Desalination versus duct tape: (Dis)incentives to securing water supplies

The Rockland County dilemma offers an opportunity to explore the problematic interplay between water providers and regulators that arises when a water provider seeks to use modern but expensive solutions to satisfy challenging urban demand and supplement dwindling supplies. Water providers must increasingly turn to reuse options, water harvest?ing, green infrastructure, desalina?tion, aquifer storage and recovery, and risk mitigation strategies as they face increasing demand and a reduction in traditional water supplies. Current models of climate change predict variable precipitation pat?terns across the country. Those mod?els are now powerful enough that they may reliably forecast water risks in various regions, which will face precipitation reduction.