According to our water purveyor, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), the area's drinking water supply is less than ideal. Circumstances have converged to create a tight situation, though not yet critical. To keep it from getting that way, a team of TMWA water patrolers will be cruising for water wasters and issuing warnings to first offenders. Those who don't get the message and are nabbed as repeat offenders will start paying; $25 for a second offense and $75 for third and subsequent offenses.

Factors affecting the current outlook, cited by TMWA in an article in the Reno Gazette-Journal, include two below average snowpack winters in a row, earthquake damage to the flume supplying the Chalk Bluff Treatment Plant, and high temperatures with virtually no rainfall the last two months.

This being a desert, water conservation is always an issue. A little common sense and adherence to some simple rules will help all of us live within our available water resources.