Shaping Our Water Future (Day 1)

I just returned to my office after attending a 2-day conference titled "Shaping Our Water Future. Working to ensure adequate, quality water supplies" put on by MSU and the Tri-State Water Resource Coalition.
The first half of the first day was spent telling us all about the problems of possible future water shortages. We talked about the aquifer under the southwest Missouri region and where the water is. We were also informed about how to create water planning groups. The rest of the day was spent talking about ways to create more water supplies by increasing storage. We talked about damming some of the area streams to create more storage. Injecting treated water into the aquifer was also discussed. The Tri-state Coalition is talking to the Corps of Engineers about getting water from Tablerock Lake or Grand Lake of the Cherokees. the biggest problems with increasing storage is the time from the start of the process to the finish. It could realistically take 20 years from the start to get to the end of the project.
I think it took some "voodoo economics" to come up with the numbers that we were given in regards to our future (projected) shortages. IF we have a drought, IF City Utilities sells water to surrounding communities, IF there is no conservation; THEN we will need an additional 129 million gallons per day. Last week CU averaged around 33 mgd delivered.
Currently our water storage facilities are at 87% of their capacity. The 10-year average is 80%.
It is going to be interesting to see what the crystal ball says about our water usage in 20 years.
Tomorrow: Conservation!