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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIBJ’s [Sept. 8] report on the for-sale listing of the Simon family’s 106-acre estate, Asherwood, in Carmel presents a great opportunity for a new owner to reforest the 18-hole golf course. This would restore recharge water to the high-demand underground aquifer and reduce the profligate use of potable water for irrigation of a private golf course.
Recent studies have projected continuing high consumption (demand) in central Indiana, most particularly in the burgeoning northern suburbs, many of which have been virtually oblivious to the need to conserve water.
Ironically, Ashur was the sun god of the ancient Assyrian empire. In their book “One with Nineveh: Pollution, Consumption, and the Human Future,” Paul and Anne Ehrlich address the reasons for the fall of that empire. Archaeologists discovered the gradual decline in the resource base. “One underlying cause was deforestation in the hills and mountains, the source of the area’s water supply. Another was environmentally unsustainable irrigation.”
Economic development officials in Anderson have proposed to dam the White River to create a costly reservoir, in partial if not principal effect, so that central Indiana can continue to waste water like there’s no tomorrow. With such over-the-top practices as building and wastefully irrigating private 18-hole golf courses, there just might not be many tomorrows—or at least sustainable tomorrows with wisely used water resources.
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Clarke Kahlo
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