The Morongo Basin MAC met last night. Reporter David Haldane was at that meeting and files this report…
The Morongo Basin is doing its part to conserve water in the face of the most nightmarish drought to hit California in almost a century. In fact, in many cases local water suppliers and consumers are significantly exceeding the 27 percent reduction in statewide water use mandated last year.
That was the gist of a report presented Monday night by Mojave Water Agency general manager Kirby Brill to the Morongo Basin Municipal Advisory Council meeting before an enthusiastic crowd at the Joshua Tree Community Center.
But the effort is also permanently changing the culture in ways that are profound. The old “pump as you please” days of water conservation are over forever, Brill said. Instead, we are entering an era in which ideas about what is acceptable and necessary are expanding in unprecedented ways. The general public’s image of what constitutes an “appealing” landscape, for instance, is evolving into something resembling that held by desert residents for years: one involving a minimum of green. And everywhere cooperation and sharing are becoming the catchwords of the day.
Help may be on the way soon in the form of giant El Ninos described as “too big to fail.” But even if the long-awaited rain arrives, Brill said, our new cultural awareness will stay too. “This is our way of life now,” he said. “All of us are learning lessons about how to share.”
In other remarks to the Council, experts from the State Water Resource Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water assured residents that the level of toxic Hexavalent Chromium, or CR6, in local water is well within federal safety standards.
MORONGO BASIN MAC HEARS ABOUT WATER, EL NINO, AND CHROMIUM-6
