Chicago's water woes - running dry

Water tables are declining worldwide especially in China. Not only do we have to worry about peak oil but also peak water.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IndyDoug @ Jan 13 2007, 10:13 AM) [snapback]375183[/snapback]</div>

Of the two water should be our first worry.

 

Dallas/Fort Worth is very vunerable on water supply. Eight of the years in the 1950s were drought years - Dallas had water piped 100 miles north from the Red River. Since then, numerous lakes have been expanded or created (eight, I think). With the population 5-6 times larger than it was fifty years ago, water supply is getting tight again. Dallas now prohibits daytime watering in the Summer. Hopefully, more people will switch from the very thirsty St. Augustine grass to Bermuda.

What many people outside of Texas don't realize is the PineyWoods of East Texas is about equal to the forest of New England. That could change. Plans are being made to create new lakes in East Texas for Dallas, flooding forest and some historic trees. In Austin, the people from Dallas or Houston will have more votes than rural citizens.

Water should be consider on the E85 enviromental impact. It takes water to grow plants to process into grain alchol.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ Jan 13 2007, 03:40 PM) [snapback]375228[/snapback]</div>

I've put in waterbarrels on the gutter downspouts, and my next-door-neighbor is going to do the same. It takes a bit of doing, but if you put in enough, and have enough thunderstorms in the summer, you never need to tap city water for garden watering. I've never tried it on the lawn -- in VA, if we have a drought, I just let the lawn turn brown. It also reduces the "flashiness" of the urban runoff, by capturing the first few hundred gallons of water off your roof (assuming the barrels are empty at the time). Some Maryland municipalities have programs in place to encourage this.

You can buy waterbarrels ready-made, but an interesting sidelight is 60 gallon food-grade HDPE barrels are available for the asking almost everywhere. Our local Pepsi plant sellls them for $5. The reason is that a lot of bulk food gets shipped in them, and by law they can't be re-used for food. So, they are like giant one-way disposable pop bottles. There's an entire industry devoted to getting rid of them. But then, you have to figure out the plumbing, paint them, and so on, to make the water barrel.

I think the homemade ones are cost-effective, if they'll last long enough. A barrel of city water would have cost me ... $0.30. Maybe they'll eventually pay for themselves at that rate.

Here's a good site on building a water barrel. Not what I did for mine but gives you the gis of it.

http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles...ater_barrel.htm

 

Here in most parts of Australia, we are constantly in varying degrees of drought. At the present time, we are experiencing the worst drought in living memory.

Most of our cities have had varying degrees of restrictions on water usage for some time now, and we are on the verge of having recycled (treated) water from our waste water treatment plants added to our rapidly diminishing dams to help ease the crisis.

The city where I live has level 4 water restrictions, which means no hosing of any kind; watering gardens by buckets only; no car or boat washing, or washing walls, driveways etc.; restricted topping up of pools etc.
Our State Governments and local Councils offer cash rebates to residents who install rain water tanks and undertake other water conservation measures. Plans to force business to restrict use of potable water are also enforced.

Our rainfall in recent times seems to fall only on near coastal areas, not inland where the major dams are constructed. New infrastructure such as new dams; pipelines to link all water sources to share what we have; desalination plants etc is either being designed or built, but it is a race against time to have any or all of them operational before the dams run dry.

Our World's weather patterns are most certainly changing!

 

i agree that water is a much more pressing issue than oil is. even in the rain soaked Pacific Northwest (we just set a two month record for most rain in Nov-Dec 2006 and is threatening to break that with Dec-Jan if we keep going) simply because around here i see a much more lax attitude towards water usage. i lived in So Cal for several years thru dozens of water rationing periods and people around here just dont get it.

as populations expand, we are now seeing the flow rate of the aquifer here starting to slow to the point that for the first time ever, we have to go to alternate sources of water, including some treated water for hydrants, parks, and other uses that dont involve human consumption.

basically, we are BELOW ground zero for water conservation awareness around here. as far as Australia goes, i cant imagine how tough it is there right now. The NASA Observatory has been watching them and has recorded ground temps nearly 10º higher than average. being a place that is frequently dry anyway, the much drier and hotter summer they are going thru right now has been a very fertile ground for wildfires. NASA posted some pics where fires seemed to be consuming nearly a quarter of the country. very scary

 

FYI, Milwaukee, WI uses Lake Michigan water.
Some of the surrounding suburbs, which use well water, are having problems.

 

Sleeka,

Have you noticed any change in attitude about GW in Oz as a result of the drought? Is there any talk about greener power plants or the like?