February 08, 2008
As In The Days Of Old
Georgia wants to annex a small part of Tennessee. That seems odd on the face of it, as if the argument over those states' borders should have been settled before, say, 1815 or so. But the real fight isn't over land---it's all about water.
Once you read the article, you'll see that the Georgian solution is short-sighted. Some people get testy when anyone mentions the concept of sustainable growth, and I'm certainly not one to suggest putting restraints on growth spurred on by a free economy. But when a common resource, such as water, is in danger of falling short of a given area's demands, isn't it time to think about throttling things back, at least until a permanent solution is found? It's a Pandora's box of political problems, but what is the other answer? A civil war over water rights?
Posted by Matthew at February 8, 2008 10:06 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Incredible! I can't believe that the issue was even brought up. You can't just remark a state line. I have a question and it may be totally stupid but I'm going to ask it. Why can't we use water from the ocean. I know there are ways to treat it and remove the salt. Is it an issue of money? We can take sewer water and treat it so it can be dumped back in the river and I heard that a town in California is actually making waste water reusable so isn't there some way to use water from the ocean?
Posted by: David![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.opaquelucidity.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 9, 2008 02:58 PM
David,
No such thing as a stupid question. Yes, you can use water from the ocean - a process called desalination. It costs a lot of energy and a lot of money. There are lots of plants around the world that desalinate ocean water to use on a commercial scale. The biggest ones are in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc. There are two main technologies vacuum distillation where you simply boil off the water under lower pressure (to reduce the boiling point) and condense it back. The other is using membrane technology (reverse osmosis).
Sewer water is much easier to convert to usable water (other than the "ick" factor) because the actual amount of dissolved stuff in the water is very low (<0.5%). Most of the crud in sewer water is insoluble and easily separated. By comparison ocean water has ~ 3.5% of salt dissolved in it.
To do a layman's comparison on the energy involved, take glass of water and put a teaspoon of salt in it. Stir it around till it dissolves. Doesn't take much effort, does it?. Now take that cup of water, put it in a saucepan and boil off the water. The difference in the energy involved is obvious to see.
The other problem with desalination is the economics only work on the coast. If you have to transport the water too far inland, it becomes cost prohibitive.
Hash
Posted by: Hash at February 10, 2008 08:24 AM
Thanks Hash. On the same subject I heard that states out west are having water problems also. Is this related to "Global Warming" or is that just over the top rhetoric? I've also read that the problems out west are caused by the fact that years ago the land was irrigated through the use of Government money and now they have created a monster out there and aren't able to sustain it. Thoughts?
Posted by: David at February 10, 2008 07:04 PM
The water problems in the western states is a highly complex issue and trying to assign a simple cause to the problem doesn't do it justice. That may sound like a cop out answer but it's true. The main causes of the shortage are the population growth and the urbanization of the west along with the demand on the limited resources by agriculture. Global warming impacts are a side story as a potential problem of less snowpack on the mountains. That is after all the source of all the fresh water.
The scary part is that even though the west has had droughts, we haven't had the kind of sustained droughts that have occurred in historical time frames. Imagine a sustained 50-75 year drought. It has happened before within the past 1000 yrs. Wiped out entire tribes of Natives at the time and forced others to move. The Indians at the time survived by finding better places to live. What would you do today with the population of LA?
Posted by: Hash at February 10, 2008 10:47 PM