From Poop to Potable - Final Assignment Draft

From Poop to Potable- final assignment draft

Proposal:

Treat all sewage water in California by 2025 by using specialized machines to convert waste into compost and purified water.

Name: From Poop to Potable

My Take: California is facing one of the worst droughts in its history and we have been importing water from other counties and cities. Moving water in California is the single biggest use of electricity in California. Even with 3.6 inches of rain, we could have collected 3.8 billion gallons of runoff (Zarakas, 2).

Instead of importing water from other states and pulling precious groundwater to feed water intensive crops we need to think long term. We need to move towards sustainability and understand that costs may seem high now, but

Problem 1: Water collection

- Toilet to Tap

- Water flows with gravity

- Ecological? (As opposed to dumping in sea)

- Who controls the process? (City)

Problem 2: Water purification

- Cost effective? (1/3 of cost of desalination)

- Infrastructure (multi-million dollar infrastructure)

- Existing Tech (Bill Gates)

- Orange County uses treated wastewater for 20% of total water use

AMDP:

Charge an additional tax on water usage to help fund public projects. Orange County recently built a $481 million facility that purifies 70 million gallons every day and places the water back into the ground. We need to change the way we look at sustainability in all aspects of life. We are currently undergoing another mass extinction and in order to sustain a larger population in the future, we need to create systems that can sustain themselves. As water is the most essential necessity on Earth, we believe this technology will only appreciate in value as weather conditions become more extreme and population growth occurs at an unprecedented rate.

References:

Gates, B. (2015, January 5). This Ingenious Machine Turns Feces Into Drinking Water. Retrieved August 1, 2015, from http://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Omniprocessor-From-Poop-to-Potable

Cocca, C. (2013, June 18). OC to Get More Drinking Water From Waste. Retrieved August 3, 2015, from http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Orange-Countys-Wastewater-Purification-System-Worlds-Largest-Expands-211900901.html

Zarakas, M. (2015, April 15). Why Does California Let Billions Of Gallons Of Fresh Water Flow Straight Into The Ocean? Retrieved July 31, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2015/04/15/why-does-california-let-billions-of-gallons-of-fresh-water-flow-straight-into-the-ocean/