10
votes
Accepted
Can pumped water energy storage be combined with rainwater harvesting?
Water loss is not the issue, because you need a lot of water to make it work at all. Even if your dams lose 30% of their water every year, that's about 0.1% per day. System losses in the best large-...
- 1,307
6
votes
Why is there so much scarcity of water?
There is no global scarcity of water.
Some areas have a scarcity of potable water per person.
There are several ways to fix that:
Move the people to where there's sufficient potable water for them.
...
- 14.7k
5
votes
How does one utilize the low pressure of a rain barrel?
Ok, collecting water is one thing. My first question would be "why collecting water at base level?" Just one meter (yard) higher could generate some pressure to distribute the water better. Most water ...
- 929
5
votes
Accepted
Does oil spilled in backyard contaminate groundwater?
I question the blanket assertion of 1 liter of oil contaminating 1 million liters of water. That's 1 part per million.
This article:
https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/water-quality/...
- 7,227
4
votes
Does the world have a defined amount of water?
Yes, there is a limited amount of water on (and in, and above) Earth. There's a limited amount of everything on Earth. Most things on Earth stay on Earth due to the pull of gravity, gaseous water ...
- 8,835
4
votes
How can we all together clean up the vast plastic carpets in our oceans?
Prevalence of garbage in the oceans
A recent study in Nature Scientific Reports finds that the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is massive, and keeps growing. From the article, "Evidence ...
- 11.9k
4
votes
Reference request - Overview over established solar thermal desalination technologies
Here are a couple of papers published between 2011 and 2016:
Ranjan, K. R., and S. C. Kaushik. 2013. ‘Energy, Exergy and Thermo-Economic Analysis of Solar Distillation Systems: A Review’. Renewable ...
- 3,312
4
votes
Accepted
Does decanting eliminate heavy metals in water?
Precipitation and decantation are two different things.
If left alone, dissolved heavy metals would never go down to the bottom of a container (countering the gravity pull for an ion over 10 cm costs ...
- 280
4
votes
What is the environmental impact of detergent pods?
A study published in 2021, conducted by Arizona State University and Plastic Oceans International, claims that the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) used in both dishwasher and washing machine pods is not ...
- 86
4
votes
Why does climate change lead to more diarrhea?
I’m not aware of any definitive studies or reputable sources of information that directly link climate change to increased cases of diarrhea. I’d be interested to see any if anyone happens to have a ...
- 41
3
votes
How does one utilize the low pressure of a rain barrel?
Plant a birch tree.
Run a hose from the barrel to the tree. Put a soaker hose on the hose, and set it far enough from the tree to go round once. E.g. for a 50 foot soaker hose it would about 8 feet ...
- 7,227
3
votes
Accepted
Are aluminum sheets appropriate for rainwater catchment roof?
You've raised a few issues in your posts, so having just built a new house I'll address those I'm able to:
To start with, I live in a country/area where corrugated steel roofing is the absolute norm ...
- 2,854
3
votes
Processing grey water (sink, shower) in off-grid situation
I was faced with a similar question a couple of years ago. The best solution I could come up with was to feed the grey water into an area occupied by plants that consumed 'large' quantities of water ...
- 2,854
3
votes
Is it environmentally sensible to clean a paint roller?
Not an answer directly, but can make the resource gap wider: I'm similarly concerned about the amount of water used and found that the amount of water used considerably reduced, by making (or probably ...
- 189
3
votes
Accepted
Is it environmentally sensible to clean a paint roller?
As you're in the UK, the environmental cost of tap water is pretty low.
And given that the alternative is to replace the roller, then although I haven't looked at a full lifecycle analysis, I'd be ...
- 14.7k
3
votes
Accepted
What is the energy and greenhouse gas footprint of Skysource/Skywater water generator?
There's a little bit of information on their FAQ:
Energy ranges from less than .4KWH/Liter to over kWh depending upon climatic conditions.
And that's just as they've written it. The upper limit is ...
- 14.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Why not use scarce California water for almond milk?
The issue is really with sustainability rather than scarcity, and it is also linked to ecological issues. An article in the Berkley University web site gives some background information. In order to ...
- 1,021
3
votes
Accepted
How can I conserve energy and water in my bathroom?
Others have already suggested low flow fixtures and reducing water usage, but here are a few other ideas, from least to most expensive:
Turn down your water heater. The U.S. Department of Energy ...
- 11.9k
3
votes
Accepted
Will this work to prevent my pipes from freezing?
Clarification of terms: Your tap is the downstream end. The City water supply is the upstream end.
My understanding of your situation:
City
Waterline
Building shutoff vale
Local distribution valve
...
- 7,227
3
votes
Accepted
Are there long-distance water pipelines emanating from the North American Great Lakes region? Why or why not?
I can provide an answer for the first part of the question: No new water diversions out of the Great Lakes region are allowed.
Great Lakes water agreement
The 2005 Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence River ...
- 11.9k
3
votes
Accepted
Is residential water pumping common?
Available data indicates that; 1) electricity usage for water pumping at homes is minimal; and 2) most municipal water systems provide more pressure than required for residential uses
Is it common for ...
- 11.9k
3
votes
Accepted
How would a garden adapted to drought look like?
This concept is called xeriscaping, a term coined in 1981 by the water authority of Denver, Colorado, USA, in efforts to encourage residents to reduce water usage in their gardens and yards.
...
- 11.9k
2
votes
Can real straw be used as a natural drinking straw?
In so far as I am aware, drinking straws were originally made from straw, the hollow shaft cut from wheat or barley, hence the name.
Regular grass, like hay, is probably too thin to be useful, but I ...
2
votes
How to use sea water in daily life?
What do we use water for in every-day life? And can we use untreated seawater instead? Because: untreated seawater is what the PO's is supposed to use instead of fresh water. :)
Bathing. Maybe Either ...
- 141
2
votes
How to recover water from washing machine for toilet
I have just started recycling our Laundry Grey Water on a farm in Australia through the Toilet Cisterns.
I initially had an IBC 1000litre tank on 200 litre (44 imp gallon) oil drums outside a verandah ...
2
votes
Why don't toilets use saltwater?
It might even be more environmentally friendly to dispense with using flush toilets altogether by switching to using negative pressure toilets. Vacuum toilets are used on planes and also help to ...
- 708
2
votes
Toilet tank with both water main and waste water (underflow)
Assuming you can get the appropriate variance or exception from municipal and state health and building codes to put drain water into the toilet feed at all (which is unlikely in the United States), ...
- 276
2
votes
Are The Great Lakes Getting Cleaner or Worse?
This is more like a comment than an answer, but I have insufficient rep to comment. I think the short answer is that we lack the data to say for certain. And it definitely does depend on what ...
- 306
2
votes
Is it worth washing a plastic bag to reuse it?
I've actually thought about this while washing bags. Something about it just felt dumb to me, so I looked into it.
First surprize: Plastic takes a lot of more water to produce than I expected. It ...
- 412
2
votes
Are motion activated faucets more sustainable than traditional faucets?
I don't think there is a clear answer to this question.
In a public environment where there is the risk of someone leaving the water running, then almost certainly yes. In a household where people ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible