An Ecological Eden in Abu Dhabi

Last week there was an excellent piece on NPR Radio's "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" about a $22 billion real-estate project in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. What makes this story really important is that it will have a ZERO CARBON impact, ZERO WASTE and efficient transportation without cars. No, this is not one of those 5-family projects with Spartan living conditions, this is a modern city of 50,000 residents in one of the world's least hospitable places. If such a project can succeed there, it should be able to succeed anywhere.

There is a lot written on the website and its links about the technologies that will be employed and showcased, but disappointingly little about how they are going to solve the water problem.

Anyone that has a new ecological technology should look into this project to see if that technology contribute to solve the challenges faced. I know they need "reusable water!"

http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/08/masdars-city-of-the-future

US EPA Guidelines for Water Reuse

This is the EPA source document for water reuse.

Reclamation vs. Reusable

There are a number of states that “forbid recycling water,” like this article from the Las Vegas Sun indicates:

Agency opposes water recycling at homes

Return less to Lake Mead, it says, and we’ll get less out

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/apr/13/authority-opposes-recycling-homes/

or, this one from the New York Times:

It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

These articles point out that as long as we are using gray water or rain water for gardens and washing cars, etc, is just another form of throwing water away. Though there may be a lot of loss in the complete circuit from the home to the municipal waste treatment plant and back to the home, at least there is some water reclamation.

But, that is how RECLAMATION is different from REUSABLE WATER. True "reusable water" is a much smaller loop - one household, for example that uses a portion of its water over and over again.

The Story of Bolinas, CA

There was an excellent report on NPR radio last week. It is about a town in California called Bolinas. Their water supply was so stressed that they limited every household to 150 gallons a day (half the national average) and monitored them daily. There were no excuses: one over-use and there is a big fine; second and the water is turned off!

This is the story for how the townspeople dealt with it.

I recommend listening to the podcast.

View story here.

NH Company makes water last 8 times longer

Hudson, New Hampshire - What if you could take waste water (yes - that stuff) and make 87% of it cleaner than the fresh water you get from your faucet, and then put that cleaned water right back into your incoming supply? One day's worth of water would last for eight days.

Etc etc...