Cheap Drinking Water: No Longer A Luxury

But the era of cheap water may be at an end, says one expert, thanks to the dangerously obsolescent state of the nation’s wastewater treatment system.

"So much of the nation’s wastewater treatment system is extremely old – in some cases, more than a century old," says Dr. Jim Hairston, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System water quality scientist. "Many of them are just not equipped to deal with a host of serious water-quality problems stemming from population growth and the economic development that usually follows."

One especially serious problem involves nutrient enrichment. Nutrient enrichment is caused either by the direct discharge of pollutants into surface water by municipalities and industrial plants or by contaminants washed into lakes and streams from indeterminate sources, such as cropland, livestock operations, fertilized commercial and home landscapes and even wildlife and domestic pets.

The biggest problem associated with nutrient enrichment is the effect it is having on algae and other aquatic plants, Hairston says.

"Excessive levels of these nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous, wash into lakes and streams and accelerate the growth of algae and other aquatic plants," he says. "As the plants die and decay over time, oxygen depletion occurs and the result is massive fish kills."

Surface water throughout the developed world is being choked to death by the flush of plant growth accompanying nutrient enrichment, Hairston says. But the damage nutrient enrichment is causing lakes, rivers and streams is only the tip of the iceberg, he says.

"Seas and oceans throughout the world are also affected by nutrients washed in from rivers and streams," Hairston says.

It is a problem, that is reflected by the recurrence of hypoxia (dead zones) in the Gulf of Mexico and red tide in Mobile Bay and other freshwater/saltwater interfaces.

If the bad taste and aroma in drinking water indirectly associated with nutrient enrichment isn’t bad enough, there is the added problem of toxicity.

"Some aquatic plants whose growth is accelerated by these nutrients release toxic chemicals that may ultimately end up in our drinking water supply," he says. "This is why nutrient enrichment is every bit a health concern as it is an environmental one."

Since the science of wastewater treatment was developed more than a century ago, treatment plants have largely depended on the enormous capacity of water to cleanse itself.

But those days may be coming to an end, Hairston says.

"There’s an old saying: ‘Dilution is the solution to pollution,’" he says. "But there is a limit to surface water’s ability to dilute incoming pollutants and contaminants."

As Hairston sees it, population growth and the rapid economic development that often follows in its wake have resulted in more of these nutrients washing into streams, overwhelming the water’s ability to dilute them.

The federal government already has several measures in place to deal with nutrient enrichment. Nutrient standards, for example, are being established for every surface water system in the United States. State and local authorities will be responsible for ensuring these pollution levels to not exceed these standards.

One obvious solution would involve upgrading wastewater treatment plants to remove nutrients discharged into water. The problem, Hairston says, is the cost of the upgrades.

"Upgrades could run as high as $30 million – costs that would strain the budgets of even the largest, most affluent cities such as Atlanta," he says.

Short of plant upgrades, wastewater treatment facilities are developing other, less expensive approaches for dealing with nutrient enrichment. One approach would involve providing other polluters with financial incentives to reduce the amounts of nutrients they are releasing into streams.

All of these, Hairston believes, are only stopgap measures aimed at solving a problem that will only grow worse without a radical solution.

"We’re, in a sense, drowning in our waste," Hairston says. "What we need is a federal massive injection of federal funds to upgrade our nation’s obsolescent wastewater treatment system."

Unfortunately for taxpayers, this bailout won’t be cheap, as Hairston readily concedes.

Testifying recently before Congress, members of the Water Infrastructure Network, a coalition of 29 water-related organizations, estimate it will cost $23 billion each year to upgrade the nation’s wastewater treatment system. This is not even including the $60 billion already spent annually by local ratepayers to maintain current wastewater systems.

(Source: Dr. Jim Hairston, Alabama Cooperative Extension System water quality scientist, 334-844-3973.)