In its search for more fuel efficient ways to provide drinking water for long sea voyages and remote bases, the U.S. Navy has developed a second-generation desalination unit that use 65% less energy than conventional technology.  It’s only in the prototype stage but the Navy is already looking beyond seagoing use, and has deployed an earlier version of the technology to provide emergency water supply to disaster areas.

Called the EUWP (Expeditionary Unit Water Purification Program) Gen 2, the new unit also offers a significant secondary benefit that applies to land operations.  By providing an on-site source for potable water, it eliminates the need to run convoys of tanker trucks.  The generators that power the EUWP units still use conventional fuel, but that could change.  If they could be adapted to run cost-effectively on solar power and other sustainable energy, the door is open to desalination on a mass scale.

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GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with Sabrina Walasek of Blue Planet Run Foundation, which has a vision of a world where everyone has access to safe drinking water and healthy human beings have a chance to live up to their potential.

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Recognized as one of the US’s 100 best gold courses (Golf Digest), the ‘Sanctuary’ will once again host the 5th annual Water For People Golf Classic on August 19, 2009. Situated in Sedalia, Colorado, and adjacent to over 12, 000 acres of protected open space, the Sanctuary was carefully designed and “placed” within one of the most fragile and beautiful ecosystems in the State, if not the entire country.

The  private course offers stunning 180 degree vistas of Pike’s Peak (southward) and Long’s Peak (northward) and is home to some of the tallest pines in the State. To preserve its core beauty and “balance with Nature”, the Sanctuary permits only 9,000 rounds of golf annually, and the majority of these are for charity fund-raising tournaments.

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A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles alleges that Disney has been dumping the waste from their on-site cooling systems since 1998. According to the suit, brought by Environmental Worldwatch, Inc and local residents, the company,

supplied, dumped, released and deposited and continues to supply, dump, release and deposit vast amounts of chromium 6, air cooling water and residues, and other various toxic waste materials.

The Disney corporation has so far declined to comment on the specifics of the case but are denying any wrongdoing.

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There’s a bit of money, too, totaling about $100,000 from the federal stimulus package, aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Great Lakes Commission has been granted $99,740 to develop a set of “Best Practices to Accelerate Wind Power in the Great Lakes and Beyond.”

The end result will be a guide to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to protecting the environment, being sensitive to community concerns and … building wind turbines in the water.

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The single mom of 3 has 2 kids with health problems and a small business to run. Her son had leukemia and her daughter had a brain tumor. She’s got her hands full, but she’s still fighting against her former hometown, where all three kids were born.

I’m so sad and angry and disappointed about this.

The Chicago Tribune reported on the Crestwood problem just the day before Earth Day. Their story claims that the village, population 11,000, served residents tainted water for 20 years. While Crestwood officials boasted that they had the cheapest water in the county–”Good to taste but not to waste!”–they were giving residents a “taste” of carcinogens.

Krause says her kids were directly affected by the cost-saving measures. She’s now suing the city of Crestwood.

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Many soldiers stationed all over Iraq lack adequate supplies of drinking water. Commanders have been forced to steal water from the private contractors to meet the basic needs of their troops.

An Army training document on preventing heat casualties state that in hot desserts, a soldier can lose up to four gallons of water per day.  A 1957 field manual, states “in hot deserts, you need a minimum of one gallon (of water) per day” for survival.  Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey explains, “We were rationed two bottles of water a day…We were on missions, I ran out of water.” 

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Sean Daily, Green Living Ideas’ Editor-In-Chief, discusses health tips and dangers about drinking water with Colin Ingram, Author of The Drinking Water Book.

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Born from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, World Water Day has a different theme every year. This year’s focus is on transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities.

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Water fountains in some L.A. schools tested up to 500 times the government level for lead, and high lead levels have been found in our capitol’s water system, but covered up with ‘science fraud‘.

In a nation that’s getting ready to distribute an economic stimulus package of astronomic size, where is the money to stop poisoning our kids?

The author of the exposé of the D.C. lead incident, professor Marc Edwards, an environmental engineer, had this to say: “There’s no question that lead in schools is a big national issue —especially in some of the older urban cities that have this old plumbing infrastructure.”

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Most researchers agree that this is the highest level of pharmaceuticals ever found in drinking water.

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EWA Technologies Group has developed a new technology that harnesses the natural humidity in the air, and converts that moisture into drinking water. The process works in three stages: Adsorption of water from the air (getting the water out of the air); desorption of the water (releasing the water out of the containing material); and condensation of the drinking water.

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Allgood (a fitting name if ever there was one), a public-health specialist at Cincinnati-based Proctor & Gamble, led a team that developed what can only be described as a miracle powder: an inexpensive concoction that, with a little stirring and time, causes impurities in water to coagulate and settle to the bottom. Not just “regular” impurities like particles of dirt or even bacteria, but parasites like cryptosporidium and giardia, which can cause severe — sometimes fatal — intestinal illnesses.

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Perchlorate interferes with the thyroid gland’s ability to absorb iodine inhibiting thyroid hormones that are necessary for brain development and cellular growth of infants. The chemical has been found not only in drinking water but also in lettuce and milk. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration reported finding perchlorate in 217 of 232 samples of milk and lettuce in 15 states.

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One in six people on the planet do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.

Your tap water is fine.

Worried it isn’t? Get it tested.
If it turns out that it isn’t get a tap water filter, and join a “stream team” (google it to find one in your state).
Need to take it with you? Get a re-usable bottle that will last long and not leach harmful chemicals into the water you are drinking.

There. Your water problems are solved, and I never once suggested purchasing bottled water.

Water is free (kind of) it falls from the sky. If it were Coke that came out of your taps and fell from the sky—I can’t imagine ANYONE purchasing it in a bottle for an incredible mark up. Afterall, it’s free (sort of)! So why buy water of a similar quality to that which flows from your tap, in bottles made from some of the most environmentally damaging chemicals on the planet? And why pay one, two, or three dollars?

…Why not pay twenty?

Seriously.

The only good bottle of water available for purchase is being sold by Scott Harrison and it costs $20!

“Why would ANYONE pay $20 for a normal-sized bottle of water?”, you ask.

Because this special bottle of water has the unique ability to drill wells!

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Researchers at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in India are investigating the hollow carbon fibers as a potential water filter. They believe the unique chemical properties of nanotubes mean that only water molecules can pass through their interiors, while toxic metal ions, viruses, and bacteria cannot.

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The company is not only open about the fact that it’s selling purified New York City tap water, it makes that its primary selling point.

“Our goal is to remind New Yorkers to think local, drink their own water, support our community, and do their part for the planet,” reads the company’s online “manifesto.” Tap’dNY’s blog adds, “Seems a shame to drive a bottle of water halfway around the globe, what with the climate and oil situations being what they are.”

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Since I began trying to live sustainably, making sure I have sufficient water has been a significant challenge. I still mostly rely on municipal water (faucet water) from neighbors’ houses for my water needs, but that is soon to change.

Rain Water
Rainwater is an obvious solution for dish and clothes washing water, and bathing water. However, collecting it has been deceptively difficult. I tried to capture rainwater off my tent rain-proof tarp, but as the containers (currently two large plastic storage tubs) sometimes get in my way, I will move them if I think it’s not going to rain soon. Of course, I may be away from my tent for many hours and it does rain–or I set them up and it is dry for days. Still other times I have captured a small amount of water only to have it evaporate before I returned to cover the container. One day, I knew it would rain while I was away editing the film project, so I set up the rain water basin where I thought the water would collect off the tarp. But because I wasn’t there to watch it, I returned home, hopeful of excessive wash water, and… the tub was completely empty. My cup doth not overfloweth.

Even if I did have rain water, I would have a rough time trying to convert it to drinkable water. Of course, one can drink rainwater straight out of the bucket, though from the comments I have read about it, one should avoid the first batch of runoff because of the higher chemical content due to the droplets capturing more local contaminants in the air. Also, the first batch of rain water may be additionally dirty from the small debris picked up from the roof (or other surface).

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“Nasone“, the typical fountain of Rome

“Ti Voglio Bere” (”I want to drink you”) is the name of a project realized in the city of Torino to promote the use of drinking water. The similarity with the overused sentence “Ti voglio bene” (”I love you”) remind us we should appreciate more this basic element that arrives free in our houses.

Water is a public good even if the market wants to persuade us of the contrary. Water is not a drink as well as air we breathe is not a perfume. It’s a right we have to protect.

Italy is the main consumer of drinking water in the world. For us, there is no problem: not many households keep soft drinks or beer ready in the fridge, but everyone’s always got water. The only two beverages that you see on most Italian tables are water and wine.

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