Water conservation vital

As a resident of over 19 years, I am very pleased with the latest changes in the water billing system for Spokane. Now the pricing set-up encourages conservation and helps us to save money on our monthly utility bill. Do you realize that water use in America is twice the amount than Europe?

Our aquifer is a limited resource. Just ask the folks using the Ogallala Aquifer in the Midwest or the people of Austin, Texas, who will have to spend millions of emergency dollars to upgrade their water system because they failed to plan/conserve years ago.

Luckily for us, we have farsighted leadership to deal with this before the scarcity issue happens. The problem here is reactionary right-wing politicians like Mr. Condon and Mr. Fagan want to roll back these changes to protect wealthy land owners with enormous lawns and get the rest of us to subsidize their gluttonous water use/abuse.

To protect their friends, they cynically appeal to the lowest of our character traits: selfishness and ignorance. They need to turn off the Fox News and Paranoid Radio and do some reading and research on the issue of clean abundant water and the careful use of it.

William M. Olson

Spokane