Drought

[Paul Metcalf]

Have any of my fellow Pacific Northwesterners considered alternatives to their wet darkroom processes given the potential for a severe water drought this year? I'm curious about what's going through the minds of those that are currently wet darkroom advocates (film and printing...). Maybe we can get some water from SoCal?!!

[Andre Noble]

Yes, please come take it! Too much water here in L.A.

[ronald lamarsh]

Being in the greater Seattle area I am more than a little concerned. I am taking stetps to minimize my water use i.e. religious use of perma-wash, RC paper for most of my printing and adopting the washing technique espoused by Fred Picker and detailed on the website of Fine Art photo Supply. Other steps......i'll let the lawn and shrubbery die and not wash my underwear as often. going digital is out of the finiancial question for me.

[Sharon S.]

Would you believe that the water bills in L.A. will be dropping because we won't have to import as much water this year? We can spare quite a few gallons for your plants. I'm not sure about the laundry though...

:-)

[MacGregor Anderson]

I'm over here in Sisters, Oregon. Near Bend in the high desert. I'm pretty concerned for a number of reasons. First is fire risk. Too many trees around me, dry pine needles, that sort of thing. It's the risk one takes living in such a place, but it gives me an uneasy feeling.

I'm going to do all my archival washing in the headwaters of the irrigation ditch near me. Those guys with the golf courses get water til it runs Squaw Creek (wild and scenic river no less) dry. Can't imagine a little TF 4 residue will hurt their greens.

Seriously, I've been washing most of my prints in a series of small trays instead of in the washer. I paid good money a while back to get a washing machine of the new fangled variety that takes two hours and uses three drops of detergent and six of water. Clothes don't get clean, but it keeps the well full.

By the way, we're getting snow tonight, six inches with a couple more tomorrow. First time in forever. Lets hope for a wet spring!

Mac

[domenico Foschi]

Andre' where are you in So Cal?
I am at about 20 miles from Downtown, namely Whittier.

[chris jordan]

I'm in Seattle where the water shortage is so bad that I've switched to digital.

I still can't figure out what to do with all the zeros and ones coming out of my faucet...

[Matthew Cordery]

I'm in the process of setting up a darkroom in my garage. I live over near downtown Redmond. My opinion is: If I see those goobers watering their golf courses this summer, then they can't begrudge me a bit of wash time. After all, if the ski resorts have to bit the bullet this winter the golf courses can certainly take one in the arm (not to mix metaphors or anything)

[ronald lamarsh]

Amen to the golf course goobers idea. They should take a monthly census at each course multiply it by the number of gallons we'll all be alloted and then only supply that much water to the course. I think most of the courses would brown pretty quickly: it takes as much water to grow an acre of corn as it does to supply a town of 5000 for a year.

[Paul Metcalf]

Chris-
Did you really switch to digital because of the water shortage, or other reasons (as well)?

[Paul Metcalf]

I haven't played on a golf course that has corn growing. Must make for some interesting lies (pun)...

[Bob Douglas]

You must be mistaken there is no drought or global warming news I would have seen it on Fox News, besides my president would surely inform me of such a dire situation.



No kidding aside we have never heard of the Washington drought here in warm, dry Denver. Thanks for keeping us informed ;-)

[MacGregor Anderson]

woke up to half a foot of snow on the ground here in Central Oregon. Wet weather predicted out here for the next week plus. It won't fix the problem, but it sure is nice. Just last week it was mid 60s and the dust was terrible.

Matthew, was that Redmond, OR (just down the road), or Redmond, WA near Seattle?

[Andy Eads]

There is no good reason the water used to wash prints could not be recycled for any other use except human consumption. Not that it would hurt you but it would spoil the taste of your coffee.