4 - Sunday, August 12, 1990 ~ North Shore News California dream evaporates LOS ANGELES — Once of the great symbols of the ultimate good life has become one of the first victims of our changing climate. Nearly everyone at some paint must have dreamed of moving to Scuthern California and owning a swimming pool, where they might lounge in the shade of a palm tree. Actually, the palm trees are not native to California and had to be imported. As for those lovely kidney-shaped swimming pools, Bob Hunter ECOLOGIC forget it. Most counties and cities in Southern California have now passed, or are in the process of passing, bylaws prohibiting the filling of those legendary = swim- ming pools with water. I don’t know about you, but to me that's the end of the Hollywood dream. The reason: a four-year-long drought that has raised the spectre of massive rationing of water by next year if rain or snow don’t come. We are talking here about rationing not just of swimming pool water, but of drinking water, water for sinks and tubs and showers, and water to keep in- dustry running. According to Duane Georgeson, assistant general manager for the Metropolitan Water District, ‘If we have three more years as dry as we've had in 1¢: 9, clearly we are approaching the unknown.”” His agency provides water to mere than 240 municipalities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. They alt face the same nightmare. Throughout most of the 20th century, California's weather has been characterized by a random pattern of wet and dry cycles, with the dry periods lasting no longer than three years except for a seven-year drought between 1929 and 1935, when some 30,000 acres of farmland were turned to desert in the San Joaquin Valley. That particular dry spell is used as the marker against which the California State Water Project's “rule curve’ is based. This is a planning factor used to guarantee that that state's storage facilities and reservoirs can pro- vide at least a six-year supply of water, given a reasonable deerce of conservation. Recent studies of tree ring sam- ples indicate that the area experi- enced a drought even worse than the one in the 30s back i the 1840s, and one that may have lasted two decades in the late Leth century. Should such a drought occur now it would have a devastating impact. First of all, it would make region-wide water rationing man- datory by 1991, People would see their water consumption cut back by 10 per cent, then 25 per cent if the drought continued to worsen. Anybody who exceeded the limit would be slapped with fines and would see their water supply reduced by ‘flow restrictions.”* This would hit hard at im- migrants and the poor, who could find themselves being thrown out on the streets by landlords facing penalties, but would also pit par- ched cities against each other ina contest for dwindling supplies, which at the moment are shared on a percentage basis. iit would also cause serious problems in terms of agriculture and industry. Until now, farmers have used more than 87 per cent of Califor- nia‘'s water, but this year rural water companies have had their state-managed supplies slashed by 50 per cent and federal allotments reduced by another 25 per cent. A study by the UCLA Business Forecasting Project predicts that an extended statewide water shortage that resulted in cuts of 24 per cent would cost industry in Los Angeles alone $25 billion and would result in the loss of 350,000 jobs. There was a long story in the Los Angeles Times the other day about the drought. Ho was fascinating reading, the more so for what if didn't mention than what it did. There was no mention, for in- stance, of the very similar pattern of drought in Florida. And there was absolutely no mention of the phenamenan known as the Greenhouse Effect. So far as the L.A. Times’ writer was concerned, the Southern California drought is a regional problem, unrelated to anything that might be going on either na- tionally or globally. And judging froin the quota- tions from various water experts, planetary climate change wasn'ta factor in their thinking either. The fact that carbon dioxide levels have inereased from 275 parts per million in the at- mosphere a century ago to 350 ppm today — and all-time historic high — seems lost on the automobile-joving Californians whose exhaust Cumes contribute far more than their share to this dismal reality. The fact that the six hottest years on record all occurred dur- ing the 1980s seems likewise not Co have entered the minds of the water supply managers, who made no effort to fink Southern California's problems to the prob- lems of the planet as a whole. The closest the L.A. Times or the water managers came to icok- ing at the world beyond the Sierra Nevada mountains was to ac- knowledge that “scientists admit there is no hard evidence weighing against the possibility of a drought enduring at least seven or eight yvears."* How about 100 or 1,000 years? Bad news for Hollywood: man does not live on martinis alone. Uhe dreamt is withering in het winds and dust. KF. Seott Fitzeerald would, | think, have loved it. TE ROADBLOCKS THE FOLLOWING are the scheduled road closures and detours for the coming week in North Vancouver District and Ci- ty, West Vancouver District, and along area highways. North Vancouver District *Dollarton Highway Reconstruction: Road construction in progress along various sections of Dollar- ton Highway. Occasional detours. Motorists should use Mount Seymour Parkway as an alternate route, e Marine Drive: McKay Avenue to Capilano Road: Asphalt repairs in progress. Most work is performed at night start- ing at 10 p.m. Single-lane traffic in both directions. Some work will be performed during the day in- volving sidewalk repairs on both sides. Single-lane traffic east- bound. © Lloyd Ave./Gladwin Drive to 26th Street: Installation of watermain, traffic only. * Keith Road from Mountain Highway to Hendry Avenue: Excavation for sidewalk on north side. local North Vancouver City: No major road closures West Vancouver District © Ambleside Revitalization Pro- ject: Work continues tin the Ambleside business district on the area’s revitalization project. Road closures in various locations. par- ticularly in the areas one block north and south of Marine Drive between 13th and 8th streets. Public cooperation is requested during the project, and motorists are asked to obey both traffic control devices and personnel, * Headland Drive: Sidewalk construction in pro- gress on Headland Drive from Meadfeild Road to Sprucefeild Road. © Eyremount Drive: Road construction and water- main replacement on Eyremount Drive from Crestline Road 10 Millstream Road. Will cause road closures for several weeks. * Deep Dene Road: Closed due to storm sewer work. © Crestline Road: Installation of watermain in pro- gress. © Glengarry Morven Drive: Road reconstruction in progress. Crescent and Department of Highways ° Upper Levels Highway at Lonsdale Avenue: Eastbound traffic at the Upper Levels Highway and Lonsdale Avenue overpass project: will con- tinue to detour onto new east- bound tanes. gpsden ‘an CALL TICKETMASTER: (604) 280-2200 Don't Miz the Boat! SOME SEATS STILL AVAILABLE FOR MOST PERFORMANCES Especially Wednesday and Saturday Matinees at 2 PM. Groups of 20 er more calf (604) 734 7687 FOR TICKETS CALL TICKETMASTER: (604) 280-2200 Tickets also avaiiable at ail Ticketmaster locations. Limited number of Student Tickets available at $15 with valid ID at any Ticketmaster location. “QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE -