Colorado and the West is running out of water . . . (Denver: leases, house)

[CosmicWizard]

tfox wrote:

We need not eliminate grass altogether

Grass is OK with me too as long as it does not requires ANY irrigation. Watering lawns in a dry climate ought to be a mortal sin punishable by eternal damnation in hell.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

tfox wrote:

We need not eliminate grass altogether

Grass is OK with me too as long as it does not requires ANY irrigation. Watering lawns in a dry climate ought to be a mortal sin punishable by eternal damnation in hell.

So I guess you guys don't believe in personal property rights?

[McGowdog]

God, I love sin.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

God, I love sin.

LOL No comment

[RangerDuke08]

The planet is running out of drinkable water!

Planet is running out of clean water, new film warns - CNN.com

[CosmicWizard]

Josseppie wrote:

So I guess you guys don't believe in personal property rights?

I think you are jumping to conclusions. What I said is that, watering lawns in a dry climate is a crime against nature IMO. It has nothing to do with property rights. It's simply common sense. Not much rain from the sky...don't waste it by watering a lawn.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

Josseppie wrote:

So I guess you guys don't believe in personal property rights?

I think you are jumping to conclusions. What I said is that, watering lawns in a dry climate is a crime against nature IMO. It has nothing to do with property rights. It's simply common sense. Not much rain from the sky...don't waste it by watering a lawn.

True. And I always wonder why no one faults farming in a dry climate either. Just because farmers were here 125 years ago doesn't cut any ice with me. The ORIGINAL abomination was the land rush of the late 1800's, where land was free and all you had to do was stake it out and farm it. Talk about greedy developers! The original sin was sticking a steel plow into drygrass prairie and begin pumping water to grow stuff. All those quaint spinning windmills that we recall from the old western movies are what sucked the easy water out of the topmost layers of soil, and there were ditches and canals and river diversions where that was easier. Electric power pumps made getting deeper water easier. Some areas were so dry that the old dry-land farmers would often turn over the soil to keep a couple inches of snow from evaporating, they'd plow the snow under to lock it in the soil. Many of those early farmers simply could not make a go of it in a dry climate and left for greener pastures (literally), became miners or went back to the cities from whence many came to end up working in a factory in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The fact that many homesteaders went broke trying to farm in dry western climates is testament to the bad idea that it was then, and may still be today.

Of course back then you grew food locally, even though the railroads could haul some stuff around, produce did not ship too well or too far before the days of refrigerated rail cars. So I understand some farming in the region, but not the wholesale carving up of vast prairies for typical back east style farming, it was the original sin of the early developers of the land and has been eating up water resources for 125 years. It was no more intelligent than those dudes who shot the buffalo nearly to extinction, and who shot the American Passenger Pigeon into extinction.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Of course back then you grew food locally, even though the railroads could haul some stuff around, produce did not ship too well or too far before the days of refrigerated rail cars. So I understand some farming in the region, but not the wholesale carving up of vast prairies for typical back east style farming, it was the original sin of the early developers of the land and has been eating up water resources for 125 years. It was no more intelligent than those dudes who shot the buffalo nearly to extinction, and who shot the American Passenger Pigeon into extinction.

I agree with you on this. I find dryland "sod-busting" in unsuitable areas every bit as obnoxious as many forms of real estate development. There are irresponsible agriculturalists out there, too, unfortunately. As you correctly note, Mike, Mother Nature forced many of those irresponsible farmer types off of the land. Were Nature only able to do that to the irresponsible types who are raping the land today in the name of "suburbia."

As to Jose's comment about "personal property rights," two things:

1. Just because you can afford it doesn't make it right.
2. Your right to swing your fist ends at the end of my nose. No right is absolute.

[Josseppie]

If the day comes that Pueblo runs low on water I would consider cutting back my water use but given how much we have and how much we are buying even the most optimistic projections of growth show that Pueblo will have more then enough water for the next 100 years!

I guess that is one of the benefits for living in a city that has remained stagnant since the 1960's, that has allowed the city to keep buying water rights for a increasing population while the cities population has not grown as much. Thus giving Puebloans more water to use then the average person in other cities.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

If the day comes that Pueblo runs low on water I would consider cutting back my water use but given how much we have and how much we are buying even the most optimistic projections of growth show that Pueblo will have more then enough water for the next 100 years!

I guess that is one of the benefits for living in a city that has remained stagnant since the 1960's, that has allowed the city to keep buying water rights for a increasing population while the cities population has not grown as much. Thus giving Puebloans more water to use then the average person in other cities.

But if the city does NOT grow, as it's boosters visualize, that water will be a good item to sell to others for a profit, eh.