Sound Politics: Getting Soaked, and Loving It

December 23, 2005

Getting Soaked, and Loving It

America is the land of opportunity, red meat, shooting ranges, and spa showers. But that last part has City of Seattle officials upset. The Seattle Times reports today on water waste worries emanating from the city's water czars.

The city is asking the federal Department of Energy to impose sanctions on two custom-showerhead manufacturers, but DOE isn't taking the bait. Myself, I still have a vivid picture of the big fountain behind City Hall overflowing onto a stack of sandbags last spring as I went to a meeting inside on drought and water conservation. There's water aplenty in Western Washington, we just have to get serious about regional water supply planning. Feel-good exercises within city limits don't really address that.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 23, 2005 07:24 AM | Email This

Comments

1. WE HAVE BEEN SOAKED FOR YEARS BY THE PC POWERS TO BE ...NOW THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY THE ONLY SOAKING THAT WE DON'T MIND!!!

Posted by: TACOMA PHLASH on December 23, 2005 07:56 AM

2. Another shining example of Seattle leaders' "do as I say, not as I do" attitude.

Posted by: katomar on December 23, 2005 08:08 AM

3. We are using one of the six-headed ones in our new house. But we are on a good well and the water goes back into the ground after treatment.

But I read the blog comment on the 'regional water supply planning' reference; you expect Gregoire to exert leadership? When she was at Ecology she got water rights and use so screwed up, it is still screwed up. She diverted expert people to other sections in her agency and then had the audacity to tell the legislature she needed more money because she didn't have any experts. And (get this) she needed more money.

Posted by: swatter on December 23, 2005 09:00 AM

4. Well timed article, i read as rain was pouring down.

Only in moss infested left coast could you have 9 months of rain plus a water shortage.

Dam up a few more rivers, game over. Hydro for all.

Posted by: righton on December 23, 2005 09:05 AM

5. RIGHT ON, RIGHTON

Posted by: TACOMA PHLASH on December 23, 2005 09:21 AM

6. It really should be embarrassing to be complaining about water in Puget Sound, when folks in Central Texas (Edwards Aquifer), AZ, and such have REAL concerns for water supplies. North Texas is over a foot below it's annual rainfall.

I'm not sure what city could rival Seattle for being so self-absorbed and so insulated, but I'm sure there is one.

Posted by: Danny on December 23, 2005 09:33 AM

7. The twisted busybodies in the City administration will suffer terrible anguish until the showerheads can only piddle feebly on our frustrated ablutions.

Should the opportunity arise, said busybodies will find our counter-piddlings anything but feeble.

Posted by: Hank Bradley on December 23, 2005 12:58 PM

8. Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure.

We ignore it at our own peril and those consequences have economic impacts that lower our standards of living and yes, tree-huggers, imperil our ability to protect (invest in the environment). It's not just our water supply, it's our inability to construct more general purpose roads or grow electrical generating capacity. Advances in technology will require vast amounts of electricity.

Only in the oh so progressive Washington would we have water shortages in one of the wettest areas of the world and have two shuttered nuclear power plants in Microsoft central.

Posted by: Gary B on December 24, 2005 12:08 PM

9. Those shower heads look awesome, I need to get a couple. I would like to thank the Seattle Times and the City of Seattle for pointing those out. First thing they've done to help me in a LONG time.

Water will always be a problem for a growing population. Now tackle the real issue!

Posted by: Mike K on December 24, 2005 09:39 PM

10. Don't take water from Okanogan county. Seattle and DC are already putting the farms and ranches out of buisness, along with illigally taking the waterrights of my town, Twisp. (About 1920 or something they didn't file the propper paperwork. THey filed them every other year. In 99 they took a chunk of the water rights.)

Posted by: Sailorette on December 25, 2005 12:52 PM

11. As an avid hiker and backpacker, I bemoan the waste of huge amounts of water and other resources on f***ing golf courses!

Posted by: John425 on December 27, 2005 11:17 AM