Water management and Strategies for water conservation

Triple Willow said:

Deb,

I saw a program on TV where a HUGE salt water distillery had been built where they were turning the salt water into clean drinking water and supplying drinking water to a lot of people. Seems like this was in a desert somewhere. Why doesn't California do something like that?

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perchie.girl said:

California is working on it.... The process is slow partially because it takes a BOAT load of energy to do it. We're talking nuclear or MASSIVE solar arrays. Aircraft Carriers run off a small nuclear power plant. They can desalinate 200,000 gallons of sea water per day.

One acre foot equals more than 300,00 gallons of water..... The San Diego Area uses 542,438 acre-feet per day And thats with water conservation inforcement in place.

Here is a great article in explanation of the Desalination process..... Some are being used some are in development and some are really great ideas... still.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/environment/eight-technologies-for-drinkable-seawater

An average family uses appx 80,000 gallons of water per year without watering landscabe. With good water conservation practices that can be reduced a considerable amount. This isnt counting irrigating ornimaental yards.... Grass is the biggest offender... Certain trees as well.

for instance some grasses take one inch of water per square foot..... Multiply the square footage to be watered by .62 gallons or 1 inch of water per square foot. Example: 1,000 square feet x .62 gallons = 620 gallons. This tells you how many gallons of water you need to apply to the lawn.... Per Watering. In this climate you may have to water three times per week.... 1860 gallons a week, 7440 gallons a month, 89280 gallons per year.

I would love to see whole communities band together take out the lawns and practice Xeriscaping.... Then invest in a small park area Where the kids can go to play in the grass.... Then those parks be watered by recycled water. There are also grasses that once established require very little water because their roots burrow Deep.

And just because you Xeriscape it doesn't mean Dirt Rocks and Cactus...... there are some amazing choices out there for beautiful landscaping. And even some of that stuff produces edibles. AND once established need no additional water at all.

But I say compromise using gray water or Duck water to provide for fruit trees...

deb

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kglazier said:

The town of Wrightsville Beach, NC had a desalination system for several years to supply water to the residents. It was expensive to operate and maintain. The water always had a salty taste. The site is now used by UNC-W as a research center for farming flounder, sea bass and other fish.

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