I’ve always been interested in the impact of our vanishing water resources, an environmental issue that seems to get left behind a lot. A point Elizabeth de la Vega echoes in a piece she recently wrote for TomDispatch entitled “Our National Water Policy - Oh Wait, We Don’t Have One“. The piece opens with as American of a quote as you can get, one from Homer Simpson:

“Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so we don’t have to think all the time. Just like that rainforest scare a few years back. Our officials saw there was a problem and they fixed it, didn’t they?” — Homer Simpson

Simpson’s aside, De la Vega explores the much needed state of water policy here in the US as a time when we have floods in the Midwest and wildfires on the West Coast, here’s a taste of the confusion and lack of definition she explores:

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The New York Times reports,  The swollen Mississippi River surged over nearly a dozen levees in the St. Louis area and flooding vast areas of farmland, as the region’s growing crisis pushed corn and soy prices toward record levels. The runaway river claimed one Missouri town late Wednesday night when it broke a levee in Winfield, just outside of St. Louis, leaving a 150-foot hole, deluging the small community and sending a surge of water downstream toward the next levee. Crews of firefighters spent the night evacuating residents, in some cases by boat, as workers fought to contain the river further south.

St. Louis is the next major city in the path of the surging river, which is expected to crest at 40 feet there on Saturday.

takepart and donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

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