Op-Ed Columns

A special issue of Scientific American begins “Catch 22: Water vs. Energy” by describing the battle Alabama has been locked in for two decades with Tennessee, Florida and Georgia over water. In response to a plan to reduce water flows from reservoirs in Georgia, the article explains, Alabama objected because it was worried about nuclear power plants that use enormous quantities of water to cool their reactors. There was potential that the Farley Plant near Dothan would shut down.

Wait a minute. Alabama’s priority for water usage is for industry’s sake? Consider the following:

From the low, gentle mountains in the north to the white sands of our coast, two-thirds of Alabama is covered in forests to hike in and rivers to fish and recreate on. Outdoor recreation is a significant employment and revenue-generating industry in Alabama.

Our 77,000 miles of rivers and streams have been recognized as a global priority. Alabama is first in the nation for the number of species that live in our water. We also have the first and second waterways with the most number of imperiled fish species on the continent.

If recreation, economy and biodiversity don’t speak to your heart, ponder this: water is life. It has no substitute; without it, people die. Millions of people die every year from a lack of access to clean water.

Severe water shortages affecting more than 400 million people today will affect 4 billion people by 2050. Southwestern states such as Arizona will face other severe shortages by 2025. Adequate sanitation facilities are lacking for about 40 percent of human kind.

Scientific American remarked: “… it seems we’re approaching an era of peak water … The situation should already be considered a crisis, but the public has not grasped the urgency.” Fortune Magazine declared: “Water is the oil of the 21st century.”

In Alabama, thermal cooling for power plants, such as the Farley Nuclear Plant, accounted for 83 percent of water withdrawals in 2005. All but 5 percent of it is returned in an altered state. The point is that enormous quantities of water are used to create energy. Likewise, enormous quantities of energy are used to process our water.

Americans are finally giving the energy crisis the attention it warrants. What will it take for us to make the connection between water and energy and the need to address these issues as one — for our rivers, for our security, for our climate and for our pocketbooks?

We have available solutions. There isn’t one magic bullet that’ll solve our energy and water-related problem. But some of the solutions are simple measures that can be undertaken by residents.

For instance, don’t run your sprinklers when it’s raining outside. Some solutions require industry commitment: power plants that use the lion’s share of water can switch from water-cooling to air, or hybrid air-water cooling. Local and federal governments should develop plans for sound water and energy policy-making. Engineering advances and new technologies should be utilized before seeking outdated, costly solutions.

Today, Alabamians can pitch in for the greater good as our parents and grandparents did during World War II. As the green elephant in the room recently remarked, “From a national security standpoint, efficiency is the perfect energy resource because it is dispersed, decentralized and domestic. Efficiency doesn’t put dollars in terrorists’ pockets. Efficiency cannot be bombed. Efficiency doesn’t rely on chokepoint infrastructure such as tankers, pipelines or refineries. Efficiency doesn’t bind America into alliances with dictatorial regimes in an unstable region. Efficiency doesn’t risk the lives of American soldiers defending energy resources far from home. Efficiency doesn’t expose our national security to coups and cartels.”

According to the Republicans for Environmental Protection, “Critics clinging to outdated notions have brushed off new technologies as ‘boutique’ resources that only Luddite hippies could love. The critics haven’t been keeping up with the news.”

We need a market-driven, diversified energy portfolio that promotes the use of a combination of alternative sources of energy in cogeneration with the finite resources that remain. Solar, wind, geothermal and low-impact hydro technologies are the future for clean, efficient energy. Think of the jobs that’ll be created.

And don’t forget the water part of the equation: We can get bigger energy results faster through water conservation, efficiency and reuse than virtually any other energy strategy.

Alabama, let’s take a stand. Because the survival of modern civilization depends on water and energy, we must make the connection between the two and begin to address this challenge.

Jenny Dorgan is program coordinator for the Alabama Environmental Council in Birmingham. Web site: www.aeconline.org.