10

The Toilet-to-Tap Solution

第十章

从厕所到水龙头的解决方案

Not too long ago, we lived in a wasteful world. We tossed our aluminum cans, glass bottles, and old newspapers into the trash without a second thought. We drove gas guzzlers, turned the thermostat way up in the winter, andlit our homes with hundred-watt incandescent light bulbs. Once we were done using something, it was destined for the landfill or incinerator. Energy was what we had after a second cup of coffee and definitely not something we thought about conserving. But as the world became more crowded and we startedto recognize the problems associated with our consumptive ways, we began toclose the loop on materials and started to conserve energy by embracing the “Three R’s” of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Now most places have instituted deposits on cans and bottles. Recycling bins are everywhere. Many of us drivefuel-efficient cars and light our homes with compact fluorescent light bulbs. As we enter an era of limited water supplies and increasing concerns about the effects of wastewater effluent on the environment, perhaps it is time to apply the same philosophy to water.

不久之前，我们还生活在一个非常浪费的环境里。我们曾毫不犹豫地把铝罐、玻璃瓶和旧报纸当作垃圾扔掉。我们驾驶高油耗的“油老虎”汽车，冬天把暖气开得足足的，房间里开着好几盏一百瓦的白炽灯。一旦我们不再需要某件产品，就把它扔进垃圾填埋场或焚烧炉。Ｅｎｅｒｇｙ是我们喝了第二杯咖啡后才有所感觉的东西（因为咖啡可以提神），而绝非那种我们会去考虑节约的东西（即能源）。但随着世界人口变得越来越多，我们开始意识到我们的消费方式带来的种种问题，开始考虑重新利用原材料，提出节能的“３Ｒ”原则：减少（Ｒｅｄｕｃｅ）、再利用（Ｒｅｕｓｅ）和循环利用（Ｒｅｃｙｃｌｅ）。现在大多数地方已经设置了易拉罐和瓶子的回收点。废物回收箱也到处可见。我们当中许多人现在开低油耗的小汽车，家里使用的是节能型荧光灯泡。我们进入了一个水源有限，且日益担忧废水对环境影响的时代，也许现在是把“３Ｒ”原则应用于水的时候了。

When we think about water, the first of the Three R’s is reduce. Anywater utility that is serious about providing an adequate quantity of water inthe face of population growth and climate change has already begun to embrace water conservation by pushing its customers to grow drought-tolerant plants andto install low-flow plumbing fixtures. Beyond its potential to extend supplies, water conservation makes a lot of sense because it also saves money, conserves energy, reduces pollution, and allows cities to build smaller reservoirs and treatment plants. As a result, there is a long history of conservation incities where water is scarce. (Chapter 12 examines the kinds of conservation programs that are already in place in water-limited cities and describes someof the up-and-coming approaches that can be used to push the practice to itslimit.)

当我们考虑用水时，首先应想到３Ｒ 原则中的第一个，即减少（用水）。在面临人口增长和气候变化挑战时，任何一个重视提供充足用水的水务部门，早已通过推动种植耐旱植物和安装低流量管道设备等方式，开始推行节约用水。节约用水的意义在于，它除了可以让同样的储水量用得更长久，还可以节省资金、保护能源、减少污染，城市可以建规模稍小的水库和水处理厂。因此，那些水资源稀缺的城市都有着节约用水的悠久传统或历史。（第十二章将探讨水资源有限的城市已采用的一些节水计划，并描述一些崭新的节水方法。这些新方法可使节水措施达到极限）。

The second and third of the Three R’s refer to the practice of putting treated sewage back into the water supply. Strictly speaking, “water reuse” involves finding an appropriate use for wastewater that has received little orno treatment beyond what is usually done when it is discharged to a river orthe ocean. “Water recycling,” by contrast, employs wastewater after it has undergone additional high-tech treatment processes for the purpose of gettingthe water to be used for a specific application. Because it is often difficult to distinguish a sewage treatment plant that had been upgraded to protect asensitive aquatic ecosystem from one in which additional treatment processes have been added to facilitate recycling, the terms “water reuse” and “water recycling” are often used interchangeably.

３Ｒ原则中的第二和第三条是将处理过的污水重新使用。严格来说，“水的再利用”是给那些经过很少处理或未经处理的废水找到合适的用途，而不是将其排放到河流或海洋中。“水的循环利用”则不同，它是将水在经过额外的高科技处理过程后，把它用于某一个专门的用途。我们现在有两种水处理厂：升级到已经可以保护脆弱的水生生态系统的污水处理厂，以及加入了额外处理工艺用以促进水循环的处理厂。由于很难将这两种水处理厂区分开来，因此，“水的再利用”和“水的循环利用”这两个术语经常交替使用。

(Last two paragraphs of Chapter 10)

By being mindful of public opinion and demonstrating a cautious, professional attitude, the Orange County Water District managed to preempt thepublic skepticism that had killed the projects in San Diego and Los Angeles. It is an exemplary model for outreach and the building of trust in the community.

橙郡水区通过认真听取公众意见，并展示其谨慎、专业的态度，成功地化解了公众的怀疑态度，这种怀疑态度曾扼杀了圣迭戈和洛杉矶的那些工程项目。这可以作为一个深入社区和建立社区信任的典范。

Following the success of Orange County and a less noticed, but nearly identical, project run by the West Basin Municipal Water District on landadjacent to the Los Angeles International Airport, the failed projects in San Diego and in Los Angeles’s East Valley have come back to life, with reverse-osmosis-equipped advanced water recycling plants that are nearly identical to the design employed in the successful projects. The idea also has spread beyond California, with plants following the Orange County model comingon line over the last 15 years in Arizona, Singapore, and Belgium.⁴⁶ By employing sophisticated public communication strategies and state-of-the-art treatment technologies, the forces behind potable water recycling now appear tobe unstoppable. But questions linger about the high costs of the projects andthe willingness of communities outside of Southern California, the desert Southwest, and a few other water-stressed locales to accept the unfamiliar practice.

继橙郡的水循环项目和另一个不太引人注目的、但几乎与之相同的由西部盆地市政水区在洛杉矶国际机场附近运行的水循环项目成功之后，圣迭戈和洛杉矶东部山谷这些失败的项目也因此恢复了生机。它们采用的先进的水循环利用工厂具有与那些成功项目近乎相同的反渗透技术装备。这一做法也在加州以外的地区蔓延。在过去１５年里，亚利桑那州、新加坡和比利时陆续采用橙郡这一模式^［４６］。采用一套复杂的公共沟通策略和现代化的处理技术，使得推动饮用水循环利用的力量势不可挡。但是，饮用水循环利用的未来依然是个未知数，因为它的成本高。除了南加州、西南部的沙漠，以及一些严重缺水的地区以外，其他社区是否愿意接受这种做法，尚不得而知。

ps. I typed up the English myself, so errors are possible.

水４．０：饮用水的过去、现在与未来

［美］戴维·塞德拉克　著

徐向荣　等译    虞左俊　校

上海科学技术出版社

出版时间：2015.08

ISBN：978-7-5478-2729-1

定价：38元

Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource

Paperback：March 31, 2015

by David Sedlak (Author)