How bad is the problem?
Most experts agree the problem is growing (see the national threat assessment). Gangs are now networking across the U.S. instead of confining themselves to a single community as in the past. Every police department and most other agencies have someone who is involved in gang prevention or control.
Salinity in soil, groundwater and river systems is now a serious problem in many parts of Australia, and the problem is increasing. Terms such as ‘the white plague’ and ‘the salt bomb’, which you might read in newspapers and magazines or hear on the news, indicate the gravity of problems associated with salinity in Australia. Since there is often a time lag effect between the cause of a salinity outbreak and the actual effects, it is difficult to know exactly how much of Australia is affected by salinity. There are enormous, ancient stores of salts that are released from weathering rocks, or were carried in from surrounding oceans in rainfall, and trapped in the landscape long ago. It is these deposits of stored salt that feed the majority of salinity problems. These salt stores are distributed widely across the semi-arid and arid parts of Australia, stretching in a huge arc from the north Tropics, down south adjacent to the Great Dividing Range, broadening and sweeping across the Murr
