Michael Lewis
NERS 260
Getting over the ick
factor
During this drought the city of
Lincoln had to issue 80 tickets in one day to people who were wasting water. Wasting
water is a concern because the city of Lincoln has to compete with Frames for
water putting a demand on the supply and requiring intensive management so
everyone has enough. This problem of water scarcity is not going away in fact
it could only get worse in this new area of climate change.
Yet this problem actually has a solution that
does not require a new federal agency nor a massive shift in wealth or life
style from Lincoln residents. The solution is that we have to drink more of our
waste water. EPA regulations already require that cities treat waste water
until it is at drinking water quality. What Lincoln has to do now is stop discharging
water that is treated into Slat creek. Since the city has to pay to treat the
water regardless, the cost might as well be recouped by capturing the water. To
do that Lincoln just has to connect the treated water back into drinking water
lines.
The reason that this cost effective
method of water management has not been implemented already is because of the
ick factor. The ick factor is a knee-jerk reaction to the thought of drinking
waste water. Are we going to let this knee-jerk reaction keep us from saving
money and alleviating the challenge of water scarcity? We are already drinking
the waste water of the cities that are up stream of us.
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