Green Tomorrow

George Kunkel, Jr., writing in the March, 2008 edition of Water Efficiency, notes that 50,000 drinking water utilities in the United States withdraw about 40 billion gallons of water per day from their sources. This estimate does not take into account well water being used each day and it does not take into account all of the water being drawn from aquifers and various other sources for irrigation. It would probably be safe to say that well over 50 billion gallons of water are being drawn from available sources every day.

Just staying with 40 billion gallons per day, however, is enough to compare the scale of water usage to gasoline usage. Our nation uses ten million barrels of oil per day. If a barrel of oil could be converted into the maximum potential for gasoline that would be no more than 40 gallons per barrel refined. The actual ratio, for a variety of reasons having to do with refining procedures and requirements for special blends and different levels of octane, is closer to 27 gallons per barrel. Let’s round it to 30 gallons. Ten million barrels of oil per day is the equivalent of 300 million gallons of gasoline. 40 billion gallons of water, even allowing for the 6 billion gallons of water estimated to leak out of the delivery lines on the way to the end users, is more than one hundred times the gallons of gasoline we use every day.

The price of gasoline and the limited supply, whatever that limit might be, is the focus of today’s headlines.This is because of the sharp rise in the price of gasoline and all the related items that use oil products, such as plastics made from oil refinery byproducts and a significant amount of electricity production. But reader be warned, the cost of water is also rising, whether that cost is yet reflected in the water bill or not, the cost of water is rising.

The first cost increases for water are the increased cost of energy needed to pump water and to treat water. The second cost increases have to do with the increased cost of energy needed to pump wastewater and to treat wastewater.

The third round of cost increases for water relate to supply versus demand. The need for water in specific locations is beginning to outstrip the supply. This means an increase in the cost being charged for the water at its source and also an increase in the cost of transporting water.

The fourth cost increase for water is coming from repair and replacement of water delivery systems. Old pipes and old pumps leak and lead to line breaks and pump breakdowns. New equipment is ever more expensive. In addition, every new demand on a water system means expansion: more water, more treatment, more equipment, more pipelines.

The fifth cost increase for water is coming from the other end: the cost of disposing of water once it has been used and converted into wastewater. Once again, expanded use of water means expanded demands for wastewater infrastructure: more collection lines, more volume of waste to be treated, more treated (or, in some cases untreated) wastewater being discharged.

Water is anything but invisible in our society. We see drinking fountains and water sprinklers everywhere; we take showers and flush toilets and run dishwashers and washing machines. What is invisible, however, is the true cost of water. Our water bills generally speaking do not reflect the true cost of the water. Our sewer bills do not generally speaking reflect the true costs of wastewater treatment and disposal. Many municipalities try to keep water bills low. But this creates a false impression that there is plenty of water and that treating and providing it is much less costly that in fact is the case.

Bottom line: by all accounts we are heading for water shock. It may well be on a scale much greater than the current gasoline and energy shock. There will always be vast amounts of water. After all, we are surrounded by oceans. But the cost of procuring and treating that water and supplying it in adequate amounts will become far more expensive than is currently the case. It is already feasible to derive fresh water from saltwater drawn out of the ocean. Large plants are producing water in this fashion – but at a very high price. Better and better methods of treating wastewater are also at hand but again, at a higher price.

What is happening in the United States parallels what is happening in most other parts of the world and it is paralleling the energy crisis. Besides air, energy and water have been taken for granted. We have already experienced the initial stages of air quality shock. Now it is energy shock. Water quality, quantity and costs will be the next shock.

For most situations and in most places there is still time to head off water woes. Careful use of water, thoughtful and imaginative planning for future development, creativity in recycling, and regional cooperation in water management could avert what otherwise will be another catastrophic blow to our economy and our lifestyles. Just like the energy crisis, the issues of water and wastewater management are no longer solved by voluntary lip service and nods to the environment. For our survival it is now necessary that at every level of our society from individual to business to government we develop and implement a water policy. What is happening now with gasoline can serve as a reminder about what happens when we wait too long to develop sound policies based on the facts.

With regard to water we can bite some relatively small bullets now or some much larger bullets in the near future!