Grants Pass, OR (PRWEB) March 11, 2015
Heading into the 2015 summer dry season, and with a predicted El Niño weather pattern weakening daily, there are no indications that California’s record drought will end any time soon. With that in mind, the announcement that Southern California’s Orange County Water District (OCWD) will expand its innovative Ground Water Replenishment Program, came as welcome news to fresh water advocate Sharon Kleyne. The popular radio host is an outspoken advocate of the principals of Total Water Management (TWM).
Kleyne will discuss the California drought, the 2015 dry season and water supply innovations on her upcoming radio show of March 16, 2015. For the live show and/or podcasts of past shows, go to http://www.SharonKleyneHour.com.
The globally syndicated radio show is heard weekly on VoiceAmerica and Apple iTunes. The show is sponsored by Bio-Logic Aqua® Research, a global research and technology center founded by Kleyne and specializing in fresh water, the atmosphere and dehydration. Nature’s Tears® EyeMist® is the Research Center’s signature hand held humidifying device for dry and dehydrated eyes.
The ongoing California drought, according to Kleyne, was predicted to ease somewhat because of a projected El Niño weather pattern, which now appears to be breaking down. Meanwhile, California rivers and reservoirs have about the same amount of water in 2015 as they had on the same date in 2014, with some a little higher and some a little lower.
A large February storm system, Kleyne notes, dramatically increased mountain snow pack in Northern California and Southern Oregon, where she lives. The same storms opened ski areas that were closed the entire 2013-2014 season due to lack of snow. The wetlands of the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, the number one bald eagle roosting site in the US outside Alaska, was nearly dry in November and is now filled to capacity. However, high mountain trails that normally would have 10 to 20 feet of snow have remained accessible to hikers for the entire winter.
Because of the ongoing drought, the OCWD recently announced an expansion of its Ground Water Replenishment Program, from 70 million gallons per day to 130 million gallons per day. The program takes used water (sewage), that formerly would have been discharged into the Pacific Ocean, runs it through a three-stage purification system that makes it completely drinkable, and returns it to the ground, thus recharging the area’s underground aquifers and upgrading the water’s mineral content. The fresh water is later pumped back up, reprocessed and distributed as drinking water.
This program greatly reduces OCWD’s reliance on reservoir water and on imported fresh water from the Colorado River. Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada, which also use Colorado River water, are experiencing their own drought problems.
Kleyne is an advocate of Total Water Management, a concept developed by Neil Grigg, PhD, at the University of Washington. In a full TWM system, all fresh water sold by a water utility is recaptured, recycled and reused. A perfect system would require new water only when the number of users expands. Not only is the water fully recycled, so is the sewage sludge removed from the old water. Recent scientific advances, such as graphene filtering, have dramatically decreased the cost of toilet-to-tap fresh water recycling.
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