No one should waste water, or any other resource. A letter in a recent issue of WorldWatch magazine made the point nicely. What the county plans do is look at where growth is anticipated and work backwards from there. We have allowed for development that will increase water demand by so many million gallons a day, the county plans say. In a rational world, development would chase water.
Tourists like to golf in dry weather and have sunny days on the beach.
The result is water-intensive development in areas where natural water supplies are limited. No proposal to banish or limit golf courses or place a moratorium on resort development will get very far. Workshops and public hearings are presumably going to be held over the next year. No calendar is available yet, but if you let the Division of Water Resource Management know you are interested, people there can place your name on a mailing list to receive information and schedules. At the local level, people can work with members of the County Councils, neighborhood boards and even developers themselves to try to condition permits for development on sound water-use planning.