It doesn’t matter how much we can conserve; human beings depend on water even more than the U.S. economy depends on energy. More people will mean more water consumption. Eventually our population will outstrip the capacity of our fresh water sources. No doubt we’ll get there faster as a result of the efforts our conservation friends are expending on behalf of the frogs and fairy shrimp.
When the economics of the situation justify the expense to do so I have no doubt that the technology and capactity of desalinization will expand to cover the gap. We might have to pay 5 times as much for our water but we’ll continue to have water here for as long as there is an ocean. That is, unless our conservation friends can convince us that the oceans will evaporate, too.
Who knows? Maybe water production will become for San Diego County what oil is for Saudi Arabia.
