[Armageddon]

im trying to explain the importance of oil to my friend, and he thinks water is ran to our houses without some sort of oil / energy. I cant seem to find the answer anywhere. Obviousely water has to be pumped, but he thinks its ran from pressure. please help me explain , with some kind of hard data. thanks.

[dukey]

when god takes a tinkle
the ground fills up with water and theres so much of it
it fills the pipes with his fluid
this immense pressure forces it to your tap

so you have water on demand

[bobcousins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('armegeddon', 'i')m trying to explain the importance of oil to my friend, and he thinks water is ran to our houses without some sort of oil / energy. I cant seem to find the answer anywhere. Obviousely water has to be pumped, but he thinks its ran from pressure. please help me explain , with some kind of hard data. thanks.

[Kaare_Mai]

You are quite right, it is pumped into our houses. First, it has to be pumped out of the ground, then there is the process where methane gases are filtered out by venting the water with air, then it has to be pumped out at a constant pressure controlled by a pressure controller who "feel" the demand for water all teh time and adjusts the pumps to it.

It all requires electricity and in a normal water utility, there are 4 pumps using between 1 and 5 KWh each... Then there also are the power sued by the pumps to get the water out of the ground...

I know this as i have designed a water pressure controller for the company i work for

You can see it here: http://www.timco.dk/products.asp?SubKat=15
(click on the little english flag on top of the page)

[scw86]

I believe your friend is confusing the fresh water shotage with peak oil. The human population has exponetially expanded in the last 200-300years. Our wastefulness and pollution of water supplies combined with expanding population. Also the glacier I caps that have begun to melt contain a large amount of frest water held in them. The polution over time with the use of petroleum base chemicals(comercial ferts and pesticides) has had an effect as they drain into aquafers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static ... efault.stm

[ChumpusRex]

In general, water is pumped with electrical pumps. One of the major problems with the big blackout of 2003 was the fact that all the water pumping stations stopped, and there was no water pressure (and no pumps to pump the sewage along the sewers).

Some pumping stations will have diesel backup in case of power failure, but not all do - and as diesel is considerably more expensive than electricity, electricity is the preferred fuel.

[The_Virginian]

Ancient water systems (aqueducts) brought water via diffrences in altitude (gravity).
http://www.crystalinks.com/romeaqueducts.html


most modern water systems are based off of pumps, either from above ground resiviours (lakes) or underground water resiviours.


The above link satisfies the slothly educational requirements of your freind.

[The_Virginian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukey', 'w')hen god takes a tinkle
the ground fills up with water and theres so much of it
it fills the pipes with his fluid
this immense pressure forces it to your tap

so you have water on demand

[Armageddon]

i found a good website showing it.
http://people.howstuffworks.com/water1.htm

[Wildwell]

It depends on the water source/system. Some cities supplies depend heavily on pumped water, either from underground aquifers or from rivers etc. Others system need merely gravity. An example of this would be something like the Elan Valley Aqueduct, which supplies water from the Welsh mountains to Birmingham, England. The water makes its own way, at about walking pace, all the way from the reservoirs to Frankly water works. Usually there is some sort of energy needed at some stage, whether it’s pumping to service reservoirs, at water works or out of boreholes, although that’s electric pumps in the main.

http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/rha ... duct.shtml

[The_Toecutter]

Barring a total collapse of society(a possibility), I don't see why we can't have fresh water on demand and sewage treatment post peak in both the short and long term. The ancient Romans had a far simpler system than ours capable of supplying much fewer people but it still got the job done. Barring nuclear war, we're likely to have electricity. Depending upon severity of the scenario we will see, it may become something only for the wealthy, or it may be something virtually everyone in the first world will be able to continue to afford and use.

I don't think your friend needs to worry, unless it turns into a Mad Max scenario.

[broomstick]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukey', 'w')hen god takes a tinkle
the ground fills up with water and theres so much of it
it fills the pipes with his fluid
this immense pressure forces it to your tap

so you have water on demand

[Falconoffury]

Let's think about the supplies that the water utility companies require in order to maintain their service. What supplies do water utilites need and how often do they need them in order to maintain their operations?

Water utilities will probably be able to maintain operations for some time after a serious oil shortage, but eventually, they will need replacement and repair equipment, which is transported on diesel trucks or trains. It would be interesting to know some projections on how long water utilities will last without new equipment.

[RonMN]

The keys are the pumping & the water tower...a pump (running on electricity or diesel) pumps the water up into the water tower...the water being that high creates the pressure in the pipes.

If you don't pump it up into the tower, there will be no presure in th pipes & water will not flow out of your taps.

[frankthetank]

How do those water towers not freeze in winter??? When i drive to Rochester i notice a lot of towns along the way that have them...don't see many around here in WI.

One problem that was described to me was how some small communities that have seen explosive growth (suburbs) have continued to rely on the same source of water (well water around here) and that has put a lot of pressure on that water source. The town we lived in last summer saw a huge drawdown because of the lack of rain and the lack of resources (taxes/unwillingness to invest), they could soon run into big problems if the rains don't start helping out/new wells aren't drilled.

I personally think the water will keep flowing (i've got my own well) and i can go number 2 in a bucket if thats what it takes.

[Armageddon]

global warming, ( or global climate change, whatever you would like to refer to it as ) , is going to cause to many millions of people to relocate due rainfall shortages in the near future. floods, droughts, hurricanes, heatwaves, coldwaves, extreme storms , tornados etc are global warming effects.

[medicvet]

During the ice storm in my neck of the woods the first winter I spent in the OK state, we had no electricity for almost a full month. However, I was very lucky in that the place I stayed at at the time has natural gas heat, water heater, and stove, so I did manage to get by. Also, we always had water, even without power...would that mean because of the water tower, or that the water company just always had the fuel it needed for the pumps?

[Barbara]

Ancient Rome had ONE million people, I wouldn't exactly call it "few people"!
They had fresh water, pipes running under the streets like today, taps and basins. So I guess we could do without oil (dunno about purification...).

They're always proudly saying that actually Rome still uses that system in some areas. I tried but I didn't find any reference about the area I live.

[scw86]

I believe it will be more an issue of clean water in the future than pumping it. Heavy metal contamination and fertilizer/insecticides getting into the water supplies and aquafiers will render a large amount of fresh water unhealthy to drink. Then you look at the exploding population of Africa which is predicted to be one of the most effected continents in terms global warming and drought.

[Leanan]

IMO, this is where "catabolic collapse" comes in. Complex societies turn resources into waste, so that even the level of civilization that existed before they arrived or arose becomes impossible. In the days of the Romans, water was clean enough to drink in much of the world. Now, it isn't. We depend on chlorine and other treatments to keep it drinkable. I know I wouldn't want to drink untreated water from Lake Eerie. It may not be as polluted as it was when it caught fire, but it's still not clean. The Hudson River is so polluted you're not supposed to eat fish caught in it, but people drink water from it. Heavily treated, of course.