"The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess." -From an Associated Press Article on October 27 th about the droughtThis above sentence from the article got me wondering who in the government projected this shortage? How did the government project this? Thankfully, we live in this gilded Google age where reports can't stay too hidden. A little power Google searching revealed all.
It turns out this statement comes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report published in 2003 titled "FRESHWATER SUPPLY: States’ Views of How Federal Agencies Could Help Them Meet the Challenges of Expected Shortages" The report was generated after the 2002 drought to help federal agencies determine how their activities affect states and how they can be more supportive of state efforts to meet their future water needs.
The report states that "even under normal conditions, water managers in 36 states anticipate shortages in localities, regions, or statewide in the next 10 years." So go ahead and subtract five years, since it is 2007, and you see where the five year prediction comes from for this article.
So, how did the government calculate this shortage? They didn't. I was disappointed to read that basically this report was a a compilation of web-based surveys of state water managers. Three important states didn't even participate; California, Michigan, and New Mexico.
This report was still interesting to read and I thought it had a bigger conclusion. The report states that under drought conditions, 46 state water managers expected water shortages. So, basically every state that answered said they expected shortages during droughts.
Now that is big.
