4 ms·
> 1 billion gallons of water per day * How much of that water need be drinkable? * How much of that water can be salinated (e.g. for flushing)? * How much of
by zamalek 7y ago
> 1 billion gallons of water per day
* How much of that water need be drinkable?
* How much of that water can be salinated (e.g. for flushing)?
* How much of that water can be partially desalinated (e.g. for showering)?
- ebg13 7y agoIndeed. If you do only the drinking water, 2L per person per day for 20 million people is only 10566000 gallons or 132 football fields.
- MayeulC 7y agoAnd for those who wonder like I did, I counted around fifty of those on that page: https://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/football https://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/football
- ebg13 7y agoOk, but if you use those then you don't have anywhere to play. I think more importantly, 132 football fields is about the same as the total floor area of the Pentagon.
- taneq 7y agoInstall the solar panels over the football fields as roofing.
- MayeulC 7y agoIf you can afford it, and/or land/actually mounting the panels is the most expensive part, I'd recommend to install photovoltaic panels instead, though, as they are more versatile. And it would simplify plumbing a lot to put everything in the same place, vs pumping brine up many roofs, and water down again.
- bluGill 7y agoThis doesn't matter as NYC is built on a river that provides plenty of fresh water every year. It needs to be treated and filtered, but at much less cost than desalination.
- sbierwagen 7y agoDescribing the Hudson as drinkable is somewhat ahistorical: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Hudson_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Hudson_River In any event, NYC gets its water from upstate, not locally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_water_supply_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_water_supply_sys...
- e12e 7y agoStill, compared to space needed for desalination, it's not obvious that the current scheme uses less area (I do assume you can still do some things, like hiking, in most of this area though) : "One of its largest watershed protection programs is the Land Acquisition Program, under which the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has purchased or protected, through conservation easement, over 130,000 acres (53,000 ha) since 1997"
- numbsafari 7y agoI like your line of thinking, except now you would need to introduce two independent clean water sources, label things appropriately, retrofit all existing plumbing, etc. also, the salt in the water would be corrosive and require totally different infrastructure. In the end, I’m not sure if it wouldn’t just be easier to make sure that all the water is potable.