Getting off the Water Grid
Can you imagine weaning yourself off your city's water grid? That is precisely what an urban Seattle school is attempting to do.
The Bertschi School's new science building is planning to unplug from the municipal water and sewer system to collect, recycle and reuse water and wastewater on site. This concept, referred to as net zero water is nothing new in theory, but has rarely been seen in practice.
Designed to be self-sustaining in the energy, water and waste use, the school's new science building collects rainwater in cisterns. A plant-covered roof slows storm water runoff, which can carry contaminants into rivers and streams. The building is set up to treat gray water to drinking standards, but it is still drawing water from the city water supply because of public health regulations.
Not to be outdone, the University of Miami is breaking ground on a college dormitory that will reuse all water from showers, toilets and laundry for everything except drinking and cooking. With a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers are developing an on site system to convert waste water into potable water while treating for pharmaceuticals and other contaminants. Pretty impressive.
The two locations may seem like polar opposites in terms of water usage and availability but they are more similar than at first meets the eye. Seattle is very rainy, but summer months can be extremely dry. Miami's reliance on saltwater purification nullifies a good bit of the coastal edge seemingly ever present.
Though I have never been a big green energy guy, it is hard to find fault with this game plan the way it is presented here. Looking at the issue from a purely market based perspective, water commoditization is going to become a reality at some point. Unless projects such as these are undertaken we will likely be seeing water contracts traded on exchanges in our lifetime. This would certainly open up a Pandora's Box and should be avoided if at all possible. As much as I would like to think water fits the textbook definition of a commodity, I know better when it comes to public opinion and reactions.
With our current mini-crisis in energy playing out over the past decade, warnings with regards to water are well heeded sooner rather than later. Though there is plenty of water, it takes a lot of energy to purify it. Purification is becoming more and more important and with it, costs are rising.
For today, I am going to applaud a few academic institutions for taking the ball and running with it. Further evidence that schools have a lot more to offer society than simply churning out grads and diplomas. Though I have to say, having spent more than a few nights at the University of Miami...I am not sure I'd want that student body runoff being reused. No matter how well purified, what happens in Miami should stay in Miami.
We should be commoditizing water and trading it. That way the true prices would flow to consumers and people wouldnt' waste clean water on stupid shit as much
I guess you haven't been tuned into current events (i.e., gas prices).
Would be interesting to see how much effect speculation has, or any at all.
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Is there anything wrong with this? It's a hot state which uses too much water relative to the natural supply. Buying up the rights and increasing costs means water doesn't get wasted as much, imports come in to help out the state, and Boone makes a few bucks.
Midas check this out...I did a b-plan on their company my junior year of ugrad
http://www.ferratetreatment.com/
If all statements are scientifically legit, this is the future...
Wouldnt that keep it in Miami?
In all seriousness I completely second this. Absolutely disgusting. Assuming this recycling and purifying is likely driven by chlorination, high levels of parasites may not be completely eradicated. I can just imagine how going forward the high tech purification methods necessary to comply with basic health standards are reduced to the minimum possible level to save CAPEX dollars.
I also completely agree that complete privatization of water markets distribution/supply could be a disastrous step backwards. There's surely some public/private partnership opportunities to improve water systems but I too worry about the highest bidder hogging these resources.
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Mangus and others, you are sensationalizing the outcomes way too much.
There is extremely limited ability to be a monopolist in water because there is so much water everywhere, and it's relatively easy to procure - Oceans, lakes, rivers, underground acquifers, etc. You just need to clean the stuff for human consumption. If a monopolist is gouguing you for water - get together with your buddies and drill a well. On the flip side, if rights to the water in a lake were sold off, if the lake owner is having his water polluted by a local factory - he can now sue the factory owner for damages instead of the water rights being part of the 'commons'. This is a good thing.
According to wikipedia, Israel is now desalinating water at a cost of US$0.53 per cubic meter. Singapore is desalinating water for US$0.49 per cubic meter. So while that's expensive compared to diverting a local stream - its super cheap compared to bottled water, and at those prices you'd never be dying of thirst.
Think about places in the southwest, where over-use of the acquifers is completely unsustainable - at some point under current practices the water situation there will be a true disaster. If it were traded and commoditized, the acquifer draws would be reduced, development would rightfully slow down in those areas and people would be less wasteful.
Tap water is cleaner than bottled water kids, true story
Singapore has had this priority for a while now, mostly because the climate demands it. Google "Newater" and see what comes up. The goal is to become self-sufficient in water by 2025, I believe.
I can already smell the lawsuits coming over here...
It is interesting too, because having a lot of Desalination facilities potentially integrates nicely with intermittent renewable power sources - because you can use "excess" power to desalinate water, and reduce output on the plants when the wind or sun die down.
This thread got me thinking: Do any of you guys invest in water? I know Danaher is a big player in the development of water desalination equipment (I think). Are there any other names people like and/or are invested in on this board?
Paradox I still struggle to see how, as an investor in an unregulated water company (in the context of a fully privatized free-market system), my interests would be aligned with providing low-cost potable water access to the masses.
As a supplier, given the predictable volume characteristics the main levers I would pull to drive my IRR would be pricing/mix (e.g. multi-yr contracts w/ large high-value customers), and cost reduction (lower/minimum quality purification).
As a distributor/trader there's a number of ways I could drive returns. Buy overnight calls, then use off-balance sheet SPEs (perhaps name them "Raptor" "Chewco" "LJM") to create high-volume orders in thin areas to drive congestion and prices. Legally impacting physical supply would be easy.
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Those in favor of commoditizing water, are you fucking nuts? Think back to what Enron traders did in CA with the power grids. That shit would happen everywhere and people would fucking riot.
Ding F'ing Ding. Someone got my reference.
You can say that about any market - whether it's water, oil, natgas, pork bellies, soybeans, whatever. What evidence do you have that demonstrates a catastrophe will happen in water markets, when we get by just fine in all the other commodities.
Of course if people create SPEs and commit fraudulent market manipulating activities there will be problems - but that isn't unique to water.
I didn't say that's going to be unique to water. This is water - a vital resource - we can't afford for any probability of market disruptions to occur (which given your comment you obviously concede to be very possible).
Comparing water shortages to gold and pork belly shortages is highly misguided at best, no offense (are you joking?).
Further, expecting market regulators to regulate effectively is naive, they just don't have the capabilities this has been proven in almost all market dislocations, and is almost always reactionary and not preventive.
Total privatization and deregulation of water markets is utopian bullsht.
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