by Micheal Sunanda

I went traveling in mid-OR Cascades after the summer solstice to observe patterns of nature now, after decades of camping out in summers from ‘40s on. Recent rains now make the forest & grass green, while most ground is dry & hard, but wild flowers are blooming. All the streams & river are very low, since last fall, now lower than low-levels of the usual fall drying-up of our underground watertable.

I saw most the forests growing taller, & no new clear- cut timber-lands, thanks to mother nature & Earth 1st for working so well! Also no full logging-trucks on main or mountain roads then, good! The decades of wilderness & old-growth forest-preservers & tree planters has helped greatly, but the maze of new unused forest roads make it very accessible by vehicles, bike & animals now. Plus the growing drout is preventing most big logging from ‘hi fire danger’ dry spells. But many problems loom over water shortages & related stresses.

The Cascade Detroit dam reservoir is very low, maybe 10% of usual late-spring hi-level. Detroit villagers are very concerned now at extreme low, exposing 1000s of old bare tree-stumps, revealing the old clear-cut devastation, done before filling-up the mtn. valley lake, now used for ‘recreation’. Will we have many wildfires or plagues with this drout?

We’ve taken our great water abundance for granted, automatic supply. Now the complex eco-systems combine together to co-create the growing current water shortages in NW: OR, WA, & So. BC, etc. Last year No. Midwest had huge wild forest fires in extremely dry fall. The drouts began last summer & fall in bioregional dryspells that continued thru very dry & warm winter & spring, with very low snowfall. The deep NW aquifer in the Cascades was not refilled & recharged! as it usually does from heavy rains in cold & wet seasons.

We need a full (invisible) watertable=aquifer supply to for all our local water needs & uses. So lets do a deep analysis of our minimum needs & current & projected supplies, from ground up, in our whole Columbia/Willamette watershed cycles. We are evolving in multi-patterns of natural-water-changes that affect us all living in the bioregion. I well, streams & ponds dry up, can we make some rainfall??? (Another article on extended drout, conservation & rain making?)

This rare-drout is fanning-fears of water shortages in summer & fall, stimulating a return of drout methods, old & new, being promoted in media & sold, in market sales & energy saving games, to conserve & profit from a crises! Even free info, PSA ads, workshops etc, on water-conserving. The looming NW drout=water crises has hit other areas for last 30 years, as we’ve heard lots about the California drouts. Can we benefit from their experience & learn more natural cycles of resources?

I heard the US Army Engineers have been dumping mountain dammed water into the lower & Willamette rivers to maintain normal business & rec levels. Will our toxic-pollution-levels increase concentrations in our ‘pure’ water supplies, from failure of dilution (solution) that wasteful industry & sewage creates. Will more people get sick from water pollution & other toxins? or learn how-to conserve-water at home & in business. Will any social &/or health crises arise from lack water in ‘01 or later?

What happens in a drout? Land & air dry out, soil cracks, grass dies & most plants wither & die, if not drout tolerant. Long drouts make desert in some regions, killing most creatures. The hot-dry-air contains hi positive air ions, which stimulate & irritate nervous systems. So will anger flare up, neighborhood civil wars? Drout air lacks to wet & cool healthy negative ions so rich at shorelines, waterfalls, rapids & wetlands. Drouted people get feverish, overstimulated & bitchy, as the endless hot summer blast dries-out ones peaceful tolerance. Conflict is more common. Some get sick from not drinking pure water, while they eat more fast fat junk foods?!

The drout effects on growing-food maybe bad, if local water supplies dry up. Some water conflicts arise, shortages stress farmers, growers & food processors. As air heats up, air conditioners, coolers, & electrical devises suck the power-grid, energy-costs may rise from lack of hydroelectric power generation, from low water levels at dams. Rising electric bills may cause protests & local energy conservation, is being planned by utilities, as they make more profit from power-shortages. Some bankruptcy can happen when water dependent business fails to produce &or make payments, from shortages, blackouts & huge power bills.

Long water-drouts can accumulate the stresses: the longer the worse it becomes, the ‘dust-bowl effect’ blows away fertile food growing soil. Cities & farms suffer the most in drouts, besides the wildfires so common in extreme dry seasons. Drinking water may become scarce, expensive & polluted, more than usual. The luxury of washing cars, houses, dishes, & watering lawns & public fountains may stop. In poorest nations, piped-in-water-flow happens only a few hours/day, when a family fills up ready containers. Having a home water-catchment is essential during shortage, not totally depending on central-water-import-systems.

In Hawaii, during a drout of no rain for a few weeks, many people owning (empty) water catchments, buy water trucked into home-storage-tanks, getting empty from lack of rain. In drout areas of no winter-snow-pack that melts into watertable & rivers, extreme drying & fires can happen. Then when a storm hits, it can cause flooding by running off the hard dry soil, it may wash away, & cause landslides & mud avalanches, which kill many people yearly.

People who have water-wells or stream-feeds, will have advantage over the imported water supplies, if the well still flows. Water shortages can cause local conservation, cooperation & conflicts, depending on how close, trusting & flexible; or greedy, possessive & scared people are? Some folks will run to the river, lakes & seas for water play, beyond the shower, hose & closed swimming-pools. Debates may rage over water uses, purity & supply to certain groups & areas.

Some big dam reservoir water-levels become critically low & over-heated, killing fish & local tourism. The tourist towns focus on their immediate needs vs. the downstream cities, industries, farming &or military uses. So we can learn how multi-functional, abundant & needed our pure water supply is, where we’ve taken it for granted for years & decades, assuming there’s an infinite supply? Maybe a drout is the most compelling macro-weather trend to make us more aware of water supplies, waste, needs & how to share it trusting, learning, conserving & cooperating doing more with less in our communities.