When, Jennifer Pederson, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Works Association, which represents water suppliers, says she is concerned about the underlying science of a plan to regulate water use and argues that the plan would cause water rates to double, she is assuming, mistakenly, that the drought is all about money, because she is speaking with corporate speech, which in other words means money. She is going to have to do much, much better than a vague reference to underlying science to have any credibility with people, who believe our scientists when they report about the threat of not just drought in the short term, but the expected worsening conditions that the climate crisis we are already in will bring. Her following comment seems to assume that we can ignore the ever increasing demand for water brought on in part by population growth and that we have any choice about paying whatever it costs - after all the conservation we can manage - to have enough water to sustain us. As to businesses leaving the state, to what planet is she assuming firms will relocate, given that the climate crisis is worldwide on what author Bill McKibben of 350.org refers to as Eaarth, because we are already living in a different world. I trust that she will be found standing in dry riverbed this summer, shouting to the heavens, "Be reasonable!"

It's great that this story is on page 1. Together with the story on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that was on page 2 earlier this week, climate change is starting to get the attention it should receive. Keep up the good work and let's see more of it, especially the importance of cutting emissions.

The comment of the cost of water, water rates, will double if the plan goes through is curious. The SWMI plan invites municipalities to request permits to take more water. Water rates in municipalities are set by how much it costs to deliver the water. If the amount of water available increases along with the demand for water then prices goes down because it costs less per gallon to operate the municipal waterworks. Conversely, when U Mass Amherst converted the campus, in particular the library skyscraper, to use water conservation measures, the use of Amherst water fell nearly in half and then the water rates had to be doubled to raise the funds needed to operate the water supply. A municipality saves money and rates need not increase if the community can balance new demand for water with water conservation measures. This will save the municipality from having to build a new waterworks saving substantial costs.