Responsibility

There is a quote I love from John F. Kennedy.  "To whom much is given, much is expected."  I thought about that a lot today.  Today was one of those days.  "Let's just call it total lack of responsibility day."  I did not talk to one person today who wanted to take responsibility for their role in protecting and preserving our water resources.  I was astonished by conversation after conversation that treated water like it was just some commodity to be bargained down or someone else's responsibility to pay for it.  Days like today make me tired and sad.  They make me think we haven' t gotten very far down the road of helping people understand that water, especially the privileged access we have to it, is a penultimate responsibility.  We have been given much in the infrastructure, water treatment process, delivery and conveyance and reclamation processing.  It is the greatest public health discovery of the 20th century. Or as was explained to me today grossly overpriced and not worth it.

Today I actually had to explain why you could not let a toilet leak for thee years, unabated, and then ask to have all your bills for the last 3 years set back to what they would have been if you fixed the toilet.  I had engaging conversations on Linked In about pricing water, many of which ended with a final pronouncement that pricing water to account for efficiency and environmental services was an unwanted and unneeded tax.  Don't get me wrong I realize that not everyone thinks about water like me.  I am famous for saying to fellow water professionals "remember we are not real people.  Normal people don't have 3 hour dinner conversations about how per capita is a bogus metric for determining an efficient use of water for a community or the impact of micro constituents in our water sources."  Even if we aren't normal, isn't there a happy medium somewhere?  In all the noise in the world, not about water, is there some room to talk about our responsibility to protect the resource?  Is there a space to talk about preserving it for the next generation and exactly who is responsible for that?  Does it start with one person telling me they understand that they have to pay for the privilege we have been given.  That would be nice. 

Education

There is nothing quite like an existential work crisis that is precipitated by a 9 year old. This was my experience yesterday.  FYI - if you ever want to feel validated in your career do NOT turn to children for that reassurance.  We kicked off our Fall Planting Tour at a local elementary school yesterday afternoon.  This is a fun annual program we do to teach kids three primary things:

 1) Correctly selected and planted native plants require less inputs and are more suited to the environment and wildlife.  We planted Asters in their pollinator garden.
2) Water saving tips for planting and maintenance.  The kids and their parents are now armed with rain gauges and soil moisture probes.
3) The benefits of these choices and practices when we are in a drought to make plants resiliant.  Here is where the wheels came off, or I seriously questioned the career path I have been on for the last 12 + years.

I started to talk about drought and a nine year old boy immediately said, "we don't have any droughts here.  It rains."  I was a little taken aback and was getting ready to launch into my explanation of our varying climate when a classmate piped in. "We can't have droughts we had a flood a few years ago."

Okay so now you can clearly see the snowball gaining momentum down this hills.  Luckily it only crushed my self-esteem, since in those 12 years of my water career we have spent 8 in drought.    At least 4 of them in severe drought and experienced an actual water shortage.  Go me! that our citizens are so plugged in to all this!! 

It goes directly to my word: education.  These kids were 4th and 5th graders; they learned the water cycle, they studied weather, and still drought and flood can't coexist in the same region.  It is stark reminder for those of us in the industry who feel that education is some kind of feel good line item on a budget or regulatory check box to fill.  In fact education may be the only true way forward to change anything.  We have to keep engaging the public in water.  Until it is a part of their conscience we will likely struggle with funding infrastructure, nutrient loading, supply challenges, ecosystem protection, and the provision of clean water to the developing world.

Once my pride I healed, I can only thank those kids for giving me a very succinct reminder, to get out of the office, stop just crunching numbers and working on policy and get back to regularly engaging the public in the essential dialogue of water.  Maybe I will start with the guy who called to tell me he learned today that water was a limited natural resource and almost as important as oil!

Value

This is what I spent all day discussing at a high level meeting strategizing about water messaging in my region.  You might see that we spent precious little time talking about water and a lot of time talking like we were attending an economic summit.  We had a lot of discussion about our use of water potentially being of a higher value than other uses of water.

Now at home, and hours from that meeting I am not even sure what that means, and I am sure I am not the one to decide that.  The water word today is value, not cost.  In my region ask anyone and they will say the cost is too high.  The value seems wide open to debate, even among so called  and self-proclaimed experts.  What is a higher valued use of water?  Is it always tied to what seems a greater economic good?  I think the value of water changes depending on who you are talking to about it?  If you asked 10 year old me if water was a higher value serving a business or protecting the ecosystem of the creek that ran in my back yard and gave my sister and I hours of fun; I would not agonize over the decision.  That reaction to water's value is visceral and real.  It is the intrinsic imbuement of place that is a part of water.  Ask 44 year old me, the water resource manager trying desperately to convince opposition that we are good stewards of water and have important uses for the water, the answer is far more complicated.  I think we miss the point the point that this is a discussion about winning hearts and minds, because that is where the value of water lives.  I have yet to see the hearts and mind argument won with a really dynamic spreadsheet. 

As I sat in the meeting and we argued the meaning of "is"; I had a frightening thought.  Should it be a different conversation?  I am older, wiser and definitely more road weary in the water game then 10 year old me.  We definitely measure what we say depending on a pending lawsuit and we definitely look to our lawyers to define value in the context of a case.  I can't help thinking if the rooms and meetings were full of 10 year old who just had an inherent understanding that everything about water brings value, maybe we would all attend less of these meetings.

Privilege

I just returned from a great water conference that always motivates me and so I decided along with my just for myself blog about running and fitness I would add a blog about water.  I also enjoy writing and I often say one of the most challenging things about water is that we have so many water words and most "normal" people don't know or care. 

Today's word is privilege.  Water for the US, Canada, Europe and the developed world is a privilege.  It is the most important thing that no one in the world, that has it, cares about.  I would just ask those that take it for granted when they turn on the tap and make food for their families or just want a drink take a moment to think how very different their lives could be without public water supply.  For example if you are a parent you probably don't worry that your child will be one of the 3,000 that die every day from lack of access to clean water.  You may not know that lack of clean water is the number one cause of death in the world.

We are so far removed from our water supply and the source of our water that we have the gift of objective distance.  If you had to walk everyday 6 KM to get dirty water what would you miss?  You would definitely know your water source.  Ignorance of these things is the ultimate privilege.  Next time you look at your water bill and think about how much it costs.  Think about the value you get. 

Clean, easily accessible water, provides an education, business opportunities, the home you live in, and the health and longevity we enjoy.  Is your water bill still too high?