OT: water usage

This is certainly off topic, but I find it fascinating, and very important, 
with alarming implications for all gardeners.  The October issue of 
Horticulture magazine has a map (page 16) of Freshwater Consumption (in the 
USA) as a Percentage of Local Average Annual Precipitation.  Approximately 2/3 
of the country falls into the 75% to 100% range, and about a quarter of that 
area uses 100% to 150%, with all of southern and central California using more 
that 150%.  Only in the east and the northern Pacific coast do we use less 
than 75% of the water falling out of the sky; only in those areas do the 
aquifers have a fighting chance of replenishing themselves.  Where do those of 
us in the west get our water?  Well, by and large we steal it, if not from our 
neighbors, then from our descendents.  Think of that next time you leave the 
hose running in the beds.

Of course I have known all this for a while; I've been learning (and 
preaching) water conservation for years.  But this very graphic presentation 
(with no text, by the way) has quite an impact.

Barb, in Santa Fe, land of the midnight drip irrigator
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