It’s been a rough few years for rainfall, especially on the West Coast. Terms like “severe drought” and even “mega drought” have been thrown around to describe the dire conditions. The Colorado River, which snakes through the Grand Canyon, might completely dry up. Can you imagine seeing the Grand Canyon without the Colorado River?
Then there’s Lake Mead, one of our largest water reservoirs in Nevada. Its water levels are so low that bodies from murders decades ago are being exposed on the bottom! If conditions don’t improve at Lake Mead, it might enter dead pool status, where the water can no longer flow downhill from the Hoover Dam.
Many other places are experiencing detrimental effects from drought. Here are some of the regions most impacted:
1) The Four Corners region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah), where exceptional drought, the highest level of drought severity, has been reported in many areas.
2) California is experiencing severe to exceptional drought conditions in much of the state.
3) The Pacific Northwest, including Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, where severe to extreme drought conditions are reported.
4) The Northern Plains, including parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, are experiencing moderate to severe drought conditions.
Drought negatively impacts our lives in many ways. In the case of hydroelectric dams, it reduces our ability to create electricity. It harms, and in some cases even kills, our ability to grow crops. It also significantly impacts the quality of our drinking water.
As water levels decrease in our reservoirs, the remaining water becomes warmer. This warm environment promotes the growth of harmful bacteria and algae. Besides being a threat to our health, bacteria, and algae cause taste and odor issues and even release potentially harmful toxins.
The decreased water levels also create a concentration of contaminants in the remaining water, like dangerous heavy metals such as arsenic.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, there were 71,800 farms in California in 2020, 36,200 farms in Oregon, and 37,000 farms in Washington. Those farms are using a ton of pesticides and fertilizers, a lot of which already make it into our drinking water. Drought makes this situation worse. The lack of rainfall causes those pesticides and fertilizers to accumulate in our water sources instead of washing away. That means the water used in our public water systems has a higher concentration of pesticides and fertilizers, meaning more gets into your glass of water.
During drought, industrial pollutants as agricultural pollutants, get more concentrated in our water sources as well.
Already, a disgusting picture is starting to form of the soupy, dirty water that our public water systems are trying to clean up. Let’s throw one more thing into the soup – pathogens. Bacterial and viral pathogens can also become more concentrated in our water sources.
Then, with our aging infrastructure, our public water systems are not up to date. That means that the quality of your drinking water has never been worse!
If you live out west, you must get a multi-stage water filter like what you find in our premium water ionizers right away! It’s the only way to protect yourself and your family.
