The Water Crisis

[dealing with it 123]

Most people don't realize that we are runing short on water. American's continue to use water as if it were a convienence, when really, it is one of the most important things in the world. There are really, three things humans need to survive, that is air, food, and water. Water is so precious, but we take it for granted. I'm not an expert or anything, I'm only 12 years old, so from what I herd, we only have enough water for about ten years the way that we are using it. Now some people might ask: "What are you talking about, there's more water on Earth than there is land." But what some people might not know is that only 3% of water on Earth we can drink. 2% of that water is trapped in icebergs. So that leaves us with 1% of water on Earth. Really, that's a lot of water, but there are more than 6 billion people on Earth which all need water as well, and the population is just growing and growing. Now, I'm not saying that people should just stop using water except for when they need it only, but I'm saying, that do't just let you're water run while you aren't using it, or don't take half an hour long showers, just small stuff, because I don't think it is really our job to fix the crisis, but the government's. And I don't want the government to spend billions of dollars on this, because there has to be some way to solve this that has an effect that is entirely good, someway, I have no idea what that is, but it has to be out ther somewhere.

Please feel free to express your feelings or opinions on the subject.  

[Lord Bitememan]

What you were told was only a half-truth, and it omitted several important factors.

First, the 1% figure you were given, isn't the total consumable water, it is the total cheaply consumable water (i.e., naturally fresh water). Through more expensive processes we can desalinate water, and in fact, do so. In Tampa Bay, FL there is a desalination plant that desalinates 25 million gallons of water a day. And that's nothing. 75% of global desalination capacity is based in the Middle East. So, the water in the rivers and streams and lakes is an important source because it is cheap to treat and deliver, but the rest of the world's water is definitely usable through human technology.

Second, just because you flush, run, and splash water around doesn't mean that it has departed the earth. All the water that goes down the drain in urban areas flows into the sewers and goes through a treatment plant which removes solid, chemical, and biological wastes till it mimics natural water. It is then discharged back into the environment where it is put back into the water cycle. There, it will evaporate, form clouds in the atmosphere, and eventually come back to the lakes and streams from which we received it when it falls as rain. In other words, even though we use it, the earth is perpetually recycling our water for us.

So, the real issue here is in areas where the population is outgrowing the capacity of the water cycle to provide water and replenish it without long term net water decrease. The place where this occurs most visibly is in the desert southwest where populations are BOOMING but there simply isn't much water to begin with. These areas depend on seasonal melt from the snow in the mountains to replenish the rivers. With the exploding populations water consumption has outstripped the capacity of the desert water cycle to replenish the rivers and streams, and municipalities have turned to draining the aquifers, which threatens to leave the desert even more bone dry than it is. With no available coastline for these states, desalination is not an option.

So, while water conservation will slow the inevitable, the root cause of the problem remains; people moved out of the places where all the water was (mostly because they didn't like dealing with the winters and/or humidity) and moved where there wasn't any (in order to enjoy the hot dry weather). While unpopular government actions might fix it, frankly I think leaving people to their own devices will sort the problem out just fine. Once the aquifers are drained and bone dry, so too will the rest of the desert dry out. Then, when water sells for $36 a gallon from the municipal water supply, people will get the hint and move back where water is cheap and abundant. The desert water cycle will slowly replenish the lost resources, and over time you'll hardly know man had come and mucked things up.  

[Vasilius Konstantinos]

ANother note, there are a ton of wells out in the deserts across the world. I lived in the High Desert of Mojave, CA for most my life and we lived off of a natural well which was wonderful underground water that supported over 200,000 people even to this day. The CA aqueduct actually was not used for a very long time for our area even though we built it for the Los Angeles basin. But the truth is we did not need the aqueduct for our area, let alone ever, as the water supply we have there replenishes itself from the San Gabriel Mountain runoffs every winter.

Its the circle of life, Simba! razz  

[dealing with it 123]

Okay, first of all, I knew that we can put water through certain processes that will purify it and allow us to drink it, but that takes a lot of energy, and money to do. In this economy, we may not be able to afford it, even though I'd rather pay the money for that if we needed it.

Secondly, I also know that all the water we use goes through treatment plants and gets put back in the environment and into the water cycle, but if there are too many people in a given area, the water might not com back fast enough.

Now, I have some questions that I hope you can answer because I don't know a lot about aqufirs. I live in Vnacouver, WA, which is in southern Wahington right across the river from Portland, OR which you may or may not have heard of. So, there is a very large aqufir that is under Vancouver and some of Portland which we use for our water. I was told that it takes more than 300 years to fill back up, so what if we were to use all the water that's in there? Does that mean that we would have to wait for more water to come? Now I know that aqufirs are always filing back up, but at the rate that water is coming into the aqufir, there might not be enough water for the entire Metropolitan area?

Lord Bitememan

What you were told was only a half-truth, and it omitted several important factors.

First, the 1% figure you were given, isn't the total consumable water, it is the total cheaply consumable water (i.e., naturally fresh water). Through more expensive processes we can desalinate water, and in fact, do so. In Tampa Bay, FL there is a desalination plant that desalinates 25 million gallons of water a day. And that's nothing. 75% of global desalination capacity is based in the Middle East. So, the water in the rivers and streams and lakes is an important source because it is cheap to treat and deliver, but the rest of the world's water is definitely usable through human technology.

Second, just because you flush, run, and splash water around doesn't mean that it has departed the earth. All the water that goes down the drain in urban areas flows into the sewers and goes through a treatment plant which removes solid, chemical, and biological wastes till it mimics natural water. It is then discharged back into the environment where it is put back into the water cycle. There, it will evaporate, form clouds in the atmosphere, and eventually come back to the lakes and streams from which we received it when it falls as rain. In other words, even though we use it, the earth is perpetually recycling our water for us.

So, the real issue here is in areas where the population is outgrowing the capacity of the water cycle to provide water and replenish it without long term net water decrease. The place where this occurs most visibly is in the desert southwest where populations are BOOMING but there simply isn't much water to begin with. These areas depend on seasonal melt from the snow in the mountains to replenish the rivers. With the exploding populations water consumption has outstripped the capacity of the desert water cycle to replenish the rivers and streams, and municipalities have turned to draining the aquifers, which threatens to leave the desert even more bone dry than it is. With no available coastline for these states, desalination is not an option.

So, while water conservation will slow the inevitable, the root cause of the problem remains; people moved out of the places where all the water was (mostly because they didn't like dealing with the winters and/or humidity) and moved where there wasn't any (in order to enjoy the hot dry weather). While unpopular government actions might fix it, frankly I think leaving people to their own devices will sort the problem out just fine. Once the aquifers are drained and bone dry, so too will the rest of the desert dry out. Then, when water sells for $36 a gallon from the municipal water supply, people will get the hint and move back where water is cheap and abundant. The desert water cycle will slowly replenish the lost resources, and over time you'll hardly know man had come and mucked things up.

 

[Lord Bitememan]

Quote:

Okay, first of all, I knew that we can put water through certain processes that will purify it and allow us to drink it, but that takes a lot of energy, and money to do.

Technological improvements in the realm of desalination have been reducing the cost and energy requirements of the process every year. Again, I refer to the Tampa plant. Also, it bears mention, water for human consumption goes overwhelmingly to agricultural use, not to actual drinking, washing, et al. So, in heavily urban areas desalination is actually a viable solution for human water needs, since the agricultural requirement isn't as high. Desalination is not a viable solution for agricultural water needs. But, a comparison for you, the cost to desalinate 1,000 gallons of drinking water is $3. The cost of 1,000 gallons of bottled water is $7,945.

Quote:

Secondly, I also know that all the water we use goes through treatment plants and gets put back in the environment and into the water cycle, but if there are too many people in a given area, the water might not com back fast enough.

A fact which I highlighted in my talk about the southwest. But, frankly, if the population of the southwest is getting by on its meager water resources now (and it's debateable), how badly does humanity really strain water resources? By all the pessimistic calculations out there the southwest should be dying on thirst right now, with the Colorado River drained to a trickle. That's just not happening. By that metric why shouldn't we in the Great Lakes region waste water with impunity? We have three times the population of the southwest, but easily have ten times the supply of fresh water they do. If we sprayed each other day and night with hoses we couldn't deplete our water supply in ten generations. Why should we be compelled to get frugal with our water just because some whiners decided to move off to the southwest because they couldn't cope with our winters?

Quote:

Now, I have some questions that I hope you can answer because I don't know a lot about aqufirs. I live in Vnacouver, WA, which is in southern Wahington right across the river from Portland, OR which you may or may not have heard of.

I passed through Eugene once on a trip to rural Oregon, so I've seen a bit of all this on a map.

Quote:

So, there is a very large aqufir that is under Vancouver and some of Portland which we use for our water. I was told that it takes more than 300 years to fill back up, so what if we were to use all the water that's in there? Does that mean that we would have to wait for more water to come? Now I know that aqufirs are always filing back up, but at the rate that water is coming into the aqufir, there might not be enough water for the entire Metropolitan area?

It depends on the initial size of the aquifer, the rate of human consumption, and the rate of recharge. If the area has multiple sources for its water, and only draws a small amount from the aquifer, and that amount is less than the rate of recharge for the aquifer, then you have nothing to worry about. If the area draws almost totally from the aquifer, and it is greater than the rate of recharge, but the aquifer is huge, then it's a problem coming down the pipeline, but over a long period of time many other intervening factors might eliminate the problem. If the aquifer isn't very big, and the area is totally dependent on it, then the area will have to turn to new sources of water. For example, you have that fairly large salt-water body to your west which technology has provided you a means of utilizing. Will your water rates go up? Yes. However, necessity is the mother of invention, and given the necessity and the time you will use this method over, your area might be pioneers in cheap desalination techniques.  

[dealing with it 123]

Well, you've convinced me, and I've learned a lot on a number of subjects so thanks!