California Faces Loss of Colorado River Water

© 2003 Wendy Dager

S&S Provides Low Water Use Plant Solutions

                Interior Secretary Gale Norton has spoken: California is going to lose access to precious Colorado River water.

        "The issue is not whether but when California will live within its apportionment," said Norton in a speech at the Colorardo River Water Users Association. "If specific California agencies choose not to adopt agreements necessary for the gradual, voluntary reductions contemplated under the plan developed by the seven Colorado River Basin states, California will lose access to extra Colorado River water."

        California water agencies were asked to sign an agreement saying the state would reduce its Colorado River water use by 2015. Because the document was not signed, restrictions ordered by Norton came into effect January 1, 2003.

        We had a feeling this would happen. In fact, we've been talking for years about California's overuse of water. California has been routinely overdrafting its use of Colorado River Water by 30 percent, in part because of its growing population.
(See the Best of the Leaf-let,
"California Water Woes," http://www.albrightseed.com/californiawater.htm,
"Ignoring Limits of Water Use," http://www.albrightseed.com/waterlimits.htm,
and "Water Shortages," http://www.albrightseed.com/water.htm.)

        It has been predicted that the state's population will double to 60 million residents by the year 2040, which means there will be a lot more new housing. Which, in turn, means even more water usage than before. This may prove to be a serious problem, since California is now slated to be cut off from what is considered its excess allocation of Colorado River water.

        "But it's really not excess," said S&S Seeds' Paul Albright. "It's what we need, because California has built so much, and will continue to build in industry and urban development-requiring that much more water."
        The natural solution to this problem is to create landscapes that use less water. At S&S Seeds, we can offer our customers an array of low-water use products for many different applications.

        "There are many large turf areas, such as parks, that don't need to have a perfect turfgrass that's irrigated year-round, so water use can be lowered even further by planting summer dormant grasses," said Paul. "We recommend San Diego Bent grass, Idaho fescue, and Molate Red fescue. These are grasses that have evolved in California's Mediterranean climate-and got along just fine before man even got here!"

        As a lawn substitute, and for minimum maintenance grass and flower ground cover, Paul also suggests S&S's Meadow View Mix, a low, slow-growing mix of grass, legumes and flowers for a suburban meadow look, perfect for housing developments, parks, and outlying areas of golf courses. It provides low growth and color splashes for areas where the low, unmown look is preferred.

        "This is the Golden State, so we're actually supposed to be brown in the summer. But since not everyone wants that, these grasses can be irrigated to stay green in the summer," said Paul. "They can be maintained year-round, using only 10 percent the amount of water that's used on irrigated turf. The caveat is that they're not going to look as lush, but they do make a good, functional dust cover-providing erosion control and saving water."

        For more information about our low-water use products, give us a call at S&S Seeds, (805) 684-0436, or check out our searchable database,
http://www.ssseeds.com/database.

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