by KArBill

Created on: October 06, 2009   Last Updated: October 09, 2009

According to the EPA, Americans average use of fresh water is 151.9 gallons per day while average European use is 66 gallons per day. We use most of that water on our cars and lawns and other outdoor activities. We are by far the biggest water wasters on the planet. While we insist on the water conveniences, behind the scenes, the availability of clean, safe drinking water is in jeopardy and it is not something that will happen in 2050; it is happening now.

Storm water runoff, farm and agricultural runoff along with antiquated infrastructures combine to progressively degrade water quality. Cities like Las Vegas, built in the desert with no natural water supply, must receive water from Lake Mead which is supplied by the Colorado River. As a result of the water abuses in Las Vegas, Lake Mead, as of 2007, is 100 feet below normal and shrinking.

The Colorado River has its own issues with wars over water rights between ...states. Indigenous people all along the river down to California, Mexico are vying for rights and are severely affected by the accumulated pollution in the river as it flows south.

The Navaho Nation has sued or water rights to the Colorado- http://www.tlc-aaea.org/azwater/awr/marapr03/feature 2.html

Acid rain produced by the smoke produced from fires, coal-fired plants add to the degradation of available surface water and also get into the ground water. The acidity raised because of sulphuric compounds dissolved in the water severely harms and kills sea life, damaging the livelihoods of those who rely on the sea. The increase of dust storms around the globe due to climate change and drought is also making major contributions to polluting the extremely limited supply of available drinking water.

"In the eight years President Bush has been in office, the Colorado River watershed has seen more oil and gas drilling than at any time since 1984, when the government began keeping such statistics. Uranium claims have reached a 10-year high."

http://www.kumeyaay.info/cocopah.html?http%3A//www.k umeyaay.info/cocopah/indigenous_water_rights.html

There is also the ominous threat to our drinking water from the thousands of dams and levees around, some over 150 years old are in dire need of upgrade or repair. There are also smaller private dams that have been abandoned. One of the nastiest threats are coal ash dams. The threat and hazards of coal ash and the earthen dams and fill ponds that hold this highly combustible and toxic sludge are coast t coast where

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