Water rights

Alisha_A

I've just started reading Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water and already its got me thinking a lot.

I've never really stopped and thought about all these companies taking water and selling it to us, but now it just seems ridiculous to me. In a way, I see it as paying for the work they've done in purifying and bottling it, but on the otherhand, who owns water? Its one thing when they are bottling municipal water, and thus I assume paying for it like we all do, but in just the prologue of this book I learned about companies buying aquifers and even water from Alaska, basically taking chunks of ice. The idea of moving large scale amounts of water around the globe seems to me to have some potentially catastrophic effects.

I'm also a little confused as to where our water goes. Ultimately, water is a closed system right? So isn't the only thing really keeping us from having a plentiful water supply the ability to purify/clean the water we pollute? Am I missing something?

CDMay2006

Water rights becomes even more complicated and essential to understand when you consider the issue of agricultural water use in the contexts of native water rights, hydroelectric use and ecological processes.  If you're interested in Columbia River water issues, you might read A River Lost (Harden).  I'm hoping to read Organic Machine: Remaking of the Columbia (or something similar to that) by White?. 

Alisha_A

Ooh, thanks for the recommendations! I will add those to my list. So far so good on this book, and it has great reviews. There's a secondary book Blue Covenant I want to read as well, and hopefully those two will give me a good foundation for reading up on local water issues.

I understand owning the access to water, and when I pay my water bill, I'm paying for the treatment services and infrastructure, but to sell water??  

CutesBoots

Here's a diagram of the hydrologic cycle.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/atmos/hydro_cycle.htm

It shows you that a lot of water at any given time will be in places we can't reach it (in the atmosphere and in plants).  Agriculture and irrigation are considered to be a consumptive usage of water, because almost all of that water is returned to the atmosphere rather than back into ground water or surface water supplies.  While small amounts of water are "lost" to evaporation when it's used for drinking and washing, most of it is returned to surface water bodies (via sewage treatment plants) or ground water (via septic systems).  While water that is evaporated/ transpired eventually returns to the earth as precipitation, we can hardly control the rate at which this happens.  Additionally, salt water is hardly ever used for drinking water because of the effort involved in removing the salts.

Water rights issues are really complicated, and increase in importance as our global demand continues to grow.

Alisha_A

Thanks Cutes, that was a really good explanation. Its funny how skewed my view is living here. I forget that most places, it doesn't rain daily for 9 months of the year!

tarinay

Alisha_A:

Thanks Cutes, that was a really good explanation. Its funny how skewed my view is living here. I forget that most places, it doesn't rain daily for 9 months of the year!

Thanks too, and LOL!

xnickerx

Alisha_A:

I've never really stopped and thought about all these companies taking water and selling it to us, but now it just seems ridiculous to me.

I obviously haven't read the book, but I am curious about this statement. Are you referring to people like Alhambra who deliver bottled water, or the actual water supply to your house?

CDMay2006

xnickerx:

Alisha_A:

I've never really stopped and thought about all these companies taking water and selling it to us, but now it just seems ridiculous to me.

I obviously haven't read the book, but I am curious about this statement. Are you referring to people like Alhambra who deliver bottled water, or the actual water supply to your house?

I think she's talking about companies bottling, distributing and selling water (not municipal water).
What do you mean "people like Alhambra?"

Alisha_A

CDMay2006:

xnickerx:

Alisha_A:

I've never really stopped and thought about all these companies taking water and selling it to us, but now it just seems ridiculous to me.

I obviously haven't read the book, but I am curious about this statement. Are you referring to people like Alhambra who deliver bottled water, or the actual water supply to your house?

I think she's talking about companies bottling, distributing and selling water (not municipal water).
What do you mean "people like Alhambra?"

Yes, people bottling and distributing water, not municipal water. And a lot of places are privatizing municipal water! Imagine, profiteering on water in your town, your basic water needs!

I don't know who Alhambra is, but the book lists the top 3, and I was surprised Coca-Cola and Pepsi weren't in there.

xnickerx

Sorry, I knew Alhambra was nationwide so figured it would be a good description- what I didn't know is they go by different company names in different parts of the USA. Doh! Communication fail! In Washington it's Crystal springs water. It also goes by:  Hinkely springs, Kentwood springs, Sierra springs, Sparklets, and Belmont springs.

But anyway, thanks for clearing that up for me! I was wondering if slowly all the water boards were switching to privatization....

Mrs.A&J

What timing this post has, I just watched FLOW last night, and shared many of your thoughts. A lot of the information is probably the same, in fact the Blue Gold author was interviewed for the film. I know there is also a Blue Gold film, I think you can find it in the instant play section of Netflix.