A large-scale water recycling plan can help alleviate drought

Lake Mead, Providing water for 25 million people in the western United States has been reduced to 36% of its capacity. A rural community in California has No water at all After its well ruptured in early June.Farmland is left unused because farmers sell their water allocation instead of growing crops, resulting in a reduction in the country’s food supply was in danger.

As the West withers under extreme drought, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed Human resources 4099, The bill will direct the Secretary of the Interior to develop a plan to provide funding for water recovery projects worth US$750 million in 17 western states by 2027. (The bill is Introduction At the end of June, it is currently under consideration by the Natural Resources Committee of the House of Representatives. )

“This is starting to become our new normal-88% of the western region is in some degree of drought,” said representative Susie Lee (D-Nevada). Introduction Bills. “Lake Mead is at the lowest water level since the completion of the Hoover Dam. The Colorado River has been dry for more than two decades.”

The population and economy of the western United States have been booming for a long time, putting tremendous pressure on the dwindling water supply. “I think we have more people-one. The area of ​​agriculture has increased-two,” said Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-California), who introduced the bill. “Then climate change is exacerbating this problem.”

Legislators say that part of the solution is to fund the construction of more facilities that can recycle waste water from our sinks, toilets and showers. You may think this is vulgar and absurd, but this technology already exists-in fact, it has been around for half a century. This process is actually quite simple. The treatment facility receives wastewater and adds microorganisms that consume organic matter. Then the water is pumped into a special membrane to filter out harmful substances such as bacteria and viruses. More precisely, the water is then irradiated with ultraviolet light to kill microorganisms.The resulting water may actually be and also pure For human consumption: If you drink it, these things may leach minerals from your body, so the facility must re-add minerals. (I used to Drink the final product. It tastes like…water. )

Recycled H₂O can be pumped underground into the aquifer, then pumped out again when needed, purified again and sent to the customer. Or it can be used for non-drinking purposes, such as in agriculture or industrial processes.

Basically, you take the wastewater that you would normally treat and discharge into the sea—actually wasted—and put it back into the land water cycle to make it available to people again. Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Institute of Water Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “It is so important as an element of the water supply portfolio, partly because of its reliability.” “As long as the city center exists. And produce waste water, you can treat it. It provides a reliable source of additional water supply-even in dry years when the supply is limited and it is difficult or impossible to develop alternative water sources.”

In a sense, recycled water is also financing: inject it into the ground to replenish aquifers, and store it for use in times of drought.This may be particularly important in the western United States, as climate change makes droughts more severe with It is related to the dynamics of rain. Modeling by climate scientists It shows that the storm will be more intense in the future, but the frequency of arrival will be reduced. By the end of the century, snow cover on the mountains—usually reducing most of the snow cover before most of the water in the west meets spring runoff—is expected to be reduced by about half.

“Our hydrological cycle will become more unpredictable,” said project manager Rafael Villegas. Next move The Los Angeles Water and Power Authority has been recycling water for non-potable water reuse since the 1970s. “Plus population growth, not only in California, but also in the sources of water—Nevada, Arizona, and Northern California—you can expect additional demand for these systems. So we are exhausted, right? Then we have to start thinking, how can we use the water we use more efficiently? do Have? “