By Dan Simon

Californians have a saying, "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting." The state's contentious battles over control of limited water resources between its Northern and Southern ends have been the stuff of many a B-grade Western.

Pennsylvania hasn't hit that point yet, but the current drought emergency is convincing at least a few that the state needs to have a better plan for managing its water.

"We have been pushing for a package of bills that would let us conduct an overhaul of the state's water resources," said Dennis Buterbaugh, press secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection. "We really know of no specific instances where people have run out of water because of development, but it's getting to the point where we can see that becoming a problem."

The two bills are Senate Bill 1230 and House Bill 2230.

"They'd do four things," Buterbaugh said. "One is to update the state's water plan-which is very much out of date-second is to identify critical water planning areas (regions like suburban Philadelphia and Pittsburgh for instance), three create a water conservation program and four set water well construction standards. Right now, there's not much in the way of uniformity in that kind of thing."

The two bills weren't voted on during the legislature's summer session. Buterbaugh hopes they be enacted during this fall's session.

"When you have a drought in ground water areas, and you have some wells go dry, it kind of puts things under a microscope. In general, a drought isn't good, but it is good in that it's making us think about the big picture.

"We all take water for granted, but this drought has opened our eyes."