This is the lead page for our Smart Water section. In our lifetime we will witness major changes in the clean, safe drinking water we take for granted in our country. Efforts to limit access to water resources may result in price hikes we never thought possible. These pages present some different ways to think about water. As a resource, water moves in a closed cycle, limited only by linkage to scale. Cross contamination by an embarrassing array of degrading chemicals and our indifference to stewardship has left us vulnerable to unintended financial, social and ecological consequences.
Water is a universal transport vector for waste, nutrients, heat, cleaning solvents, toxins and a dizzying array of chemicals that include hormone mimicking compounds. Re-using; reducing use; and exploring alternatives to cultural use patterns are all topics of Being Smarter" about how we use water.