Lots of good points Doyle!

Hey, have you seen THE OBAMA DECEPTION yet?

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+obama+deception&emb=0&aq=2&oq=The+Obama#

A must see.

We’ve been hearing for years that we’ll ultimately
be scrabbling for drinking water. Every time an
aquifer somewhere starts running low in a drought
we hear about it.

St. Loser isn’t likely to be scrabbling for water any
time soon. Before releasing the nature area that now
exists on the southern side of the confluence of the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers to the state for that
purpose, the city first sewed-up their mineral rights to the huge river of fresh pure glacial water which flows beneath the flood-plain of the current surface-water river in beds of glacial gravel. That area of what ought to be north county just so-happens to be one point at which the underground river of some of the purest water one could ever wish for just happens to meander under and a little past the surface rivers and is available to be tapped by well for future use as a new supply of water for the city, should the rivers become too contaminated or even run low.

It’s believed the water needs of the city could be met for a long time from this source. I’m sure they’ll be wanting to sell it at a high price to the county, if there’s ever a shortage. I can only imagine what the county would have to pay–probably consolidation with the city at the very least.

I agree with the point about it being more sensible to run cars on methane directly than make the methane into corn soley for the production of alcohol.

Corn made into alcohol also produces a material called “brewer’s grain” which is what’s left of the mash after alcohol is fermented in it and then boiled off for distillation. At the very least this is a good feed for animals and can be used for human consumption as well, if properly handled.

In that case we’re still producing food with our methane-made fertilizer as well as the alcohol.

The most promising source of green motor fuels is
to set up troughs or other compact streams within
plastic tubing or sleeves in which algae can be cultured. All modern petrochemical motor fuels came from the decomposition of algae in river waters
which settled into the bottoms of channels in river deltas long ago, were covered over and petrified and the oils in the algae separated through natural processes and became concentrated in the types of deposits now tapped in oil wells. Oil is lighter than water, floats to the top in these underground deposits and is trapped at the top of the layer of river channel sediments it was deposited in which were covered over by other sediments as deposits of silt built up and subsequent channels in the deltas meandered.

You can separate oil directly out of more recently-died algae. It’s believed the tiny plants can be bioengineered for even greater production, but even now you can produce more fuel-oil per acre culturing algae intensively than with any other oil crop.

From what I’ve seen of sewage lagoons you don’t need
any pricey natural gas to grow algae… If you’re not careful what the composition of your laundry soaps are, you’ll find yourself up to your armpits in so much algae it kills all life in rivers downstream of the outfall of secondary treatment plants.

Bio-Diesel from this source may be the future of surface vehicle travel.

For something interesting to watch on the subject of
water shortages–albeit fictional–I suggest the film Chinatown.

There’s really nothing new about water shortages. In the early history of this nation good potable water was such an iffy thing that it may in many cases have been more healthy to drink beer and liquor. They were cooked, at least.

Some good points, but you forget the elephant in the room when it comes to water use itself. That is argiculture is by far the biggest user. You see this as an issue out west were heavy water users in agriculture are competing against urban needs.

Locally, Snafu makes a good point. Water availability is not a big concern here. What is a HUGE concern and we are starting to see it in our waters bills is the infrastructure built to convey water to us as well as take away or waser. Roughly 10% of potable water is actually used for drinking, food or drinking). It is mostly wasted in our toilets and yard. the waste, while mostly treated, still gets back into our streams during periods of heavy rain.

It is really time to start thinking about the pipe in and pipe out. At the moment, the pipes are simply crumbling due to old age for a good part of the region. Seperate storm and sewer, natural retentions, expanded greenways to prevent flash flooding (think Univercity City), green roofs to retain runoff, permable parking lots. Their is a lot of small investments that will make a big impact if we can scale them up.

Absolutely right, and this newspaper has run recent articles about rain gardens and making rain barrels for rainwater harvesting to reduce stormwater runoff.Many other areas with water shortages have gone to greywater(from bathtubs and laundry, NOT toilets) recycling to do things like water the landscaping.The Earthways Center has a toilet that gets flushed from the water used at the bathroom sink, but I have not found it available in stores yet.It would be so easy to reduce water use and waste just by switching to low-flow shower heads, aerated faucets, and energy-efficient appliances(washers/dishwashers), as well as using more native plants(which require little to no supplemental water) in landscaping.It will just take the collective will to change a few habits on the part of consumers.As for agriculture,I think there would be benefits all the way around if it moved towards permaculture methods with less tilling (therefore less fuel consumption),and more sustainable methods to reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and herbicides, which can run off and add to water pollution.This would take time and effort, as well as a new way of thinking about food production.Unfortunately, too many people just don’t see the point as we haven’t had shortages here yet,but many other places,like Atlanta, had not either, before the last few years.Some town in Tennessee( if I remember correctly)actually ran out and had to have water trucked in from other areas for quite awhile, and then they had only so many hours a day to use it.THAT would be inconvenient ,to say the least.I don’t know what happened after that as I think it was several years ago.I would much rather be proactive and reduce waste now,while we can,to avoid problems later.We have already seen the problems that can result from a short-term runup in prices of a necessary item,and you can only cut back so much on water usage,even at maximal efficiency.We can’t continue to take this for granted anymore.