Water is a closed system. For all practical purposes, we have all the water we are ever going to have, so we have to find more efficient ways to reuse the water we have.

Water is the breathe of life.

Our planet has done this since the beginning. Water, rinse, repeat. It rains, we water our crops and the rainwater filters into aquifers is cleaned, and finds its way back to the surface where we use it again.

One of our current problems is that we are using water faster than our planet can clean and recycle it. And since we have no economical, easy way to scale the production of “new” water, we need to help the planet in this process.

I have long thought that we have passed the point of simply extracting clean water for all our needs. As one part of our country remains dry, other parts are experiencing floods. We need to invest in the technology and infrastructure necessary to capture water “here” and move it “there”.

One interesting idea is to start with our cities. While there is room for improvement, the existing systems that capture stormwater are a place to start. The needed improvements are threefold.

First, we need a way to clean and process the stormwater so it can be used.

Second, we need the infrastructure to store the cleaned stormwater.

Finally, we need infrastructure to economically move this water from areas temporarily with too much water (think winter ice jams on the Mississippi River, hurricanes, etc.), to areas with not enough water (like the agricultural southwest).

Before you think this is impossible due to the cost, what is water worth to you? We have elaborate pipelines crossing America distributing oil and gas, so we know it is possible. The question is whether or not it is economical.

Saltwater to Fresh?

Long term, we can live a lot longer without more oil and gas than we can live without water. We simply need the will to tackle this problem head-on by diverting resources to solve a problem that is only going to get worse.

Below is a link to an article that is thinking along these lines.

Our cities will need to harvest stormwater in an affordable and green way – here’s how