Climate Change and Clean Water

Climate Change and Clean Water - December 17, 2007

As we all know, one cannot survive more than a few days without water. And too many have in the past died for the lack of a drink of water, and probably, and tragically, too many will in the future. Our neighboring State of Georgia is facing a real fresh water crisis.

So why are we not taking more drastic steps to protect our diminishing and precious resource.

The drought in Georgia is a case in point. 63% of their fresh water goes to power generation. Can we do without electricity? Of course we can. We did for thousands of years, but would rather not today. Electricity has provided our current "high standard" of life, however, we humans only reached this period in time because we had water to drink. That we cannot live or survive without fresh water EVER.

Currently those industries that use our precious water and the WV Department of Environmental Protection are seeking to remove the tier 2.5 designation from many West Virginia Rivers. To non-technical folks, that means allowing the levels of pollution to rise above the current minimums used to define safe drinking water. The engineers and scientists at DEP recommended against removing the designations, however, the lawyers and political leaders who are funded by the industries that will benefit form allowing more pollution in the water are trying to prevail...although have not yet. The West Virginia Environmental Coalition (WVEC) and many others are waging a tough battle to keep the 2.5 designations.

The coal industry in particular uses enormous amounts to clean coal...I've read numbers as high as 5 tons of water to clean each ton of coal. Whatever the number is, it is a non-life essential use of our water. Oh to be sure, the coal industry will say it is essential to them...but at what environmental cost? That cost, one of several so-called "external costs" that the coal industry does not pay, is assessed to all of us in the future. And of course it means the permanent loss of the BILLIONS of gallons that they are consuming.

After the cleaning process, they dump the resultant toxic water (it is actually more like poisonous mud) into abandoned mines and/or enormous sludge ponds held back by earthen dams. Marsh Fork Elementary School is just below one of hundreds of such "ponds" located around the State. That pond has several BILLION gallons of highly toxic waste laden with arsenic, mercury and many other poisons.

The spill a few years ago by Massey Coal into the Tug Fork River was such a failure to permanently manage and contain that particular toxic storage sludge reservoir. That spill was estimated to be 22 times the EXXON Valdez spill.

The proposed Coal To Liquid process plants require an even greater amount of water. Some literature states 7 gallons of water for every 1 gallon of fuels obtained form a CTL plant.

One cannot help but ask..."What are we doing to ourselves by diverting our precious water into these plants, when there are alternative energy technologies and transportation fuel options that do not use ANY water?" Some, like hydrogen power fuel cells actually produce pure water. Even Concentrated Solar Power plants recycle the little water they require.

Water is our most precious natural resource. We will have to rethink how we use it as its available amount continues to diminish. The IPCC reports, and many many scientists are warning us that global warming is causing an accelerated loss of fresh water.

Allan Tweddle