Specific Connection in Energy-Water Nexus

Athough the delivery of pure and safe drinking water to homes and industries commonly is regarded as a human right, it comes at significant cost. Water resources are depleted, and energy is required to pump, transport, and treat water. Issues connecting water quality to the energy-water nexus include:

• Increasing costs for the energy, raw materials, and disposal associated with water treatment
• Competition for clean water among municipal, agricultural, and environmental sectors
• More stringent clean water standards that require additional energy for treatment
• Impacts of agricultural drainage (salts, trace elements, pesticides), plus environmental regulations that reduce returns to agriculture while increasing the energy costs of compliance
• Mining of groundwater basins, which causes subsidence and long-term degradation of aquifers
• Consumer demands for safe, reliable drinking water that are becoming more exacting as the technology for water quality testing lowers detection limits and reveals more contaminants of concern
• Consumer fears of municipal water reuse

Resource Quantities

As the world's population grows, continually increasing the demands on water resources, maintaining water quality will require investing more energy and resources in water treatment.

• Rapid population growth requires consumers to pay higher prices to ensure safe and reliable municipal water supplies.
• Competition among agricultural, municipal, and environmental sectors for high-quality water affects the agricultural economy, which cannot compete for high-cost water.
• Floods, chemical spills, and other natural and man-made disasters can have long-term impacts on both water quality and the economy.
• Technological advances are expected to have a diminishing effect on improved water quality; we will be working primarily with existing technologies, with the greatest returns deriving from improved management and from matching water quality to intended use.

Sector Challenges and WETT Solutions

Scientists with the WETT have furthered approaches such as real-time management of water quality for managing seasonal wetlands in river basins. WETT scientists have focused on advancing the concepts of resource management and the role of computers and electronic sensor technology in designing and implementing environmental decision support systems. We are working with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and California Department of Water Resources, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Department of Fish and Game on research to improve best management practices for watersheds. These practices will improve water quality in rivers and streams in California and other Western states.