LETTERS: Growth not at root of water problems

To the editor:

Art Gisi’s letter presents a viewpoint with blinders on (“No building permits until drought ends,” July 21 Review-Journal). Does Mr. Gisi really believe that stopping construction of a few thousand new houses is a solution to the water problem? The big problem is those who have a narrow view of what really happens with regard to the Colorado River system’s water usage.

The largest user of water from the Colorado River is Imperial Valley, Calif., a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy. This valley is part of the Sonoran Desert and averages about 3 inches of annual rainfall. Yet the Imperial Valley consumes up to 75 percent of the total lower Colorado River basin water shares.

A few years ago, the Imperial Valley Irrigation District sent billions of gallons of river water to the Salton Sea in California — a lake that should not exist in the first place — to help reduce that lake’s salinity. The federal government just a few months ago sent billions of gallons of river water downstream to Mexico and the Gulf of California to help native vegetation survive. All this during one of the worst recorded droughts in the history of the Southwest.

The average American family of four consumes about 400 gallons of water a day. The powers that be controlling the water distribution of the Colorado River waste billions of gallons a year. If this drought continues, the water will be directed to the cities, and the farming in Imperial Valley will dry up. The best solution is to move the agriculture of Imperial Valley to the Mississippi River basin.

STEVEN GINTHER

MESQUITE