Yes, it’s been a cold and snowy winter in the northern tier states in the USA.  And, this tends to ameliorate and satisfy those of us hoping that “global warming” is just a politicians tool for exaggeration.  The reality, of course, is that global warming is very much a real and insidious fact.  No “cold winter days” are going to change the march of reality.  One need only look at the matter from afar…we are a troubled planet.  Recession of glaciers (see photos above) is only one of many symptoms.

As the first line of environmentalists, water and wastewater professionals (operators, engineers, and bureaucrats alike) are responsible and accountable for these matters.  We need to lead – not simply react.

This brings me to the reality of where our profession “is” at this point in this evolution.  The reality is present in our technical journals. Pick up the latest issue of whatever journal happens to be on your desk and tell me if you don’t see what I’m seeing….there is a huge disparity in going from one article to the next. You can find and read a very convincing article on energy conservation and techniques to reduce power consumption and – in the adjoining articles – there will be huge treatment plant designs showing the latest design by some consulting firm with thousands of horsepower installed and not one whisper of the “e” word. Energy – if we are true to our profession – should be an integral part of every technical presentation.  It should be as much a part of a water and wastewater article as the flow rate is, now.

For those of you who are reading technical journals, take a moment and reply to the journal or the authors of articles and ask for the missing “energy” equations or energy consumption for the plants or processes described. That is the most powerful message…a comment from a reader.

Keep your mind focused on the goal; hopefully, energy benchmarking is part of this goal.
Don Voigt, P.E.

Today’s quote from Draper Kaufman:

Nothing Grows Forever

The exponential growth curves produced by positive feedback keep on growing only in mathematics. In the real world, growth always stops sooner or later. The faster the growth, the sooner it will stop. The question is, how soon and in what way?