Clean Water

Environmental issues have always been a concern of mine and at times I become passionate about them. I became a chemist in an effort to help do my part to improve the environment. As a young man, I was a member of the Youth Conservation Corps in central Illinois. This was in the 1970’s when the Green movement was just beginning.  We did some cleanup work and took tours of different facilities like the waste treatment plant.

I learned that waste water could be purified to the point it was actually cleaner than most tap water. But even the plant operator would not drink it because he knew where the water originated from. The mind has a lot of control over what and how we think about things. Today, most people that live in coastal cities would be surprised to learn that the water from their waste treatment plants is actually being piped directly back into the drinking water that they consume. This is not widely talked about due to the fact that most people would become squeamish at the thought of drinking treated waste water.

With the shortage of fresh drinking water, the fact of recycling waste water has become more prevalent than we would like to know. Worldwide, there is a fresh water shortage. At this time there are arguments about water supplies – from the Colorado River supplying the west coast and the farmers along the way, to the country of Spain where some parts have refused to give or even sell water to other parts of their own nation. Who knows, maybe soon there could be a war just for the right to a fresh water supply.

Environmental issues concern us all. There are just some people that the issue has become more personal. For all of us around the world, there is only one place we can live – mother earth; we should really start taking better care of her.

For another article from this web site please view letters of recommendation.