No one is talking out loud about it.

There might need to be some difficult choices made when it comes to wasting of water.

Are we running out? No. The city of Amarillo is drilling wells. It’s tapping into groundwater supplies that will take pressure off the use of surface water coming from Lake Meredith, which also quenches the thirst of Lubbock, which has even more residents than Amarillo.

But when I drive around the city, particularly in the pre-dawn period on most workdays, I am stunned at the amount of water I see being wasted by commercial watering operations. Broken sprinkler heads dump water into the streets. Businesses — and, yes, even a few private residences — feature irrigation systems that aren’t working properly.

Is anyone paying attention? Many of the business owners and homeowners aren’t. City public utility enforcers need to get with the program more than they are at the moment.

With some motorists reeling over the city’s get-tough policy on red-light runners, it is getting to be time to create some heartburn among business owners who don’t fix their sprinkler systems.

This water supply of ours isn’t infinite.