In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt said that "civilized people should be able to dispose of sewage in a better way than by putting it in the drinking water." He was right, of course, yet a century later that's still what we do. It's time to stop urinating and defecating in our...

As California struggles with ongoing drought, the favored solutions are all engineering fixes -- technological responses to a human plight. When it comes to water, this is what we Americans always do: figure out some way to augment existing water supplies rather than learn to live within our existing supplies....

Drought has prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state emergency. Water agencies are preparing to impose mandatory water rationing. We're all hoping that melting snow in the Sierra will save the state's farmers and city dwellers from hardship.

But once rain starts to fall - and it...

I recently returned from Saudi Arabia, a country that faces self-inflicted water challenges. I'm part of a team charged with drafting a water code for the Kingdom. In the 1980s, Saudi Arabia decided it wanted food security, so it encouraged farmers to grow wheat by drilling an unknown number of...

I'm reminded of the farmer who was asked whether he believed in baptism. He replied, "Of course. I've seen it done."

Well, as the ethanol boom has continued, I've seen new corn fields in Arizona and California where farmers water the fields with groundwater. Foolishness, oft repeated, does not...

If I could offer our soon-to-be Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack one piece of advice, it would be this: "We're already running low on water. Don't make matters worse."

I would offer my advice with hope, but out of fear. My fear is that in Des Monies and in his...