Regarding the article “Where has all the rain gone? Bone-dry October strikes much of U.S” (Oct. 29, TribLive): More than 30 counties are currently under a drought watch following one of the driest Octobers on record. In response, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) encouraged Pennsylvanians to “voluntarily conserve water by reducing nonessential water use.”
While we can choose to not water the garden, inefficient commercial appliances will continue to waste water through the drought.
Luckily, state Sen. Lindsey Williams introduced SB 755, a bill that would conserve up to 10 billion gallons of water a year. This common sense proposal (HB 1615/SB 755) will require appliances to adopt water-conserving technologies that already exist today. The cost for most of these appliances is the same as their water-guzzling counterparts, so Pennsylvanians can conserve massive amounts of water and lower their water bill on Day 1.
I applaud state representatives who voted for this legislation, and hope that state senators who haven’t co-sponsored SB 755 will do so. When we have simple tools at our fingertips that can help us conserve billions of gallons of water, we should put them into place as quickly as possible.
Belle Sherwood
Philadelphia The writer is a climate and clean energy associate for PennEnvironment.