The May 18th issue of the Sonoran News had multiple articles about how to save water, water usage, wells, and all kinds of things we the people should be doing to save precious gallons of water. Hogwash. There is a new housing development going in right out the window from my gym. I’ve been able to watch the progress of the whole thing from completely stripping the natural land of every living thing, to the almost finished product of multiple homes packed tightly right next to each other.
All the while, there have been several giant water trucks running non-stop spraying thousands and thousands of gallons on every stage of the development to prevent the forbidden dust from being stirred up. They have one of those giant elevated water tanks up on stilts and it is constantly being filled and numerous water trucks would take turns pulling up to get filled up and drive around the 10 acre site and dump the contents of the water while the next truck filled up to do the same thing. Each truck holds 4000 gallons and they would fill up and spray over and over all day.
Several years ago a good friend of mine who owns a contracting company was building a project. Tons of water was required to keep down the dust. A county inspector showed up and told him there was dust in the air and he was going to get fined. My contractor friend showed him documented receipts where over a million gallons of water had been sprayed all over the job site to keep down the dust. Not good enough. Wrote him a summons for $50,000! For dust!
It’s hard to reconcile millions of gallons of water mandated by county rules and regulations for construction while the same entity tells me not to water my garden.
Marshall Gerston
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