As the new editor of Water Efficiency (WE), first of all I’d like to say hello to established readers, and to brand new readers, too. I hope you will be comfortable to contact me with your thoughts about the magazine in general, articles we’ve run, or articles you think we ought to run. You will be helping me to serve you and to be an effective advocate for water efficiency (with both small and capital first letters).
My background is in literature, though I come from a scientific family. One of my brothers once told me that the valley I was referring to in one of my poems was actually an alluvial plain. I tried changing the wording but found it a little awkward. Nevertheless, the sciences have framed my understanding of the world, and the humanities surely infuse the world of nuts and bolts, gaskets and gauges, since all the building, managing, and repairing is for the lives of the people who benefit from the technology.
While working with the articles for this issue and the generous flow of material moving across my desk and my computer screen, I couldn’t help but sense that there are many stories lying under our cities, towns, counties, and rural landscapes. There may well be a story in every pipe, the particular human dramas that leave their imprint at intervals amidst the sprawling “patchwork” of water infrastructure addressed in David Engle’s article “The Right Pipe for the Job.” And it all filters down into one narrative, the human story, because we’re lost without water, after all.
Water conveyance is one of the most basic characteristics of civilization, and while the sophistication of the water delivery systems and the lifestyles we enjoy go hand in hand, the variables of human nature and our attempts to either tame or harmonize with the environment don’t allow for a simple story.
We got a painful glimpse of this complexity on our TV screens when we saw survivors of Typhoon Haiyan waiting for deliveries of potable water amidst wreckage caused by water. And whether it was fallibility or treachery that caused JM Eagle to sell inferior pipe (pipe that was supposed to last 50 years but was cracking and bursting within one to a few years of installation) to this country’s major cities and municipalities, private citizens sued them on behalf of the government agencies believed to have been defrauded, using a law called the False Claims Act. A federal court found the PVC industry giant guilty of knowingly selling defective pipe to be used in the most essential public systems, like drinking water, wastewater, and fire fighting. (JM Eagle has said they will be appealing the decision).
The fact that people would organize from around the country to take this action testifies to a sense of personal and collective affront. It is one thing to pay for water. It is another thing to be cheated out of what those payments ought to be providing, or to have to pay for the bad behavior of others related to one of the most basic elements of life.
WE understands the seriousness of having water systems that are safe and well maintained; we continue to evolve with the changing concerns that make for greater efficiency. And we aim to participate in a robust and dynamic infrastructure. The quality of life we have come to know and expect goes far beyond mere survival.
With all the heaviness we face over water and the environment today, there is something to be said for holding on to childlike innocence and wonder. For the reader profiled at the back of this issue, Guy Carpenter, the mountain streams visited on vacations in his youth, and learning that these also supplied the nearby metropolitan areas, made an impression on him that has translated into work in Water Resources and Reuse.
May the stories in our water systems all have happy endings, and may your working with water be wonder-full.
