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Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

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The growing water crisis is giving rise to a flood of books. In few areas of human enquiry is the ratio between those who know something and those who have opinions so small.

In this context the book by my colleagues Peter Rogers (a professor with decades of hands-on experience in water management) and Susan Leal (who ran the San Francisco water utility) is a welcome exception. If you are looking for a in-depth discussion of water economics or engineering, this is not your book. They avoid the academic and "insider" discussions to provide descriptions that are accessible to the average reader. The book is rooted in examples of real water crises and Rogers and Leal point to clear, tested, ways that have proved effective in addressing these crises in specific contexts. They engage the reader through the use of real-world success stories to provide insights which will be helpful to other water managers in other contexts.

A friend at a local radio station loaned me this book as she knows that I am interested in ecology and the environment and thought I would enjoy it. She was right!

Running Out of Water is an engaging, thoughtful book on the water issues that we will soon be facing as a nation and the world. The book is written so that is accessible to most readers, not just those with a scientific background.

It is a positive book, given that it addresses a potentially frightening issue; at some point, sooner or later, there won't be enough clean water for everyone. The authors present a number case studies that demonstrate ways that clean water shortages can be improved and resolved.

It was wise that the authors emphasized education, awareness and creating the right incentives/disincentives as one important component to addressing this problem proactively. This approach has worked for many problems in the US, from drunk driving to recycling, so it makes sense that it would work for water.

If you want to educate yourself about water, this book will start you on the right road.

A few years ago, when we were deep in the fiction of "choosing a school" for our little monster, the director of admissions of the city's most respected girls' school asked us to describe our hopes for our daughter.

"We hope she'll be resourceful enough to be a leader in the great challenges of her time --- like the water crisis of 2025," I said.

I wish I could say the woman's expression was quizzical. I'm sorry to report that it was closer to distressed. Water crisis? What water crisis?

We slunk out. And, shrewdly, I think, withdrew our application.

The thing is, we were right to be worried about water. And 2007 was not exactly early to be concerned. But as long as Americans don't have to pull our cars up to water tanks and pay $5 a gallon for water-fuel, we're going to pay attention only to oil. And that disaster in the Gulf of Mexico --- it wasn't because a water main broke.

I have been looking for a book about water that is smart without being scholarly, concerned without sounding apocalyptic, optimistic without being unrealistic. And now it's here:

[...] Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource. The authors are Peter Rogers, Professor of Environmental Engineering at Harvard and a Fellow of the Water Resources Institute of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Susan Leal, former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

235 pages --- considering the science, that's ultra-brisk. And it's a very straightforward approach: scare the reader, share what others have done to conserve and refresh water, suggest what the reader can do. A few hours with this book, and you'll be able to dominate any party conversation about water. And, even more, you'll want to read --- and think --- more about this most precious of all liquids.

Susan Leal had considerable success in getting San Franciscans to move beyond sentimental pride in their water to actual conservation. And though she too has a Cambridge affiliation --- she's a fellow of the Advanced Leadership Institute at Harvard --- I thought she was the author I wanted to talk to. I'd bet you'll agree....

How did you get interested in water?

As a kid, I went to the Pulgas Water Temple, a monument to the project that brought water from the mountains to the city; it made quite an impression upon me. Growing up in San Francisco, school kids learn that the city was destroyed not by quake but by the fires that burned out of control because there was no water to fight them. And I had an uncle who was an engineer with the San Francisco water authority. He spoke about our water with a sense of ownership and pride.

When did you decide to get involved with the city's water?

When I was the city and country treasurer, the mayor's chief of staff asked me to take over the troubled water agency. I'm not an engineer, but I saw what was wrong --- it didn't need another engineer or scientist, it was in need of management and financial expertise --- and I thought I had the background and experience to fix it.

As the book explains --- with unusual restrain and modesty --- you did. Now that you're an expert witness, tell me: Which is the bigger crisis, oil or water?

Water, definitely. When I talk to people, I start by saying, 'You know, it's the same water since the beginning of time.' They ask: 'What do you mean?' I say: 'We're using the same water --- just recycled. Water is finite. How we treat it affects the quality of all of our water in the future.' And I go on to say: 'There is no substitute for water. Solar or alternative energies might replace oil, but there's no alternative to water.' At which point, someone says: 'Desalinization.' I say: 'Do you have any idea of the cost, the energy, the environmental impact?' They say: "But Israel...' I say: 'Israel is a small country.' And then they start to get it.

Is the urgency to deal with the water crisis increasing?

Yes, and it's kind of sad. Thirty years after the Clean Water Act, we need a Right to Know Act that lets you be informed that your beach was fouled. People forget that all the water we use, we also have to dispose of it. And often we don't properly treat it before we dispose of it into lakes, rivers and oceans--polluting the very sources of water we will need and use in the future.

Sounds almost like we're going backwards.

The basic problem: People get 30-year mortgages --- but they don't know if they'll have water for 30 years. And they don't think to ask. We're on a collision course between the increasing demand of a growing population and a finite amount of water. To make matters more complicated, we pollute the water we have and then you can add climate change into the mix. We already see the effects of climate change in the West with decreased snowpack and water shortages. On the East coast, climate change means storm surges that overwhelm the aging waste water treatment plants.

Has any stimulus money been spent on water projects?

Very little. Every year there's a $20 billion shortfall in maintaining water and waste water systems in the U.S.

Does the Obama Administration care about water?

It's a much bigger priority than in the last administration.

In 2002, Secretary of Energy Norton slashed California's water allotment from the Colorado River. That looks like the high point of government's commitment to water conservation. What was the follow-up?

On the federal level, that was one of the high points, but some individual cities and regions did take some groundbreaking action. In San Francisco, we were able to improve our aging waste water systems when we got people to pay attention. Elsewhere in California, municipalities were forced to take a harder look at how they use and reuse water, and to begin to think about solutions like using locally recycled water.

How did you get San Franciscans to pay attention?

We did a non-stop education campaign with billboards, mailers, dozens and dozens of neighborhood meetings throughout the city. We went after every demographic and age group. We even started sending a 6-foot guy dressed as a water drop to kindergartens. That worked.

How about bottled water? Were you able to slow consumption?

Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse and the "eat fresh and local" movement, was very vocal against bottled water, which helped. More recently, the economy has been a factor here --- people now see bottled water as a luxury.

At home, we use a water purifier/dispenser. What else can we do to protect ourselves?

Water utilities are required by federal law to test for contaminants and report the test results to its customers. For example, San Francisco tests its water at least 80,000 times a year. So make sure your water utility is doing ongoing testing for contaminants. If you are concerned about the pipes in your building, have your tap water tested for any contaminants. Many water utilities will test it for a nominal fee.

In some California counties, water companies are paying customers to remove their lawns. How about golf courses?

Golf courses should be using recycled wastewater, and we're seeing a trend toward that. A greater concern for me is how little individuals understand that they have a water footprint that is much larger than their daily household use. Most of us think we use 80-100 gallons a day. Wrong. Our water footprint is about 1,800 gallons a day. Like me. I love steak --- and we need 630 gallons of water for one 8 ounce steak! But now that I know that, I am a much more conscious consumer of beef and other water-intensive foods.

San Francisco pioneered restaurants and individuals collecting cooking grease that gets turned into biofuel. How hard was that?

It's difficult to get past inertia. But, once you explain the problem and make them a partner in your effort, it's much easier. People don't feel a sense of urgency. But that's one of the reasons we wrote the book --- to celebrate forward-thinking, can-do people. We hope that by describing real-world successes we will provide a road map to avert this looming crisis.

If you were buying a second home, what would you buy --- a beach house, or a house in the mountains with its own water?

The house in the mountains -- and I love the ocean. The more I know about water, the more important I feel it is to have a reliable water source.

Mark Twain once wrote: "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt" using a malapropism on the words "the Nile" (River) and the word "denial." However, the fictional River of Denial isn't located in Egypt but in California as reflected in a new book on world-wide water shortages.

Author Peter Rogers, a professor of environmental engineering and city planning at Harvard, and Susan Leal, Harvard educated former General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, have co-authored a book titled Running Out of Water (2010) with the thesis that population growth and global warming is leading to world-wide water shortages especially in California.

While I am not knowledgeable about the water crisis in the Nile River Basin in Eqypt, the Indus River in Pakistan, or the Mekong River in Vietnam, all discussed in the book, I am familiar with the water "crisis" in California (although I once almost got shot down in a helicopter over the Mekong River in a war so I do remember it quite well).

The book is a compilation of case studies of water shortages in Third World countries (by Rogers) and solutions for solving these shortages (by Leal). The solutions described are technological and educational. Leal advocates water recycling and more efficient agricultural irrigation practices as solutions based on her experience in California. But just how much water can be recycled anyway when only about 25% of California's water goes to cities, and of that only a fraction can be recycled before it evaporates or runs to the sea? And California farmers shifted to drip irrigation methods long ago. Rogers and Leal's book could be said to overreach "from the toilet" of the Mekong River "to the tap" of San Francisco (playing on the phrase "from the toilet to the tap" used to describe water recycling).

California isn't facing a water shortage as much as it is facing a shortage of management of water, land use and taxes. The California State Water Project allocates about the same amount of water today as it did in the late 1960's when the Project was completed (4 million acre feet). But California's population has gone from about 20 million to 36 million over that 40-year period, an 80% increase. So much for the water shortage-population growth thesis in Rogers' and Leals' book.

In the short term, the California Department of Water Resources does not even project a water shortfall. Instead, it has forecasted that agricultural water conservation will entirely offset urban population demands on water through 2020 (see below):

Projected Change of Statewide Water Use (1995-2020) [million acre feet]

Urban Use

1995 - 9 MAF

2020 - 12 MAF

Change: +3 MAF

Agricultural Use

1995 - 34 MAF

2020 - 31 MAF

Change: -3

Total

1995 - 43 MAF

2020 - 42 MAF

Change - 0

Source: California Department of Water Resources

California is considered a state in perpetual drought. But in 1998 - a wet year - rainfall and imports totaled 335 million acre-feet of water or enough water for 670 million urban households or about 1.675 billion people; or 335 million acres of farming. And 64% of this water went to the environment, not farms, not industry not cities or suburbs. And agriculture and industry, not urban cities, conserved 6.65 million acre-feet of water or enough for 13.3 million urban households or 6.65 million acres of farming. In a dry year in California such as 2001 there was "only" 145 million acre-feet of rainfall and imports, or enough for 290 million urban households or 145 million acres of farming (source: Cal State University Stanislaus). The problem is capture, storage and treatment, not drought, not waste, the amount of water by used agriculture, global warming, and not necessarily population growth.

The title of the book technically isn't correct either. Meteorologically, there is the same amount of water on earth as when the dinosaurs existed. Water is the most abundant molecule on earth. Technically we aren't running out of water. We may be running out of drinking water but that is primarily due to political reasons.

Fear about a crisis sells books better than knowledge. Rogers and Leal's book is an attempt to scare the public into action and awareness apparently in California, as we can only presume that the political systems of Pakistan, Egypt, and Vietnam probably wouldn't be as responsive to public involvement. But if anything California's recent failure in building new water infrastructure is attributable to political corruption more like that found in the Third World, but oddly the authors don't mention that.

In California in 2010 there is a widespread public cynicism about calls for more funding for more and more promised water projects that never materialize for political reasons, not global warming or lack of adoption of technology. California taxpayers have authorized about $40 billion in bonds for water programs in the past decade and have almost nothing to show for it. Water is a way to keep the welfare state liquid.

What Rogers and Leal's book could have better focused on is trying to reform political corruption rather trying to get the public to accept drinking "toilet water" and farmers to install drip irrigation systems that are already widespread. The California public is suffering from "water crisis fatigue." Just how much more tax money can be thrown at promised water projects that evaporate into thin air?

What Rogers and Leal could have done in their book is point out paradoxical population and land use policies that force greater reliance on imported water supplies instead of more sustainable groundwater supplies in non-coastal areas of California. Anti-urban sprawl legislation in California will divert new development to coastal cities rather than inland suburbs purportedly to reduce carbon footprints, but also to consolidate political bases and gerrymandered political districts.

Denial is a fictional river in California, not Eqypt. And like Rogers' and Leal's book, California is in a perpetual state of denial that it is mismanagement and politicized population and land use policies, not scarcity of water, money or public water education that has resulted in droughts and abandoned farms and stressed environments. But that isn't likely to be found in all the new recently published books that propound the water scarcity paradigm. List of books below:

Peter Rogers and Susan Leal, Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource, 2010.

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization, Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century Fred Pearce

Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It, Robert Glennon

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, Maude Barlow

Running Dry: A Journey from Source to Sea Down the Colorado River, Jonathan Waterman

Out of Water: From Abundance to Scarcity and How to Solve the World's Water Problems, Colin Chartres and Samyuktha Varma

Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America, Susan J. Marks

I was sent a review copy of this book (which just went on sale), and here goes:

Peter Rogers is a Professor of Environmental Engineering and Urban Planning at Harvard. Susan Leal is the former GM of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She was therefore managing SF's tap and wastewater.

Their subtitle is "the looming crisis and solutions to conserve our most precious resource," and they set out to make the case for crisis (lots of examples) and solutions (personal stories from their work).

The book has eight chapters (besides the Forward and Conclusion):

1. Turn on the tap and out comes water. An intro that says "things are going badly. Don't be scared because we have solutions..." Comes with figures of the hydrological cycle and water flow in a treatment plant, for the textbook crowd.

2. Making it last: using technology to recycle water. Starts with supply-demand imbalances in California and how recycled water (Orange County, Singapore) can be used as a source. Covers desalination and the Vegas turf removal plan. Ends with a comment on the "wasteful... agricultural industry." Uh oh...

3. Taming the big user; Improving agricultural water use. Long profile of an "efficient" Nebraska irrigator (Glock); long description of the Imperial Irrigation District (IID); description of Australia's water markets. This chapter was the first where I had WTF?! objections. IID is presented as "if IID farmers can conserve water, so can anyone," when most of that conservation is imposed on a dysfunctional district that's NOT controlled by its farmers. Rogers and Leal are too quick to assume that Glock's ideas can just be picked up (why aren't they?) or that "inefficient" irrigation "wastes" water that probably goes into groundwater. This chapter reminds me of the "do what we say, not what's profitable" attitude of the Pacific Institute reports (first, second) on ag water.

4. Wanted: public involvement. A boring recap of Leal's PR campaign to get higher rates for infrastructure repair in San Francisco. Getting people to drink NEWater (recycled water) in Singapore.

5. Valuing an extremely complicated resource leads to wise use. This chapter was the worst, by far. What's the title mean? No idea, but the Rogers and Leal's attempt to describe the economics of water is painful. It seems that they wrote down a bunch of concepts from index cards, without understanding how they fit together OR how the subtle points matters. (Any economist could have read the chapter and made corrections.) They get demand wrong ("there is a need to be able to measure the value of water to each different user," but that's impossible); private and public goods ("private goods are owned by individuals or groups; public goods are held in common," when we distinguish between the good's characteristic -- is it excludable or exhaustible -- not ownership); the use of geeky terms, which they mix up ("long term marginal costs" ARE "fixed costs"); statements of opinion as fact ("water in the mountains of Northern California is much less valuable to the local populations than the same amount used for irrigation and urban uses in Southern California" may be right from some aggregate measure, but maybe not; there's NO MARKET where these values compete, and SoCal's use is facilitated by the bureaucratic engineered works that were build 50-80 years ago); "marginal cost pricing would make water unaffordable for the poor" ARG! Damn. Stop this nonsense. I hated this chapter. Oh, and "price doesn't reduce demand, concrete specific actions by consumer do." Right. So "gas doesn't run cars, engines do"? No, wait. My foot does. No wait. Combustion does. Stop being sophistic! Damn, I've got to stop on this one.

6. Waste not, want not. Three case studies of cleaning water in Northern California (grease in SF, treatment at EBMUD, and wastewater into steam in Geysers). Nice.

7. Rivers as shared resources: transboundary conflicts and compromises. This appeared to be a summary of Rogers' work that could have been summarized in a paragraph. We don't need "five conditions for successful outcomes" when they include no duh gems like "willingness to compromise on political issues... and obtaining necessary financing"

8. Water that lasts a thousand years: Bottled water. An anti-bottled water rant from the former GM of SFPUC known for its good tap water. I'm NOT shocked, except at how silly it sounds. As in (paraphrased) "stop buying bottled water; give us that $11 billion for public water infrastructure." Oh, can I have some of that WASTED money too?

Their conclusion (So, Now What) has this howler:

"As we have seen, the farming community does not always make water efficiency its first priority. It has to be reminded that water resources are limited...legislative or regulatory enforcement provides the needed incentive [their word!] to operate more efficiently."

That sentiment (and condescension) is enough to lead me to NOT recommend this book. It's wrong and misleading and dangerous in the wrong hands (yes, they call for a federal water czar).

Bottom Line: I give this book THREE STARS, with deductions for pedantic, sometimes confusing exposition, a failure clearly explain economic ideas, and a biased POV (or narrow disciplinary POV as an engineer and urban manager) that impedes discussion with righteousness. In one sentence? Rogers and Leal reached too far; they should not be appointed czar.

Running Out of Water is a must-read for anyone concerned about the health of our planet!

This book drew me in on page one and I didn't want to put it down until i'd finished. I'm a fact and figures, business-oriented person, but I need stories to put them in context and make them meaningful...this book does all this. It's accessible for someone like me who is trying to learn the basics of our current situation, but i also bought one for my niece, an environmental engineer, because it's important that she understand how decisions are made about our precious water supply.

All the chapters weave together well to make the compelling case for action. One in particular stands out to me for positing a change in thinking that would have sweeping impact: Chapter 5, "Valuing an Extremely Complicated Resource Leads to Wise Use"...YES, LET'S DO THIS!

I like this book, Water is the world's life source and essential to all living creatures.

All of us should know about the water crisis.

This easy to read book (don't let the authors' Harvard pedigrees and public policy experience scare you) provides a great framework for understanding the complexities of water management and preservation. It has a welcomed focus on real-world solutions (not a book full of gloom and doom) that are working in the U.S., Latin America and Asia. A central theme (with interesting examples) is how exisiting technologies married to creative thinking and negotiations are making big change. As someone in the public affairs field, I found the importance and practical examples of engaging the public (from San Francisco to the poorest neighborhoods of Brazil) helpful and hopefully a good road map for public officials and managers of water utilities. Run right out and buy (or download!)this book, but don't leave the water running!

We created the looming water crisis, and this book shows that we can solve it. Not your typical "doom and gloom" expert treatise, Running Out of Water is, at its core, an optimistic book with practical, real-world solutions from around the globe.

Well-researched yet engaging for average readers (not just academics or water experts), the book makes a compelling case for action now by governments and by individual citizens as well. Solving the water crisis will require more than occasional alternate-day lawn-watering to be sure. However, as examples from the book show, solutions don't always mean massive infrastructure investments either. More than anything, water authorities need to open their minds to some "not-invented-here" ideas, and individual citizens need to hold their water authorities accountable.

Inspired by this excellent book by water experts Peter Rogers and Susan Leal, I'm sending copies to my local water authorities as well as my local and national elected representatives. I want to know what they're doing to keep our water supply safe and plentiful.

I found "Running Out of Water" to be an interesting and powerful book about why we should pay attention to water now and what we can do to prevent a global crisis. I really appreciated that it was written for the average person and didn't get too bogged down in technical details. The case studies were interesting and showed that improving water quality and water security isn't only about money - it's also about getting people to care about their local water supply and take action to protect it.