ABSTRACT
In 1980 and 1981, when large areas of the United States were parched by drought, alarmist reports on the state of the nation's water supplies received wide coverage. The cover of Newsweek for February 23, 1981 < showed the United States covered with parched earth and asked, "Are we running out of water?" In U.S. News and World Report, June 29, 1981, the title of a feature article asked a similar question, while a subheading responded that "Nearly every part of the U.S. faces serious water troubles—either lack of supply or doubtful purity. Experts warn that time for remedies is rapidly running out." Science 81 ran a series of articles on local water issues; the May issue contained an article entitled "The Day New York Runs Out of Water." Numerous other articles, television programs, and books (for example, Fred Powledge's Water: The Nature, Uses, and Future of Our Most Precious and Abused Resource and William Ashworth's Nor Any Drop to Drink) reinforced the image of an imminent water crisis. Water was at the forefront of resource concerns of the 1980s.
