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More heat, less water
a) No matter how much we disagree with it, global warming is happening.
b) Now what do we do?
After years of denial, now there is a sudden – and much needed – flurry of action, acknowledging the warnings of many scientists that the effects of global climate change coupled with growing population and rising consumption trends will first hit our water supplies.
On October 2 the EPA Office of Water issued a National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change with an overview of the likely effects of climate change on the nation’s supply of safe drinking water, clean water for recreational, agricultural and industrial uses, and the health of rivers, streams, ocean coastal waters and other natural habitats.
In EPA’s view, what can we anticipate for the future? Of note, there would be likely increases in water pollution problems, since warmer air temperatures will result in warmer water, leading to lower oxygen levels, higher toxicity of some pollutants and the “dead zones”. These changes would affect aquatic life and cause significant deterioration of aquatic ecosystem health. Further, we all are now attuned to the greater risk of extreme weather-related events and their collective impact on the coastal areas. Finally, all across the country there would be changes to the availability of drinking water supplies, another trend that many cities across the South and Southwest are already experiencing.
At this moment in the game, we need to devote resources to both mitigation (trying to decrease greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere) and adaptation, which will require building up infrastructure robust enough to deal with these likely changes. Nowhere is the issue more acute than in the water industry. The Bureau of Reclamation at the Department of the Interior just announced a new joint initiative with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) whose explicit goal is “to anticipate future water supplies and to plan for the needs of a growing population” so as to prevent possible future “water wars.” Water wars? This is something that happens in other places, but not in our homeland, correct? Alas, no. As announced in the initiative, “abundant supplies of clean, fresh water can no longer be taken for granted… Water wars have spread to the Midwest, East, and South… As this competition escalates during a time of chronic drought and changing climate, water conflicts are occurring within states, among states, between states and the Federal government and among environmentalists and state and Federal agencies.”
Water conservation, reclamation and protection from pollution are all needed to ensure that we and our children will continue to enjoying plentiful water supply for many years to come. And, as in many past moments of crisis, these challenges are also opportunities for innovation, as industries are developing new technologies for water purification on both sides of the pipe – treatment of wastewater to remove pollutants from flowing into rivers, streams, and oceans, and treatment of drinking water to ensure safety and purity of municipal water supplies. We either already have the necessary technology or we are close to developing it, so long as there is political will to move in this life-saving direction.
The EPA Water Program Strategy identifies improved energy efficiency at water and wastewater utilities as Key Action # 1 which needs to include energy performance benchmarking programs, use of energy audits and energy tracking systems, development of alternative energy sources within plants (e.g., solar, wind, hydro), and installation of combined heat and power systems for heat and energy generation at wastewater treatment facilities. And, as always, water conservation is ever in fashion. We all can do our part while ensuring that our elected local, state, and federal officials keep water issues on top of their agendas.
Photo by woodlywonderworks
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