[bryanlarsen]

We live in Ottawa, Canada. Last year we had a very dry summer, so the city sent out notices asking people to please water their lawns regularly.

The Ottawa River is a major river, Ottawa is the only major user of its water, and doesn't really make a dent in the flow, especially since we put our wastewater back into the Ottawa (after treatment, mostly).

They had no concern about water security, but they did have a concern about fires. There were a couple of cases where dry lawns made it easier for fires to jump from one property to another, so they sent out the notice.

[snowwindwaves]

I lived in Ottawa in the 90's and they definitely had restrictions on when you could water your lawn then.

Maybe it was a water delivery limit as opposed to a water source limit.

Although i do remember the river would get so low you could walk quite far out to the middle and Champlain rapids were more like a shallow stream

[blahedo]

The Great Lakes region is a whole other thing. In fifty or a hundred years, it's cities like Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Ottawa, and even Detroit that will be booming---because they will still have bountiful access to clean freshwater.

[jonknee]

Unless we keep pumping in fertilizer and the water becomes a toxic soup...

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/toxic-algae-bloom...

[huherto]

This is why I think Detroit is in a better position than most people think. Just give the city back to nature and it will flourish again.