Almost every state in the U.S. is facing water challenges. In 2003 the General Accounting Office released a study that found that 36 states anticipate serious water shortages in the future – and that number doesn’t even include the states that didn’t respond – California, Nevada, New Mexico and Michigan – some of the states that face the most significant challenges. When we think about water scarcity we normally think about the southwest – but issues have arisen in unanticipated areas. In the south water has typically been abundant - but now Florida, Fulton County in Georgia and North Carolina are all scrambling to find ways to increase conservation and improve efficiency. The northeast is struggling with widespread water contamination issues. Water levels in the Great Lakes are falling. At the same time bordering states are struggling with invasive species such as the Zebra Mussel that clog pipes and damage water intake and treatment infrastructure. Farmers on the Great Plains, who rely on water from the vast Ogallala Aquifer, are beginning to see their wells dry up.

What is the cause of this new era of water scarcity? The main culprit is changing precipitation patterns linked to climate change. These changing patterns are leading to more frequent and extreme droughts in some areas (such as California), while causing more frequent and extreme flooding events in others (such as the mid-west). According to Peter Gleick, co-founder and President of one of the nation’s leading water think tanks, Pacific Institute,

“We’ve done a great job in the United States in reducing our vulnerability to drought by building massive infrastructure for storing water in wet periods, so we can use it in dry periods. The downside is it’s made us in a sense ignore water as an issue for far too long….We’ve stopped thinking about how to use water efficiently and effectively because we’ve assumed that it would always be there. That no longer is the case.”