xxvi The Environmental Debate
Conflict over water use has long existed in this country, and it will undoubtedly increase as the
population grows and cities and towns continue to expand. In arid parts of the country, intense conflicts
have already arisen over who should have access to the limited water supply: Should the bulk of it go to
individuals, to agriculture, or to industry? Within the state of California there is ongoing competition for
water resources between agricultural regions that require water for irrigation and cities that need water
for a growing populace. In the Southwest, California and Arizona have been battling for many decades
over allocation of Colorado River water, which is also used by five other states. When water in a river is
diverted upstream, protests can be heard if communities downstream feel that insufficient water is being
left to provide for their water requirements and to protect river fisheries.
Cities and states have placed stringent limits on the property-use rights of landowners in watershed
areas where their reservoirs are located. Partly because these restrictions on property use may have a
negative impact on land values, there is often conflict between watershed communities and the distant
towns and cities that obtain their water supply from those watersheds.
As housing development expands, more sewage tends to be washed into streams and rivers and to be
carried by them into reservoirs and lakes. Runoff of fertilizer, pesticides, animal wastes, and petroleum
products from farms, yards, and the increasing number of roads and other paved areas are additional
sources of contamination.
Another threat to water supplies is the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking),
which is used to obtain gas and oil from shale. New York City worries that drilling for gas near its
upstate reservoirs will ruin its excellent drinking water, and in 2015 New York State imposed a ban on
fracking. In rural Pennsylvania people with gas drilling sites near or on their property are concerned
about the contamination of private wells. Elsewhere, the possibility of leakage from oil pipelines that
run under major sources of drinking water, such as the Missouri River, is a cause of contention between
the local population and the company that needs to transport its oil.
The ever mounting use of appliances that employ water—toilets, bathtubs, showers, washing
machines, dishwashers, and waste disposal units—has led to a continually increasing per capita usage
of water in the United States, and in arid regions home-building has created escalating demand for very
limited water supplies. Eventually, this nation of extravagant water users may have to impose limits on
access to this undervalued and misunderstood resource.
ENERGY
Americans account for only about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, yet we use approximately 18
percent of the energy consumed in the world each year.6 Per capita use of energy has remained fairly
steady in the United States since the 1970s. Today the United States is the world’s second largest con-
sumer of energy after China, whose energy use surpassed that of the United States just a few years ago.
Most of the energy employed for transportation in the United States, as well as a portion of that
used for heating and generating electricity, comes from oil. By the end of the twentieth century, much of
the easily extractable oil in the lower forty-eight states had been depleted, the country became increas-
ingly dependent on imported oil as well as oil located in hard-to-access sites (e.g., in deep-water offshore
locations in the Gulf of Mexico) or in formerly undisturbed wilderness areas (e.g., in Alaska). In recent
years, though, new technology has made it possible to mine shale deposits for oil and gas, and the United
States has greatly reduced oil importation. However, since much of the oil used in this country is still
transported great distances in huge tanker ships, in rail cars, or by lengthy pipelines, there is a constant
risk of environmental damage from shipping or train accidents or pipeline leaks.