DESALINIZATION NOW
Thanks for your excellent write up ("Everybody out of the water," April 15). One quick solution: In Australia during their long drought of more than 10 years, they have installed 100 desalinization plants, which are probably mothballed now. Our governor can buy those plants and install them here within a short time, waiving and bypassing all environmental hurdles. Hope we realized the dire condition coming up soon and act on this quick solution before it will be too late. A very disastrous situation is coming.
M.G. Bhakta, San Diego
STOP WATERING CONDOS
Your editorial of April 15 ("Everybody out of the water") seems to fail to mention that our water shortage is also from more than doubling water needs by continuous construction of condos and housing the past 10 years, and that we keep making it worse with expansion of that construction.
Dr. John Kitchin, Publisher, San Diego Homeless News, Downtown
WHERES THE BEEF?
It's interesting that you used the term "we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off," in your [April 15] editorial about California's water shortage issue, considering that you missed the elephant in the room. The farmers using the most water are not those cultivating almonds, as you stated. The amount of water to produce almonds is far surpassed by the water consumed to produce meat and dairy. We're talking about 48.6 gallons of water to produce an ounce of almonds versus 106.3 gallons to produce a single ounce of beef (UNESCO U.S. Institute for Water Education). One of the biggest ways to solve our water problem would be to reduce meat and dairy consumption. Let's get the facts straight, please.
Elyssa Mercado, Ocean Beach
WATER BEFORE STADIUMS
This letter is in response to "Everybody out of water" (April 15). At this time, I would like to submit an idea, per your request, to help resolve our water shortage. My suggestion is to use the $500,000 allocated for the Charger Stadium study to research new water sources for the San Diego region. Note that Qualcomm Stadium resides on an aquifer on which a reservoir can be built to capture water and reduce flooding in Mission Valley. If this drought continues, San Diego will be forced to put a moratorium on construction, and that will impact our economy more than losing the Chargers.
Ronald Harris, Scripps Ranch
CAT MATCH FEVER
I enjoyed [Ryan Bradford's April 8] piece on the Cat Cafe ("Fur and Loafing"). Very fun play on words. I appreciate him taking the time to visit the place. Beans and Figaro have been adopted now. Momo is not grumpy, just very chill and not easily impressed with our nonsense. He holds the cafe record for number of toys laid out on his torso while he looks aloof and above it all. Harvey sounds like a lucky guy to have landed with [Bradford] and his wife. As a former "how-could-anyone-live-with-all-that-blasted-cat-hair-all-over-the-place" kind of person who now readily admits to pretty much being a servant to two feline roommates, I have some sense of the magnitude of change you've experienced. It's a great addiction.
Colleen Carnevale, Downtown
Corrrection: April 15's "Spin Cycle" incorrectly listed the monetary figure attached to the city's referendum-delayed minimum-wage increase. The correct amount is $11.50.
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