Water resources of the United States

Abstract

The concerns that has grown gradually in recent years over the future of our water supplies has been forcefully dramatized by the water shortage that New York City is now experiencing. This shortage is not the first that has affected an American community and it is not the most serious. Ample sources of additional water are known to exist in Upstate New York and construction that will bring this water to the city is being pushed as rapidly as possible. Nevertheless, the fact that our largest city, the center of our business life, has a water shortage, even though it is temporary, causes even the layman to realize something of the importance that water has in our national life and our national economy. In nearly every State in the Union, one or more communities now has or has had water problems as serious as or more serious than that which face New York City. These problems are springing up in increasing numbers and it is high time that serious consideration be given to the question of the adequacy of our water supplies. If the crisis in New York serves to bring this face into national focus, New York's misfortune may in the long run be a blessing in disguise.