Water81
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Falling Demand = Rising Prices?
Out west, the economic and real estate downturn have helped alleviate many of the water shortage problems; however, in Detroit the decrease in water demand has had the opposite affect – decreased usage is resulting in revenue shortfalls, making it harder to fund system maintenance – as a result, rate increases are in the works.…
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What Do You Pay for Water?
In the US we spend on average $3.75 for every 1,000 gallons. However, averages are misleading – prices range from $1.30 in Phoenix to over $7.70 in Columbus Ohio. This map below shows relative pricing for the 30 largest US municipalities. Take a look at Florida (Miami $1.60) compared to the relatively water rich east…
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Water Pyramid
A Dutch company has created the Water Pyramid to help create safe, clean drinking water in tropical and developing countries. While traditional reverse osmosis systems are expensive to build and use a considerable amount of energy, the Water Pyramid uses the sun as its primary energy source and has low operational and maintenance costs. The…
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Engineered Osmosis
Researchers at Yale have developed a water purification system that uses one-tenth the electric energy of conventional desalination systems.
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As Economy Falters, Everglades May Lose Out
In the past months, the headlines have been dominated by news of yet another bad day for the stock market. But, there is another casualty of the recession that probably isn’t getting as much press. While stocks continue to plummet, the Everglades of South Florida may also be falling on hard times as a result…
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Water, Water everywhere, nor any drop for China?
Last summer I found myself writing a Water Center Report on China’s massive South-to-North Water transfer project in lieu of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While the world had its eyes fixed on the struggle between freedom-seeking Tibetans and the Chinese authority, the rumbling of a mammoth water crisis was underway. The Northern provinces (where Beijing…
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Drought in China
Currently, in Northern China, they are experiencing the worst drought they have had in at least 50 years, according to the New York Times. This is extremely problematic for the people because 3/5 of the country’s wheat is grown in this area.
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Water Footprinting
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about how companies are starting to calculate their “water footprint” as well as their carbon footprint to institute more water friendly policies. Commercial companies have discovered that it takes “20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a…
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Low-cost water management in Ethiopia
Water capture and storage for irrigation has been an ongoing theme of research in Columbia’s earth and environmental engineering department, but Professor Upmanu Lall has recently taken things a step further. With funding from the Pulitzer family, Lall challenged a group of students in his senior engineering course to design a low-cost system of water…
