’s rivers and streams into its oceans, providing a necessary resource for life.
But its quality and abundance, experts say, should not be taken for granted.
Though water makes up about 70 percent of the planet, it is in short supply in Los Angeles, said Michael Stolzenbach, a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
The exponentially growing population and arid, desert climate of Southern California are contributing to this problem.
Because of this, more than three-quarters of the water used in this region is imported in order to keep up with growing demand.
“Something has to give,” Stolzenbach said, referring to the difficulty of balancing the demand for water with the growing population.
Water quantity is becoming a more glaring problem in Los Angeles than water quality, Stolzenbach added.
After the passage of the clean water laws of the 1970s, Los Angeles has met all of the strict federal guidelines and has the safest drinking water supply in the nation, according to the L.A. Department of Water and Power.
“Water and air quality are hugely better than they were 30 years ago,” Stolzenbach said.
But, there is still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to preventing water pollution.
The condition of the oceans has been declining worldwide, according to the 2004 report released by the National Oceans Commission, said Mary Nichols, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment.
Experts agree that rainfall runoff, the movement of water as it flows downhill toward the ocean, pollutes the water significantly when trash and environmental contaminants get dragged into the oceans and beaches after it rains.
“I see people on campus dropping straws and plastic cups, not quite getting them to the proper trash receptacles,” Nichols said.
“More care has to be taken because all this trash becomes a floating mass of litter that ends up on our beaches after the rain picks it all up.”
Steps have been taken to reduce this runoff, including putting gates around drainage holes to catch litter and leading the water through ways that would cause it to be filtered before entering the ocean rather than entering untreated drainage routes.
All of these issues concerning water quality have been receiving increasing attention worldwide in past decades, but the issue of water quantity in Los Angeles got its turn in the spotlight about 10 years ago after a statewide drought urged the implementation of stricter water-conservation laws.
Nichols said mandatory low-flow devices that control the amount of water used, along with smart irrigation systems, were put in place by the L.A. Department of Water and Power to use the water supply in a more conservative manner.
“Houses cannot be sold in Los Angeles without the installation of certified low-flow toilets since the early ’90s,” Stolzenbach said.
In addition to conserving water, Stolzenbach said one of the most efficient methods for saving water is simply reusing it.
“All water is in a constant cycle of reuse,” Stolzenbach said.
“The key is to keep it in as many loops as possible.”
In this process of reclamation, or recycling, water is filtered after it is used so that it can be used again instead of being dumped back into the ocean.
“If everyone could reuse 50 percent of their water, a lot more could be conserved,” Stolzenbach added.
E3 (Ecology, Economy, Equity), an environmental campus group, reported that UCLA participates in conservation by reusing most of the water used for air conditioning and irrigation. As a result, UCLA has achieved a 21 percent reduction in water consumption since 1988.
“With every action and deliberation we make today, we need to consider the future,” said Jeff Dhungana, cochair of E3.
Dhungana stressed the need to always look years into the future and analyze the impact our actions may have on future generations.