Running Water

I was rinsing out my wee yogurt bowl in the kitchen sink after lunch and ruminating about water...how essential it is, how dangerous it can be and how much we take it for granted. Then I realized how much I liked the different aspects it showed as it ran from the tap to the bowl and over the top of the bowl to the sink. There is no soap in the water, but perhaps it is an aerator on the tap that produces the bubbles.

Although we are not experiencing drought conditions right now, old habits die hard and we rarely let the water run in this way. It was something of a luxury to let it run long enough for it to get hot. 

When PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) was forced to turn off the power because their equipment was causing wildfires (or because the fires themselves destroyed important connections) we were left without water because the well pump was down. This was far worse than not having light or even heat. We realized how much we take water for granted when the toilets wouldn't flush, we couldn't wash ourselves, our clothes or our dishes. And, of course water was required for putting out the fire that burned through our neighborhood. The nearest water hydrant is over a block away on the city side of the county line. 

Some of the most beautiful places I have been are also thanks to water. Rivers and lakes provide scenic beauty, and recreational opportunities. And of course, growing up and living near the California coast, the ocean and its beaches are in my genes. The waterfalls of Yosemite are both awe inspiring and beautiful. The Colorado River raft trip through the Grand Canyon was like a geological dictionary. Skiing in Italy, riding a gondola through the canals of Venice or a riverboat on the Yangtze River, and salmon fishing from a small boat on the Rogue River are experiences I'll always remember.

Too much water can also cause huge problems...erosion, landslides and flooding to name a few. The flooding caused by the breach of the Kakhovka dam on the Dniepro River, which is also the dividing line between Russia and Ukraine is catastrophic. It has not only inundated many villages downstream of the dam, but water from the dam is used to supply the cooling pond at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.*

I am so grateful that we have running water at the turn of a tap, aware of the populations who don't have this luxury, that we live in a beautiful place surrounded by rivers, creeks and the Pacific Ocean, and that we must both respect its power and protect it from overpopulation and climate change.

*Ukraine and Russia are each blaming the other for the destruction of the dam, but the report I heard on NPR today said that the area had been occupied by Russia for months, was heavily mined and a breech of that magnitude could only have been caused internally.