Water Shortages

Four bombs rocked the city of Karachi, killing one person and injuring 12, as a strike to protest a water shortage began. One bomb, hidden in a helmet that a police patrol picked up off the street, exploded and killed an officer. Rioters chanting anti-government slogans set dozens of vehicles ablaze. Parts of Pakistan are facing water shortages because of a two-year drought.

Jean Orban thought she had found a simple solution to her green grass quandary. The Garden Grove resident considered having a healthy, pretty lawn the mark of being a good neighbor -- plus, residents who let their lawns go brown can be fined by the city. But she wanted to spare her husband the Sunday morning ritual of mowing the lawn, and she thought it was a waste to use hundreds of gallons of water to keep the grass thriving. So she had an artificial lawn installed.

Any hope that a panel of scientists would end the brawl over environmental restrictions in the hub of California's water system evaporated as warring factions each found ammunition in a report released Friday. Charged with evaluating the basis of federal fish protections that are limiting the pumping of water supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the National Academy of Sciences committee concluded the protections were on the whole scientifically justified. "In no case did we say these did not have a scientific underpinning," said committee chairman Robert Huggett, professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at the College of William and Mary.

When California Sen. Dianne Feinstein drafted legislation that would weaken endangered species protections to deliver more water to San Joaquin Valley farms, her rationale was jobs. "People in California's breadbasket face complete economic ruin," the Democrat said in a recent statement. She was joining a chorus of Central Valley politicians and farm groups that during the last year have painted the region as a dust bowl, beset by drought and environmental protections that are cutting vital water deliveries and the jobs that depend on them.

District of Columbia residents were asked to conserve water Saturday night after a break in a 48-inch water main that serves a third of the city. A 12-foot-high bubble of water roiled from a downtown intersection, flooding nearby streets. Officials said they were concerned about water shortages at area hospitals and having enough water pressure to fight fires. Residents within a circle roughly three miles across--just north of the main downtown area--had reduced water pressure.

For as long as anybody in the village of Avalon can remember, coping with a meager water supply has been an inescapable downside of life on Santa Catalina Island. Mayor Bud Smith figures the toughest years were the 1920s, when fresh water was shipped in 22 miles from the mainland by barge, and then dispensed to the populace from a horse-drawn wagon that rolled along Avalon's main street. "We'd all take our buckets down and fill up," recalled Smith, a retired pilot who was born on the island.

The city could experience water shortages while it undertakes repairs on major a water main, officials said. About two months ago, the city had to seal off a 24-inch main that brings water into Huntington Beach from the San Joaquin Reservoir near Newport Beach. The pipeline carries about 5% of Huntington Beach's overall water supply, said Jeff Renna, water operations manager for the city. The main had to be sealed off because of work on the Santa Ana River bed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

An earthquake that shuts down water deliveries from Northern California for a year could devastate the Los Angeles County economy, costing $55 billion and wiping out a half-million jobs, according to a new study. The research by a team of economists attempts to gauge the effects of a major earthquake disrupting water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, which provides roughly a quarter of Southern California's water supply. The report concludes that L.A. County could fairly easily weather a six-month stop in deliveries from the north by ramping up conservation efforts and using reserves stored in Southland reservoirs.

The city's Water District Board of Directors has asked consumers to voluntarily limit their water use because of the drought. The suggestions include: * Plants should be watered only between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. and no more than every other day. * Property owners should install water-saving shower heads. * Dishwashers and washing machines should be turned on for full loads only.

A local developer has abandoned plans to open a downtown jazz club because of the city's building moratorium. The freeze on all new construction was imposed in January by a City Council concerned about potential water shortages this summer. The jazz club would have occupied a former bank building, but the moratorium also prohibits any renovation that would increase water use by 25%. "The City Council imposed a broad, sweeping law, and we just got caught up in it," developer Ray Campbell said.