Resources
Water Scarcity Solutions
Throughout our research for this project, many of our experts shared some innovative solutions to the issue of water scarcity. Unfortunately, time constraints prevented us from including all of these in the educational documentary. However, as both UNCW and the experts feel these solutions are very important, we would like to share them with you. We also invite you to review the transcripts of the interviews with all the experts to find out more about the various processes they recommended.
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Technology
AQUIFER STORAGE AND RECOVERY or ASR: Nature is fickle, we sometimes experience too much water and at other times not enough. The idea behind Aquifer Storage and Recovery is to take water from the surface or ground when it’s plentiful, say during wet periods, and pump it into an aquifer for storage until it’s needed during dry periods such as a drought. The water is treated to drinking water standards before it is injected in the aquifer for storage. It’s a way of using groundwater and an aquifer as a reservoir. Because this protects the water from tampering, this process is considered by some experts to be more environmentally friendly than surface reservoirs. It also reduces the need to build large, expensive surface reservoirs.
Many of our experts referred to ASR as a possible means of dealing with water scarcity. Jean Crews-Klein VP of Business Development and Natural Resources, North Carolina Economic Development Center Inc. had this to say about the process:
“Actually that alternative is now being pursued by Greenville. They will be the first permitted aquifer storage and recovery unit operating in the state of North Carolina. Aquifer storage and recovery is a technology available as an alternative to the 15 counties in that area. The principle is to take water from the surface or the ground in times that water is plentiful, treat it to a drinkable standard, and then inject it back into the ground into the aquifer system. Your storing the water in the aquifer for future use, for times when surface water is lean or we’re in a drought. It’s a very technically complicated process; it is a fairly expensive process. The chemical balance between the water that is in the ground and the water that is injected is as much art as it is science.”
Jean Crews-Klein Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Dr. Richard Spruill, Associate Professor of Hydrology at East Carolina University:
“Aquifer Storage and Recovery is an interesting process wherein we find a source of water that we’re not currently utilizing. We treat that water to a very high standard. We’ll let that water stay in the aquifer until we need it. Usually in the summer or early fall, so we use the ground water system as our reservoir. We call it Aquifer Storage and Recovery. It’s successful in a large number of states already in the United States and successfully employed all around the world.”
Richard Spruill Interview (Microsoft Word document)
John H. Morris, Director, Division of Water Resources, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources:
“There are many examples of successful things that we can draw from around the country. I think it’s comforting that we are not by ourselves in this problem. One example is artificial recharge of ground water. This is done in many areas of Florida and California where during certain times of the year when water isn’t more available, for example, the winter; treated clean water is pumped into the aquifers underground. It’s stored there and can be withdrawn when it’s needed, during a dry period. Additionally, we are very fortunate that the City of Greenville, North Carolina is experimenting with a project to do this. Since in Eastern North Carolina the terrain doesn’t really lend itself to building reservoirs to store water, we think this is a promising technology and we hope it works out.”
John N. Morris Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Books and websites on the subject, these are just a sample of what may in your library and on the internet:
Groundwater Recharge and Wells: A Guide to Aquifer Storage Recovery Author: David R. Pyne, Jan 1995, Publisher: Lewis Publishing; ISBN: 1566700973
Ground Water Storage and Recovery Act Draft Regulations Comments from CES,www.environmentalsafeguards.com; http://www.environmentalsafeguards.com/aquiferrecharge.html
Journal of American Water Resources Association; Effects of Artificial Recharge on Ground Water Quality and Aquifer Storage Recovery AWRA Paper Number 96019, http://www.awra.org/jawra/papers/J96019.htm
Washington Department of Ecology, Water Resources: Aquifer
Storage and Recovery
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/asr/asr-home.html
“The Invisible Drought”, a half-hour video on managed aquifer recharge, produced by the University of Idaho’s College of Agriculture. http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/AgKnowledge/agknowledge92.htm
Aquifer Storage Recovery Wells: The Path Ahead R. David
G. Pyne, P.E.
The author is president of ASR Systems, LLC., in Gainesville, FL
http://www.fwrj.com/Articles%202002/FWRJ_2_02_1.pdf
Desalination is a process
that removes dissolved minerals (including but not limited to salt) from seawater,
brackish water, or treated wastewater. A number of technologies have been developed
for desalination, including reverse osmosis (RO), distillation, electro-dialysis,
and vacuum freezing.
Perhaps the most commonly used is Reverse Osmosis, the process of removing the
salt from sea or brackish water. This procedure is also known as membrane technology
where purified water is obtained from a salt solution by passing sea or brackish
water through semi-porous membranes under pressure. With reverse osmosis, the
product water passes through a fine membrane the salts are unable to pass through.
The resulting salt waste (brine) is removed and disposed. Reverse Osmosis and
distillation are the most commonly considered procedures by many municipalities,
water districts and private companies around the world for the development of
seawater desalination.
More than 7,500 desalination plants are in operation worldwide, 60% of these
are located in the Middle East. The world's largest plant in Saudi Arabia produces
128 MGD (million gallons a day) of desalted water. In contrast, 12% of the world's
capacity is produced in the Americas, with most of the plants located in the
Caribbean and Florida. A limited number of desalination plants have been built
along the California coast, primarily because the cost of desalination is generally
higher than the costs of other water supply alternatives available in that area
(e.g., water transfers and groundwater pumping). As drought conditions occur
and concern over water availability increases, desalination projects are being
proposed at numerous locations in California, and elsewhere.
Paul Simon, Former Illinois State Senator, currently a Professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Director of the Public Policy Institute:
“A good example of what can happen; Saudi Arabia now uses more desalinated water, than any other country. They can do it because of cheap energy. I don’t know what it costs in Saudi Arabia for a barrel of oil, maybe 50 cents or whatever the heck it is, but Saudi Arabia, which was growing about eight percent of their own food, now is a food exporter. You can put water on the desert; you can put water on anything, other than rock, and you can grow crops. We are going to have to use desalinated water. Now the positive things that are happening: in Tampa, Florida, the biggest desalination plant in the United States is being now built and even before that is going to be completed, they are already planning a second one. Things are happening but we are inching ahead on solutions, whereas the problems are leaping at us.”
Paul Simon Interview (Microsoft Word document)
How does reverse osmosis work? Robert W. Oreskovich, Utilities Director, Dare County, NC, explains:
“We use reverse osmosis membranes. And the membranes we have reject over 99 percent of all the minerals in the water. We operate at a 75 percent product recovery; three out of every four gallons that come into the plant produce drinking water. The other gallon washes away the minerals that are removed in the process.
We’re reversing the natural osmotic tendency of the water. And what that means is we’re pushing the salt water into the membranes and it’s being separated into two flows: the good water that we will make potable water from and the reject water that takes away and rejects all minerals in the process.
Basically, there’s a fact of physics on earth called osmosis where water of lesser quantity of solids say like de-ionized or distilled water, has a tendency to dilute a water with a highly quantity of solids say like the Atlantic Ocean; that’s osmosis. That’s why you can’t drink saltwater. If it gets into your stomach, all moisture in your pores will want to migrate into your stomach, to dilute that water and you’ll actually die of dehydration. What we do through pressure pumps is we reverse that natural osmotic tendency and push the saltwater through the membranes. When I mention membrane separation, I do that because it’s more of a generic term for using these membranes. Reverse osmosis is one way.”Robert W. Oreskovich Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Other experts speak out on this topic, please follow the links for their views:
Jean
Crews-Klein Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Sandra Postel Interview
(Microsoft Word document)
To start you on your way to discovering more about Desalination, may we suggest the following:
International Desalination Association http://www.idadesal.org
Worldwide Water Organization http://www.world-wide-water.com/
desalination.com, an environmental primer http://www.desalination.com/
Tampa Bay Water: Seawater Desalination Project http://www.tampabaywater.org/MWP/MWP_Projects/Desal/Desal.htm
Water Re-Use Promotion Center http://www2.neweb.ne.jp/wd/wrpc-j/annai/an04-e.htm
Organization of American States “2.1 Desalination by reverse osmosis´ http://www.oas.org/usde/publications/Unit/oea59e/ch20.htm
National Desalination Clearinghouse http://www.usbr.gov/desal/
Drip Irrigation is the slow release of water that drips through tubing or pipes placed near a plant's root system. Drip Irrigation was created in the desert regions of Israel around 40 years ago. With near desert conditions in the area, there was a very limited water supply so the need for a very water conserving method of irrigating crops was needed. This is how it started and it now has become a very refined method of irrigation. Drip Irrigation in the U.S. was first adopted in the dry regions of the American Southwest and has slowly moved across to the rest of the country. It’s now a common irrigation method where pipes or tubes are filled with water that slowly drips on the roots of crops. It is a low-pressure method of irrigation and less water is lost to evaporation than high-pressure spray irrigation. Drip Irrigation is also known as Subsurface Drip Irrigation, Trickle-L or Microirrigation.
Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project:
“Drip irrigation is about the most efficient method we know of to irrigate crops…There are different methods of doing it. However, the idea is to deliver [water] through little holes in tubing directly to the roots, the amount of water that the plant requires and so you can get efficiencies upwards of ninety, ninety-five percent with this method versus fifty, sixty, seventy percent with more conventional methods. It’s a way of getting just the right amount of water, so you tend to get not only the savings in water but actually higher yields very often in the crop. My sense is we need something like a doubling of water productivity over the next twenty-five years if we’re going to meet our human needs for water and also protect the aquatic environment; drip irrigation is one technology that can help do that. You often get a doubling or tripling of the amount of crop yield per gallon or per unit of water that you’re using.”
Sandra Postel Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Paul Simon, Former Illinois State Senator, currently a Professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Director of the Public Policy Institute:
“There are ways to save huge amounts of water with irrigation. If you have enough money, and this is one of the problems, if you have enough money to have drip irrigation then you could save huge amounts of water.”
Paul Simon Interview (Microsoft Word document)
For more information, please checkout the following:
Kansas State University, Research and Extension, “SDI
in the Great Plains”, a searchable website on the subsurface drip irrigation
process or microirrigation.
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/sdi/
The Micro Irrigation Forum
http://www.microirrigationforum.com
Jess Stryker’s Landscape Irrigation Tutorials, http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/
Howstuffworks, http://home.howstuffworks.com/irrigation4.htm
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
http://www.fao.org/docrep/S8684E/s8684e07.htm
“Good to the Last Drip, Cut your watering by 70% and make it better,” By Mark Stith, ProgressiveFarmer. Com, http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/magazine/article/1,14730,465066,00.html
Reclaimed water is wastewater that is treated to meet federal and state drinking water standards by eliminating by-products harmful for irrigation, however it does retain beneficial elements such as phosphorous and nitrogen that work as fertilizers to nourish plant growth. Reclaimed water is not used for drinking, however it does conserve drinking water and creates a new source for irrigation. Reclaimed water is sometimes referred to as Water Reuse, as in water discharged by one user and used by others. It may also be referred to as Recycled Water. Graywater is water that has been used for showering, clothes washing and faucet uses. Kitchen sink and toilet water are excluded. This water has excellent potential to be reused (for example, as irrigation for yards).
Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed, Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager:
“Water reuse is wastewater that has been treated to a very high level and can be reused for non-potable usage, such as car washing, irrigation and things of that nature.
Normally, we use a biological treatment process using biological bugs to bite down the waste and degrade the waste to elemental terms. Then you go through a clarification process where the solids that are built up during the treatment process are sorted out and removed from the waste stream. Then you go through a filtration process where any of the finds that are left in the wastewater stream are filtered out. Then after that it would go through a disinfection process either through chlorination or UV (ultra violet) disinfection and at that point it can be reused.”William L. (Les) Hall, Jr. Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Dr. Richard Spruill, Associate Professor of Hydrology at East Carolina University:
“You can reuse water in a number of different ways. You know we already essentially do it. Much of the water in our rivers has been used by other municipalities, sent through their waste treatment plants, purified and put right back in our river There’s no reason why we can’t clean up our water. We certainly do that now. There’s no reason why we can’t accept that the water quality that we can produce on the wastewater side, is acceptable and can be used for industrial purposes, for cooling towers, for lots of different purposes.
It’s very high quality water. I’m not saying that you would necessarily want to drink it but it does meet most primary and secondary drinking water standards and could be used much more effectively than we’re using it now.”Richard Spruill Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Les Hall, Executive Vice President, McKim & Creed, Infrastructure and Environment Division Manager:
"Reused water, actually we call it reclaimed water, can be reused for many purposes; irrigation of lawns and shrubberies, car washes, irrigation of farmland, forestland, golf courses. It can be used in cooling towers for industries. It can be used for almost any industrial type process that does not require real high quality of potable type water. Potable water is the water you drink. So any consumptive use that does not require drinking water quality of water; it does not involve human consumption of that water, you can basically use reclaimed water for that."
William L. (Les) Hall, Jr. Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Dennis Brobst, Director of Public Utility for Moore County
“When we were scrambling around looking for water, you know we noticed that the discharge of our wastewater treatment plant, we had four and a half, almost five million gallons a day of treated wastewater that we were discharging into a stream and was just going downriver, and that can be reused. We need to get past the phobias of water reuse and to implement those policies and procedures, and we need to get the regulatory agencies to look at these possibilities and help us find ways of making water reuse work.”
Dennis Brobst Interview (Microsoft Word document)
For more information on Reclaimed Water check with your library or the internet, we have listed a few links of interest. There are many more out there:
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Water Resources; Water Reuse http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/reuse/
City of Tucson’s Water Resources Department web
site on Water Reuse
http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/water/water_resources/reclaimed_water/reclaimed_water.htm
“Reclaimed water — a ‘new’ water
supply: Treated wastewater used for irrigation, industry and the environment”
by Kathy Cupps, Department of Ecology, State of Washington, Seattle Daily Journal
of Commerce online edition, July 17, 2003
http://www.djc.com/news/en/11146993.html
Washington State Department of Ecology; Water Quality; Water Reclamation and Reuse http://www.djc.com/news/en/11146993.html
Use of Reclaimed Water and Sludge in Food Crop Production by Committee on the Use of Treated Municipal Wastewater Effluents and Sludge in the Production of Crops for Human Consumption, National Research Council, publisher: The National Academies Press, 1996. ISBN: 0-309-08385-0
Using Reclaimed Water to Augment Potable Water Resources,
A Joint Publication of the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the American
Water Works Association (WEF), Order No. P18101Pl.
http://www.uwin.siu.edu/announce/newbooks/1998/book0310.html
Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse, Inc Metcalf & Eddy, David H. Stensel, George Tchobanoglous, Franklin Burton, Inc Metcalf and Eddy, the McGraw-Hill Companies, 4th March, 2002, ISBN: 0070418780.
Using Reclaimed Water to Augment Potable Water Resources:
A Special Publication
by the Water Environment Federation Staff, American Water Resources Association
Staff, AWWA Water Reuse Committee, ISBN: 1572781254.
Industrial Water Reuse and Wastewater Minimization by James G. Mann, A. Y. Liu and Y. A. Liu, The McGraw-Hill Companies, July 1999, ISBN: 0071348557.
Planning
Drought Management
“When drought becomes news, it has already been around for a long time...conservation and cooperation are the best tools we have to alleviate the severity of the problem.” Terry Brown, Water Control Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District News, Special Edition, October 2003 newsletter.
Due to North Carolina’s severe drought in 2002, the US Army Corps of Engineers formed a Water Management Committee and initiated weekly conferences covering the concerns of stakeholders in the Roanoke River Basin, the Cape Fear River Basin, the Neuse River Basin and the Yadkin-PeeDee River Basin. Representatives from the North Carolina and Virginia Divisions of Water Resources, the US Geological Survey and the National Weather Service were on hand to answer questions from callers and to make any necessary plans. Through this cooperative effort, many experts were able to piece together information critical to the management of the watersheds. In 2003, these meetings were held monthly.
“What began as a response to manage water resources during an extreme drought has turned into an outstanding partnership to manage the resources year around, in all kinds of conditions.”
Terry Brown, Water Control Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District News, Special Edition, October 2003 newsletter.
The US Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, October 2003, newsletter also has this to add:
“The probabilities over the next year remain as uncertain as ever. Forecasting may improve, yet nature retains a capacity to surprise and even shock the best-regulated systems. What are we learning?:
Don’t take abundant water for granted!
Many interests and ecological systems are strongly affected by climate, and water management.
Water quality, water supply, recreation and natural resources all deserve vigilant stewardship.
Communication among all stakeholders helps us to do a better job.”
Colonel Ray Alexander, District Engineer and Commander of the U.S. Corps of Engineers had this to say about Wilmington’s Corps of Engineers Drought Management Committee:
“I think perhaps the greatest success of the Drought, and the Water Management Committee is the relationships and the resulting communication. In some instances, in that forum, there was very little that any one agency, community or private businessman could do about the situation, but what the forum did allow for was the ground truth to be shared and to quell the fear of the unknown. To let everybody know when they walked away, while they were each feeling some pain, that pain was being shared. That may not sound a like a lot, but it certainly does calm the suspicion that there might be any one agency or community that is having an advantage over another in a time of crisis.”
Colonel Ray Alexander Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Terry Brown Interview (Microsoft Word document)
The following is a link to the US Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, Water Management Unit: http://epec1.saw.usace.army.mil/NewHomePage/index.htm
Tom Leahy, P.E., Acting Director, Department of Public Utilities, City of Virginia Beach, VA has faced severe water shortages since the early 1970’s. They came up with a plan so that the city was prepared:
“…we went into this drought management mode, bought water from the City of Norfolk, we were able to reduce our take from the basin to 25 to 35 million gallons per day; it varied over a course of about a year. During that period, we spent about one and a half million dollars to buy surplus water from the City of Norfolk.”
Thomas M. Leahy Interview (Microsoft Word document)
John H. Morris, Director, Division of Water Resources, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources:
“Sometimes a drought is the cause of weather and sometimes it’s what is called an institutional drought. Some people just can’t get together to agree on how to provide water to a region and so that’s something that we need to put a high priority on…. There were a number of communities who learned, during the drought that their water supply was quite vulnerable. Communities like Statesville, Shelby and a number of others have already taken steps to speed up the building or the acquisition of reliable water supplies. The drought stressed the system in a way that showed some weakness that needed to be filled in.”
John N. Morris Interview (Microsoft Word document)
The United States Environmental Protection Agency also features information on Drought Management. They support planning to help mitigate a drought’s effect and reduce the cost of damage. They suggest that both short and long-term plans be considered. For more information, please visit their web site or the other that follow: www.epa.gov/owm/water-efficiency/drouhome.htm
“States, Tribal, regional and local governments and major water users should develop drought contingency plans which emphasize preparedness, coordination, risk management and mitigation measures. Drought planning information is available from the National Drought Mitigation Center, as well as the Western Drought Coordination Council , and the National Drought Policy Commission”
Excerpt from the EPA web site on Drought Management.
Other links related to Drought Management:
“Drought Management on North Carolina Cow-Calf Farms” North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/disaster/drought/dro-25.html
North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council http://www.dwr.ehnr.state.nc.us/drought/
State Climate Office of North Carolina http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/
South Carolina Drought Information Center
http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/climate/sco/drought.html
Drought Information Publications, North Carolina State
University
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/disaster/drought/
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, information on Drought
Management Regional Workshops http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/enviro/drought-workshop.asp
“Model Drought Management Plan and Response Ordinance”, provided
by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/climate/sco/drought/modelordinance.html
“The Application of Network Modeling in Drought Management: Reflections on the AWWA Drought Management Handbook” www.Environmental-expert.com http://www.environmental-center.com/articles/article1246/article1246.htm
North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources http://www.ncwater.org/
“Questions and Answers: Corps of Engineers Drought Management” http://water.sas.usace.army.mil/drought/QandA.cfm
Intergrated Watershed Managment
“Watershed management is the process of evaluating, planning, restoring and organizing land and other resource use within a watershed to provide desired goods and services while maintaining a sustainable ecosystem. Embedded in the concept of watershed management is the recognition of the interrelationships among land use, soil and water, and the linkages between uplands and downstream areas.”
http://watershed.org/forums/Forum3Summary.htm
It’s the process of formulating and implementing a course of action involving natural and human resources in a watershed, taking into account the social, political, economic and institutional factors operating within the watershed and the surrounding river basins and other relevant regions to achieve specific social objectives. Typically this process would include (1) establishing watershed- management objectives, (2) formulating and evaluating alternative resource-management actions involving various implementation tools and institutional arrangements, (3) choosing and implementing a preferred course of action and (4) thorough monitoring of activities and outcomes, evaluating performance in terms of degrees of achievement of the specified objectives. See also watershed approach.
Throughout the drought of 2002 in North Carolina, cities and municipalities were forced to call upon their neighbors for assistance with their water problems. Without this assistance, many communities would no longer have had water coming from their taps. One of these was the town of Vass, NC, where the city was within a few hours of having no water.
Eddie Callahan, Mayor, Town of Vass, NC
“Somehow we got caught short and it was just with the dry conditions it didn’t take very long for us to be at a critical point as far as our water supply. I got a call at work a couple of weeks ago when the big scare came through, and was told we were down to two and a half hours of water in our town supply. We have a water tower that holds our surplus of our ready to use water after it’s run through our treatment plant, I believe it’s about a 90 thousand gallon tank. It had gotten down to an extremely low level and, at that time, Moore County Public Utilities, which services us, got involved and found the source of the problem; water released from the lake was flowing downstream. The usual time for the water from the lake to our water intake to our processing plant is about 12 hours. But it was explained to me that due to the dry conditions, that as the water flowed down the stream it was just absorbed by the ground, like a sponge, and what typically takes 12 hours took over 50. So, that was one more thing that contributed to us being in the situation that we were in.”
Eddie Callahan Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Dennis Brobst, Director of Public Utility for Moore County was on hand to give the town a helping hand:
“…we had a pretty severe water shortage. The water system there [in Vass] runs on what we call a run-of-the-river intake. We do not have a reservoir. So, only the water that comes down the river we can use for our drinking water system. What happened was there were so many competing uses upstream from us that basically the water level in the river stopped. We did not have any water coming down, our intakes were actually above the level of water, so we could not draw anything in for the drinking water system for Vass. We had to scramble around a little bit to get some. We actually had to truck some water in for a day using the volunteer fire department to bring water in, to actually pour in the river to pump up to our treatment plant to treat it.”
“…the Village of Whispering Pines to our north was very cooperative, they own and control that recreational lake I was telling you about. They opened the gates and let enough water out so now we’ve been using the water that has been released from Thagards Lake in Whispering Pines. However, the long range goal is to buy water from what we call the East Moore Water District, which is a whole new water system going in. We’re actually going to buy our water from Harnett County, which get it’s water from the Cape Fear River, which is a much larger river with reservoir systems on it; that system is actually connected.”
Dennis Brobst Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Ralph Clark, City Manager, City of Kinston:
“I think from an economic perspective, it’s the only way we can go. Of course, it just makes real sense to do this, to become partners. We’re breaking some ground that most people have wanted to break for years. You know joining hands and saying we are in this together.”
Ralph Clark Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Ryan Boyles, Associate State Climatologist, State Climate Office of North Carolina:
“[some communities]will have to get water from another community that has a better water supply, or to create a new water supply for themselves; either by drilling a much deeper well or in some cases by connecting a pipeline to bring in the water for their community.”
Ryan Boyles Interview (Microsoft Word document)
John H. Morris, Director, Division of Water Resources, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources:
“As we use more and more water, it becomes less realistic that within the jurisdiction of any particular town that they will be able to find the water they need within their boundaries. This is leading to things like Randleman Lake, which is a regional effort. We mentioned earlier the City of Kinston which is developing a new surface water source on the Neuse River. Kinston is bringing into its partnership a number of neighboring water systems, so that that whole region can have a secure water supply for the future.”
John N. Morris Interview (Microsoft Word document)
For more information on this topic, please check the internet, your local library and the following web sites:
“Integrated Watershed Management: Water Resources
for the Future” 2003 International Year of Freshwater Organization.
http://www.wateryear2003.org/en/ev.php@URL_ID=2017&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
“Improving Water Quality Through Integrated Watershed Management.” Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems, http://www.cares.missouri.edu/projects/iwm.html
Integrated Watershed Management: Principles and Practice by Isobel W. Heathcote, John Wiley & Sons; (March 1998), ISBN: 0471183385.
“IWMM-an Integrated Watershed Management Model with
a Watershed Protection Approach”, while this abstract is outdated, there
may be some helpful information to those who require further reference material.
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/watershed/Proceed/chen_c.html
Developing Participatory and Integrated Watershed Management by Patrizio Warren, Delhi, Daya for FAO, 2001, ISBN 81-7035-247-9.
Integrated Watershed Management in the Global Ecosystem by Rattan Lal, Wetland Books, Aug. 1999, ISBN: 0849307023 http://www.uswaternews.com/books/bksbycategory/9fWatSciWetlands/9fWatSciWetlands.html
Watershed Concepts http://www.watershedconcepts.com/
Conservation
Many of our experts also shared their perspective on conservation methods:
Paul Simon, Former Illinois State Senator, currently a Professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Director of the Public Policy Institute had this to say:
“Seventy five percent of the water that is used around the world is for agricultural purposes, about ten percent for industrial purposes and fifteen percent for household purposes. There are ways to save huge amounts of water with irrigation. If you have enough money, and this is one of the problems, if you have enough money to have drip irrigation then you could save huge amounts of water. But even poor farmers if there’s a ditch that takes water, if you put a plastic coating down you don’t lose that water into the ground and you don’t harm that ground by making it too saline; too filled with salt. There are many practical things we can do on conservation. Conservation is a short-term part of the big answer. Clearly, desalination and conservation are the big keys long term, along with population control.”
Paul Simon Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Education is one way to spread the word about conservation. Tom Leahy, P.E., Acting Director, Department of Public Utilities, City of Virginia Beach, VA explains the City of Virginia Beach has made conservation education available to the public:
“We have an aggressive education campaign that actually starts in the schools, we have curriculums for the elementary and the high school programs we developed with the school system. We send a professional entertainment group through the elementary schools that does a play every year in the elementary schools on water conservation. And, of course, we also participate in a regional conservation group called HRWET for Hampton Roads Water Efficiency Team, and we fund about a third of that program. They run media, TV and radio ads, for conserving water. Then we also have as far back as 1976, we had modified our building codes requiring water saving devices in all new and renovated plumbing. Now, recently, the state and federal codes have come along and basically, superceded our programs. In fact, they basically required the same thing that we required back in the mid 70’s. We also have a program that will actually rebate about half the cost of a standard commode for people who will change out an old style commode that can use anywhere from three to five gallons and replace it with a new commode that uses 1.6 gallons per flush.”
Thomas M. Leahy Interview (Microsoft Word document)
The Town of Cary, NC has also implemented a comprehensive water conservation program that could serve as a model for other communities. According to Jennifer Platt, Water Conservation Manager, Town of Cary, NC:
“We have a three-tiered approach: voluntary measures, incentive measures, and regulatory measures. Together those three pieces make up our program, along with our reclaimed water system.
Cary does have the three-pronged approach; we have a pretty strong educational foundation. People have to know why it’s important to use water wisely. We have the education programs we go out and do in the elementary schools, we have workshops for adults and we have our Block Leader Program, and to our knowledge it’s the only town in the country that’s using the Block Leader Program to educate neighbors about water conservation.
We also have incentives; many people are going to reduce their water use because it affects their pocketbook. We have the tiered rate structure where the more you use the more you’re going to pay. For our top irrigation customers, we’ve actually used GIS (Geographic Information System) and aerial photography and gone in and developed site specific landscape budgets for them. If they go over their budget, they’re going to pay more than double the rates; that’s one of the strongest parts of our incentive program.
We have the reclaimed water system where those customers that are on reclaimed water are paying the lowest tier. Then, finally we have our enforcement, our ordinances component of the program; the third sector of customers are going to conserve because it’s the law. We have the alternate day watering ordinance, where everybody has three days a week to water…
Throughout town, we have had citizens volunteer to be Block Leaders, where they come to a one hour training session and we give them a packet of materials that may include toilet leak detector tablets, brochures, just little gadgets for helping people conserve water…The literature says a community can reduce it’s usage by 15 to 20 percent, by implementing conservation measures. Based on the community, different types of programs are going to work. What has worked in Cary might not work in other communities, but we’re very lucky that we have that base of knowledge of what’s been.”
Jennifer Platt Interview (Microsoft Word document)
http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/water/waterconservation/beat1.pdf
http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/water/waterconservation/wcplanexecsumm.pdf
John H. Morris, Director, Division of Water Resources, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources had this to say:
“We have to be more efficient in water use as we look toward the future. We’ve been blessed with so much water that we haven’t really had to be careful about it. But, as we look to the future we will have to be more careful. Some of the things we need to do is make sure our water use is very efficient. Which means that in our industries, in our households, in our agriculture, we really only use the amount of water that is needed to do the job. For example, we could sweep off the sidewalk instead of hosing it off. A trivial example but some of the industries can change their processes in that they can produce the same amount of product but use less water. In agriculture there are efficient ways to do irrigation that save lots of water. I think in general all of our water users in North Carolina need to give attention to being more efficient in water use. We are fortunate that the technology is there, that we can become more efficient; we just haven’t had to do it yet, but now we need to do it and the system will allow us to do it.”
John N. Morris Interview (Microsoft Word document)
For further information about North Carolina’s water resources, quality and conservation tips, please check the following web sites often:
North Carolina Division of Water Resources: http://www.ncwater.org/
http://www.dwr.ehnr.state.nc.us/Other_Water_Related_Sites/
Division of Water Quality: http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/
North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources: http://www.enr.state.nc.us/
North Carolina Governor Mike Easley feels that conservation begins with each one of us:
“I like to look at it more of as a responsibility on the part of every single citizen to do what they can to make sure that we have the water we need, not only in North Carolina but in the nation and the world. Each citizen can do things about that; water savers can be installed in our homes; don’t water the sidewalk, that’s not helpful. Changing our own personal habits can do all of those of things and we all need to be aware.”
Governor Michael F. Easley Interview (Microsoft Word document)
Many communities have set up a conservation web site, here are just a few, please check with your community:
The City of Charlotte http://www.charmeck.nc.us/Departments/Utilities/WaterSmart/home.htm
The City of Greensboro, http://www.ci.greensboro.nc.us/wateres/conservation/
The City of Greenville, Greenville Utilities Commission
http://www.guc.com/water/waterwise.html
The City of Raleigh http://www.raleigh-nc.org/putilities/h2oconsv.htm
The City of Wilmington http://www.ci.wilmington.nc.us/pud/conservation.htm
Here’s how you can do your part to conserve
water:
In General
People
There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you. You can
start by teaching the children to conserve.
Telephone
Pick-up the phone and report significant water losses from broken pipes, open
hydrants and errant sprinklers to the property owner or your water management
district.
Indoors
Ears
Listen for dripping faucets and toilets that flush themselves. Fixing a leak
can save 500 gallons each month. A leaking toilet can waste more than 200 gallons
a day; add a few drops of food coloring to the tank to identify where the leak
is. A low-flush toilet will cut your household water usage by 20%, as they only
use about 1.6 gallons of water.
Stoppers
If you have two sinks, fill one with water to scrub vegetable or prepare other
foods. Don’t run the faucet. When washing dishes by hand, and you have
a double sink, fill one with soapy water and use the other for rinse water.
Only have one sink? Place washed dishes in a dish rack; rinse them with a sprayer
or a pan of hot water. If you have a dishwasher, run it when it’s full;
it takes 12 gallons of water to run it.
Water Pitcher
Keep a pitcher of water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap for cold
drinks, so that every drop goes down you and not the drain.
Shampoo Bottle
Turn the water off while you shampoo and condition your hair and you can save
more than 50 gallons a week.
Wall Clock
Time your shower to keep it under 5 minutes. You’ll save up to 1000 gallons
a year. Low flow showerheads and faucet aerators are available that will reduce
the more than 2.5 gallons per minute in an ordinary fixture. Try taking a “Navy
Shower”; wet yourself down, turn the water off, lather up, then turn the
water on to rinse off. Shower timers are another way to monitor your time; they
are fun and readily available.
Toothbrush
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and save up to 4 gallons a minute.
That’s 200 gallons a week for a family of four.
Bar of Soap
Before you lather up, install a low-flow showerhead. They’re inexpensive,
easy to install, and can save your family more than 500 gallons a week.
Wastebasket
Drop that tissue in the trash instead of flushing it and save gallons every
time. You can also save by filling a 1gallon plastic container with water and
putting it in the toilet tank to displace 1 gallon of water.
Razor
Turn off the water while you shave and you can save more than 100 gallons of
water a week.
Laundry Scoop
Reach for the scoop only when you have a full load and save up to 600 gallons
each month. Each load of laundry uses between 27 and 54 gallons of water a load.
If you have to do a smaller load, change the setting on your washing machine
accordingly.
You’ll also save water by replacing your old washing machine with a newer,
water-efficient model that uses only about 20 gallons of water a load.
Refrigerator
Don’t use running water to thaw meat or other frozen foods. Defrost food
overnight in the fridge or use the defrost setting on the microwave.
Outdoors
Broom
Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway and sidewalk and save up
to 80 gallons of water every time.
Hose Nozzle
Use a hose nozzle and turn off the water while you wash your car to save more
than 100 gallons. You could also obtain an automatic shutoff nozzle.
Garden Tool
Use a layer of organic mulch around plants to reduce evaporation and save hundreds
of gallons of water a year.
Kitchen Timer
Set a kitchen timer when watering your lawn or garden with a hose. If you want
to reduce evaporation and maximize watering efficiency, don’t use a fine
mist sprinkler; consider one that throws large drops of water close to the ground.
Use a rotary, impact or turbine sprinkle and throw out the oscillating one.
Most fescue type grasses (common in the south) go dormant in the summer and
can survive three weeks without water. Water no more than one inch per week
and adjust according to the amount of rainfall received. Don’t forget
to check your sprinkler heads regularly. This prevents costly leaks, minimizes
overspray and runoff and increases the efficiency of your system.
Screwdriver
Use a long screwdriver as a soil probe to test soil moisture. If it goes in
easily, don’t water. Proper lawn watering can save thousands of gallons
of water annually.
Drip Emitter
Choose water-efficient drip irrigation for your trees, shrubs, and flowers.
Watering roots is so effective, be careful not to over water. Drip systems direct
the water to the roots, where a plant needs it most. Use drip systems and soaker
hoses around trees, shrubs, flowers and gardens.
Plant
Next time you add or replace a flower or shrub, choose a low water use plant
for year-round landscape color and save up to 550 gallons each year. Drought
resistant trees shrubs and flowers are available, check with your local greenhouse.
Remember to prepare your soil properly. The addition of organic matter to the
soil also increases the health and drought tolerance of your lawn and plants.
Wrench
Grab a wrench and fix that leaky faucet. It’s simple, inexpensive, and
can save up to 140 gallons a week.
Pinwheel
Don’t water your lawn on windy days. After all, sidewalks and driveways
don’t need water.
Water Meter
Check your water meter and bill to track your water usage.
Swim Goggles
Install covers on pools and spas and check for leaks around your pumps.
Desk Calendar
Adjust your watering schedule to the season. Water your summer lawn every third
day and your winter lawn every fifth day.
Tuna Can
Place an empty tuna can on your lawn to catch and measure the water output of
your sprinklers. For lawn watering advice, contact your local conservation office.
Water Can
Collect the water you use for rinsing produce and reuse it to water houseplants.
Compost
Start a compost pile; garbage disposals require a lot of water to operate efficiently.
Composting reduces water demand and creates a rich addition to the soil for
lawns and gardens.
Mulch
Adding a layer of organic matter (i.e., compost or mulch) will improve
soil structure, allowing plants to develop a dense root system.
Water Deep
When you water, water deeply and infrequently; your plants will be much healthier
and have a deeper root system, this allows them to tolerate heat and drought.
A shallow root system results from watering lightly and more frequently and
is actually detrimental to your garden. Also, if you delay your regular lawn
watering, you will also encourage deeper roots, making your lawn healthier for
the summer. Also, avoid the peak heat hours; water your lawn early in the morning
or late in the afternoon. Evaporation can result in the loss of 50% of landscaping
water. Remember, “Cycle and Soak”; clay soils accept water slowly,
so when you see that runoff will soon occur, wait thirty minutes or water another
area, then return to the original area to irrigate more thoroughly.
Did you know?
Here are some figures on household water use (gallons per use) that may surprise you:
| Usage by appliance
|
||
| Washing Machine | Conventional |
37.0 |
Wash Recycle |
26.0 |
|
Front Load |
21.0 |
|
X-Axis |
17.5 |
|
| Faucets |
Conventional |
3.0 |
Low-flow |
2.5 |
|
| Toilet |
Conventional |
5.0 |
Low-flow |
3.5 |
|
Ultra Low-flow |
1.6 |
|
| Showerheads |
Conventional |
5.0 |
Low-flow |
2.5 |
|
| Usage by room
|
||
| Bathroom
|
||
| Toilet |
18 flushes x 5 gal/flush |
90 |
| Sink |
6 minutes x 3 gal/min. |
18 |
| Shower |
25 minutes x 5 gal/min. |
125 |
| Kitchen
|
||
| Sink |
6 minutes x 3 gal/min. |
18 |
| Dishwasher |
1 cycle x 15 gal/use |
15 |
| Other
|
||
| Laundry |
1 cycle x 37 gal/use |
37 |
|
Total use 303 |
||
| Per person use: 303 gal. : 3 people = |
||
A bath takes 36 gallons; using conservation methods this becomes 15 gallons.
Brushing your teeth with the faucet running takes 2 gallons, without the faucet running this is reduced to ½ gallon.
Hand Washing takes 2 gallons; using conservation methods this becomes ½ gallon
Shaving takes 20 gallons; using conservation methods this becomes 1 gallon.
Washing the dishes with tap running takes 20 to 30 gallons, if you wash the dishes, then rinse them in the sink, this becomes 5 gallons.
Washing a car takes 180 gallons with the tap running; by shutting it off this becomes 40-50 gallons.
The average American household of four people uses about 243 gallons of water per day; the average person uses over 100 gallons per day (this includes non-home water use). Between 60 to 70 gallons of water per day are used per person for kitchen, laundry, bathing, sanitary uses and other common household uses. In comparison, people in the Sub-Saharan use approximately 2.6 gallons of water a day, for everything.
The basic daily water requirement per person is 50 liters per day for drinking, sanitation, bathing, cooking and kitchen needs, according to experts.
Got a craving for a hamburger, French fries and a soft drink? Producing this fast food meal takes about 1500 gallons of water. This includes: growing the potatoes and grain for the bun, as well as grain to feed the cattle and the production of soda. A typical dinner for four people takes about 3,000 gallons of water to produce.
It takes 150 gallons of water to produce a typical Sunday newspaper, 39,000 gallons to produce a car; 2,000 for the tires alone and one barrel of beer uses 1,500 gallons of water.
Two thirds of the world’s population lives within 100 miles of an ocean, inland lake or a freshwater lake.
An average American’s impact on the environment is 30 to 50 times that of average person in a developing country.
Every 20 minutes, another 3,500 human lives are added, while we lose one or more entire species of animal or plant life – at least 27,000 species per year.
In the past 100 years, the population in the world has tripled, while water use by humans has increased six fold.
300 potential water conflict zones have been identified by the United Nations. There are 215 transboundary rivers, covering 50% of all land areas. 32% of national borders are formed by water.
There are 18,000 single-purpose dams in the world, 48 % of these are used for irrigation for food production. 7,400 multipurpose dams also exist; 15% are used for domestic and industrial water supplies, 20% generate electricity, 8% control floods, 4% or less are used for recreation, inland navigation and fish farming.
Resources for the facts
and figures:
World Wildlife Foundation, http://www.panda.org
Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.catskillcenter.org
World Water Assessment Programme, 2003
Native Habitat Organization