Filling a swimming pool while Atlanta burns
by Hal Jacobs
In a time of drought, is it ethical for a new pool owner to fill up his swimming pool with precious water?
This is the burning question I posted on an Internet message board (www.charactercounts.org) devoted to ethical decision making. My note landed in "Current Events" next to one from a business manager seeking moral guidance with a new dress code policy. His plea went unanswered, whereas the answer to my message came back strong and clear from the chief online ethicist himself.
It turns out that "ethics often demands that a person do more than he is required to do and less than he is allowed to do."
In other words, even though current watering restrictions allow my family to fill up a swimming pool during posted hours, morally we shouldn't do so.
Filling pools while Georgia burns is an ethical no-no.
Would it have made any difference if the online Socrates knew that, unlike pools in "My Lifestyle Is Better Than Yours" magazine, pools the size of island lagoons, our pool is hardly big enough for a full-grown elephant to turn around in, let along get his ears wet? It's a 15'x4' above-ground pool that only contains 5,300 gallons of water - the equivalent of 530 teeth brushings with the tap running (or 21,200 brushings using proper water conservation).
Probably not. Nor would it probably matter if he knew the pool was a freebie. We didn't even want a pool, but a neighbor was trying to get rid of it last winter because she was selling her house. It was free, and everyone knows the Solid Gold Rule - you never turn down freebies.
Even if you have to disassemble it, drag it two blocks, dump it in a pile, forget about it for three months, then screw it back together with the understanding that if you don't follow the instructions, thousands of gallons of water will burst out of your yard and rip through the neighborhood like a rogue tidal wave.
According to the ethicist's rules of moral engagement, I should've asked myself the following questions:
1. If everyone filled up an above-ground swimming pool with water, would it be a good thing?
The answer, of course, is no. That would be as bad as all the southwest Georgia farmers sticking their irrigation pipes into the aquifer during a drought to draw out all the water they wanted, thus lowering the water levels of rivers flowing into Alabama and Florida, and fueling an all-out water war.
2. What does filling up my pool say about my social commitment as a good citizen and neighbor?
I felt bad about this until I emailed the president of a local pool company. He reassured me that pools do not waste water, except for a little evaporation that you can control with covers. Rather, pools hold water so that people can engage in wholesome and healthy family activity. And wholesome and healthy family activities save school systems a bundle when it comes time to buying more metal detectors.
3. Would I fill up the pool if my child was looking over my shoulder?
The answer is yes. It was the child looking over my shoulder who insisted that I fill up the pool. (I believe the ethicist weakened his case with this one.)
4. What would the most ethical person I know do?
This question stumped me, until I realized the most ethical person I knew was the online philosopher himself. And I imagined him lounging by his lagoon-shaped pool while he tapped out his reply to me on his expensive Palm Pilot. The other most ethical person I know keeps showing up at the backdoor with a towel draped over her shoulder.
5. If a story written about my filling up the pool during a drought appeared on the front page of my local newspaper or the lead story on TV news, how would I feel?
I'd probably feel like those people who go on Oprah to discuss why they don't enjoy sex - as long as other people learn from my problem, and I got to meet Oprah, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
In these complicated global-warming times, what advice would I give to someone considering a new swimming pool? Next to the warning labels that strongly discourage swimmers from diving headfirst into the shallow end, I would add two warning labels for owners, both conveniently found on the ethicist's Web site.
As it says in Proverbs: "Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein."
And in the words of William Penn, 17th-century patriot: "Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good."
from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (p. B1), Sunday, July 2, 2000
