State, localities get serious about saving water

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Getting serious about the drought
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine gets it. The state cannot wait until next spring to implement water-conservation measures. If a drier-than-normal winter arrives as predicted, the state will be hurting come spring.
Kaine is encouraging local governments to update water-conservation and drought-contingency plans now. And, he’s asking the rest of us to use less water in our daily lives.
The voluntary measures – shorter showers, skipping the car wash and washing full loads of clothes and dishes – aren’t particularly painful. A detailed list of water-conservation tips is available on the Virginia Department of Environmental Qual-ity’s Web site, www.deq.virginia.gov/waterresources/waterconservation.html.
A little sacrifice now could prevent a bigger sacrifice later.

Heeding the call
Local utilities, too, seem to be waking up to the reality of the drought. For Wise County and Appalachia, this isn’t a future worry. Their water supplies already are dangerously low. Mandatory restrictions were imposed this week. We urge residents to pay attention.
Meanwhile, Bristol Virginia and Washington County, which had seemed content to wait until spring and reassess the situation, are calling for voluntary household conservation and reviewing contingency plans. This is a shrewd move – particularly given the crisis in metro Atlanta, where a failure to plan appears to be a significant factor in the city’s trip to the brink.
Now, about Bristol Tennessee, which seems to think itself impervious to the drought’s effects by virtue of its water source: A little planning can’t hurt.

Marge Davis
The Mount Juliet, Tenn., woman rode her bicycle across Tennessee to drum up support for a bottle-deposit bill. She ended her 800-mile trek in Bristol this week.
Davis is a convincing advocate for the bill, which faces a decidedly uphill battle in the Tennessee legislature. Davis offers evidence that states with a bottle bill have far less roadside trash than Tennessee, and residents in those states recycle at higher rates. As a general matter, we’re for anything that will clean up our notoriously trashy roadsides and increase recycling in the state.

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History lost
Fire destroyed the High Knob observation tower in Wise County this week. The structure was a piece of local history; now, only its stone foundation remains. Police and U.S. forest officials suspect arson, which also claimed a previous tower on the site 30 years ago.
The motivation behind such a destructive, criminal act is beyond us. We hope that police catch the culprits and prosecute them. Meanwhile, we applaud those in the community who are pledging to see that the tower rises again.

... And, hay lost, too
The tower wasn’t the only thing that burned this week. Close to 160 rolls of hay were damaged or destroyed in a series of fires in Washington County over the past few days. With hay in short supply, the fires leave farmers struggling to find more food for their animals and coping with the monetary loss.
As with the tower fire, investigators suspect arson. Again, we hope those responsible are caught before they can cause more harm. This isn’t just a prank; it’s a serious matter.