The Big Thirst

Water is necessary for people. People have developed a feeling for water. For example, people can expect the temperature or other sensation of drinking, showering, or spraying: “Water speaks a whole range of languages, specialized and universal, utilitarian and poetic and romantic” (25).

However, despite intuitions, people have little knowledge about water: “Water is as potent in our daily lives as gravity, but also as mysterious” (26). Most people do not know where water comes from or goes to. At the level of planets or people, misinformation abounds. Fishman aims to inform about water.

Dr. Richard Wolfenden is a biochemistry professor specializing in water. Proteins in cells fold into precise shapes, performing the functions of the human body. Wolfenden says that water engineers this protein folding, making life possible. Folding rules recorded in protein atoms depend on attraction to or repulsion from water.

Fishman writes that the oldest rock discovered on earth is 4.28 billion years old, almost as old as the solar system, and that tap water could be even older: “It’s one of the more astonishing things about water—all the water on Earth was delivered here when Earth was formed, or shortly thereafter” (28).

Unlike rock, which undergoes transforming processes, water remains in a single H2O molecular format. Water formed in space, even before the solar system formed. Even drinking water started out in space.

William Latter, an astronomer, says that water on Earth came from dust clouds in the Milky Way, over millions of years. Gary Melnick, another astronomer, found the Orion Molecular Cloud, where stars and water get formed at a rate of all of the Earth’s oceans every 24 minutes.

Stars forming in dust clouds collapse; shock waves smash together hydrogen and oxygen and create water. Water also forms when hydrogen and oxygen meet on dust in interstellar clouds. Astrophysicists say that water on Earth formed in interstellar dust clouds.

Scientists continue to investigate how water acts on and around Earth. While water covers most of the Earth’s surface, it is not the most abundant substance on the planet. Surface water comprises 0.025% of planetary mass. The same proportion would represent a bottle of water when compared to a minivan.

Fishman writes that most of Earth’s water is not on the surface and is not liquid, ice, or vapor. Instead, an exotic state of water sits in the rocky mantle hundreds of miles below the surface. Water merges with rocky molecules. At high pressure and temperature, water splits into separate molecules and joins rock.

Steven Jacobsen, a geophysicist, explains that while inside rock, hydrogen and oxygen components do not form water; instead, they are squeezed out of the rock and become water.

The water cycle depicts how water circulates. Cubic kilometers of water transport hundreds of billions of gallons. Every two minutes, Earth’s oceans produce more water than America uses in a day. After nine days in the air, evaporated water falls to Earth as precipitation. Clouds cover half of the planetary surface, with each cloud lasting around an hour.

One-tenth of the water in circulation is “biological,” residing in plants, animals, bacteria, and other forms. This totals over 1,000 cubic kilometers, or 300 trillion gallons of water.

Fishman notes that many texts prior to his own show the same exact numbers for planetary water use, citing the 1993 book Water in Crisis.

Joseph Smyth, a geologist, studies deep water. He says that water at the bottom of the ocean reacts with olivine to form serpentine, a dark green mineral. During subduction—the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth’s crust into the mantle beneath another plate—continents collide, pushing watery serpentine deep below. Volcanoes heat the rock and release water, along with ash.

Scientists study how much water resides in the mantle. Humans struggle to get a few miles beneath the Earth’s surface, yet water reaches hundreds of miles of depth. Researchers observe through sound waves and seismic waves, and also reproduce conditions and rocks in laboratory presses. The rocky water sits at such a depth that it cannot practically support humans.

Smyth thinks that the deep water could have produced Earth’s oceans. The deep water lubricates plate tectonics, producing geological features. And the deep water may balance the amount of surface water, enabling consistent landforms and the survival of Earth’s oceans, despite meteor strikes.

Percy Spencer, a Raytheon executive, developed magnetrons that contributed to the Allied victory in World War II. Noticing that his Mr. Peanut candy bar melted while near magnetrons, he then developed the microwave oven. Microwaves cook with water. Water molecules absorb microwave radiation, heating up. Each water molecule acts as a magnet, spinning rapidly.

Polar molecules such as water have distinct positive and negative sides. Water molecules stick together, through hydrogen bonds to oxygen atoms. The stickiness of water, in turn, holds together much of the environment.

Water also acts as a solvent. Chemistry in the body takes place in water. Fishman writes that “[o]ne blood cell can hold 3 trillion water molecules” (43).

Water remains liquid over a wide temperature range, enabling life. Water insulates against temperature, enabling creatures and the environment to regulate temperatures. Solid water (ice) has lower density than liquid water, unlike other molecules. Because ice floats, it can melt and leave rivers, lakes, and oceans wet, enabling aquatic life.

Fishman writes that people generally lack knowledge of water: “Few of us know enough to appreciate that the ice cubes floating in the glass of iced tea are like some kind of cosmic magic trick, let alone know enough to marvel that the whole sentient universe hangs on that trick” (43).

Water also enables the production and destruction of life forms. It produces rivers and oceans. Water spreads throughout Earth and space. From its origins in space, through its roles in the environment and organisms, water also enable electronic devices.

In semiconductor factories, IBM and other companies produce a rare form of water—large amounts of water so clean that one cannot drink it. This type of water enable processors. Chip features just nanometers wide, narrower than light waves, require hundreds of steps to produce. Between steps, water washes away chemical pollutants. Any pollutants dissolved in water would interfere with processor production.

Producing water 10 million times cleaner than tap water requires its own factory. The 18 needed steps include reverse osmosis, which also runs in desalination and soda plants, as well as in filters. The chip water is so clean that it sucks minerals out of body tissue. An environmental manager describes it as tasting bitter.

Water can accomplish much, from cleaning small devices to producing large geological formations. Water is both simple and complex. From three atoms, it produces biological organisms. Water has polarity, literally and metaphorically. Fishman writes, “Water is transparent, and also reflects light. Water is soft and soothing, and also hard as concrete. Water is comforting, and also threatening; gentle, and fierce. Water is the source of life, and also often a source of death” (49).

Despite its commonness, water is often not understood. Water has both utilitarian and aesthetic traits. These challenges lead to problems such as some people not having water. People relate to water through knowledge and emotion, and this distinction can affect the impact of water.

Las Vegas includes attractions featuring millions of gallons of water, such as fountains. The city itself sits in the dry desert. Dolphins swim here; some were even born here. Fishman writes of Las Vegas that “[t]here is no two-mile stretch of ground anywhere in the United States that has such a density of water features, water attractions, and sheer water exuberance” (53).

Las Vegas has the densest water displays in the driest city in the country. It gets its water, for 2 million residents and 36 million annual visitors, from Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country. This artificial lake could supply the entire country with water for almost a year. Las Vegas takes a legally-limited amount of water from Mead, which is also shared by California and Arizona.

Over recent decades, the population of Las Vegas has boomed, while precipitation has dropped. The city now faces a water crisis.

Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the Las Vegas Water Authority, pushes for less water use. In 2003, amid drought, she aimed to reduce fountains in sites like offices. She let the large casino fountains remain on because they bring economic value to the city.

Over 20 years, Mulroy reduced water use in Las Vegas by 3% per person. Despite the population growing by 50%, total water use stayed the same. When Mulroy started, water use ran rampant in the city. She raised water rates. Additionally, Mulroy united the various water utilities in the area through a new wholesaler.

Water in Nevada can be used other than where it is found, for “beneficial use.” Mulroy petitioned the state for 865,000 acres of additional water, angering ranchers and environmentalists, twenty years ago. The controversy still continues in court. Fishman writes that “[t]he final thing Mulroy did that first year was sit down with Steve Wynn, the man who created the model for the modern Vegas casino—big, luxurious, themed like a cruise ship or a resort, and drenched in water” (61).

Mulroy and the water district wanted regulate or prevent new casino water features. Wynn argued that people visit Las Vegas for the oasis it provides. She agreed. Instead of preventing the water features, the water district asked the casinos to use recycled water. Now, developers use their own water or treated wastewater in water features.

Mission Industries washes millions of pounds of hotel towels and sheets in a week, using machinery. It requires around a million gallons of water per day. Ralph Barbosa, director of engineering at Mission, convinced the company to reuse its water. Water treatment equipment costing $800,000 saved $2,000 per day. It also reduced drying time and heating costs, due to the added heat. Fishman writes that acts like these are “exactly the kind of unexpected, cascading benefit people often discover when they start managing their water use more closely” (65).

The Mission system saves 10 cents per room of laundry it washes, adding up to 360,000 gallons of drinking water per day, or one acre-foot. That amounts to more than one thousandth of the overall legal limit for the entire city of Las Vegas. Mulroy had the city contribute $150,000 to cover one cost of the system.

Las Vegas golf courses use millions of gallons of water per day. The courses can use reclaimed water instead of drinking water. Bill Rohret, superintendent of Angel Park, notes that the golf course buys recycled water from a city sewage treatment plant. They have removed turf and water, replacing it with dry xeriscaping. The park also uses computers to control its irrigation system.

The park has saved around 80 million gallons of water per year, or $280,000. It also reduces costs for seeding, fertilizing, and mowing around 80 acres of turf.

Las Vegas golf courses use far more water than the casino water features. The water utility regulates how much water each course can use, limiting the number of courses: “Growing grass in Las Vegas isn’t just an indulgence, it’s the biggest problem” (69).

Approximately 70% of Las Vegas city water gets used outdoors, for activities such as yard watering. Homeowners use approximately half of city water.

The water service pays businesses and homeowners $1.00-$1.50 per square foot, or $45,000 per acre of desert that they replace with desert landscapes. The Mulroy program to pay for grass removal has cost $155 million for 140 million square feet, or 3,214 acres. Each square foot saves 55 gallons of water per year in lawn watering. In total, the program has saved 7.7 billion gallons of water per year, 8% of the legal water allocation for the city. The program also shifts the culture, so that people act like they live in a desert.

The municipality has enacted new rules, such as requiring automatic nozzle shutoffs, limiting watering days, and preventing water features. New homes in Las Vegas cannot have front lawns, and no more than half of a back lawn. New commercial developments cannot have lawn period. Further, “the local water utilities have water cops who patrol the city’s streets, looking for waste water and writing violations” (70).

Fishman writes that now only outdoor water matters in Las Vegas, because most indoors water is recycled already. The city collects its drain water, and reuses it directly or sends it back to Lake Mead. Since 1992, the city uses more water than federal regulation would allow it to take from the lake. By sending back treated water, the city can increase its overall use.

Fishman notes that Lake Mead evaporates twice as much water as the city of Las Vegas uses. Also, the “reused” water for golf course projects would have been reused through Lake Mead anyways. Therefore, these environmental considerations have limits.

Atlanta underwent a drought too. Georgia tried to expand the state into an area of the Tennessee River. Tennessee responded by sending water. Atlanta is the fastest-growing American city and has plenty of water. However, it has not added water for its new residents.

Atlanta, like Las Vegas, receives water from a limited source. However, Atlanta, unlike Las Vegas, has no central water utility. Atlanta gets 10 times as much rain as Vegas and uses hundreds of times as much water.

When Congress built the reservoir that Atlanta uses, the city refused to pay for drinking rights because of its proximity to other water sources. Decades later, during the drought, the federal government flushed away far more water than the city needed.

The Army Corps of Engineers has a legal requirement to send water to Florida, to preserve endangered aquatic animals. Georgia proposed legislation to repeal the Endangered Species Act, as downstream populations also use the state’s water.

Atlanta restricted outdoor watering for the remainder of the season, and then rain returned. Alabama and Florida legally contested the amount of water Atlanta uses. A US court agreed with Florida, declaring Atlanta’s water use illegal. The ruling would limit Atlanta water to less than during the drought.

The city had three years to arrange a water alternative. Georgia focused on conservation. The Water Contingency Planning Task Force, in the meantime, reported that only the contested water could meet Atlanta’s needs.

Water conservation efforts have limits, restricting water but not at all times or all places. Georgia had a skeptical attitude toward the water source ruling being applied. Representatives from Georgia consulted Patricia Mulroy in Las Vegas. She insists that Atlanta should resolve its water issues anyway.

Fishman writes that every American community has water problems, which they can resolve, although not quickly. It just requires planning.

Mulroy aimed to install a third large water pipe in Lake Mead, as the previous two would have gone dry if the reservoir fell. It would come into the lake from below instead of the side. An Italian contractor dug hundreds of feet beneath the surface to install a 20-foot diameter pipe. The company works around the clock on the $700 million pipe.

Lake Mead now has low water again, after wetter years. Mulroy worries about climate change, micropollutants, and attitude. She says that water abundance is outdated. Instead, water is a resource.

Engineers have proposed pumping water from desalination plants or flood water. Some regions protect their water, angering Mulroy. She notes that gold, oil, and other resources get transported.

Fishman argues for thinking differently about water. Instead of wasting water, people should pay more attention to how they use it.

The waste water that Las Vegas returns to Lake Mead travels through the Las Vegas Wash. It represents the indoor water use of the entire city. For Fishman, it represents what people can accomplish by cleaning and reusing water.