Meeting the needs for water of sufficient quality and quantity is challenging in small rural and agricultural communities of the arid west due both to environmental stressors and their limited human, technical and financial resources.  Water systems in rural and small urban communities are typically less resilient to both human and natural factors.  Further stressing rural and agricultural water sources in some areas is intensive water use for energy development such as oil and gas production.  <br/>The traditional approach for providing water to communities is the distribution of high quality water for all uses.  The water needs of rural and agricultural communities may be better addressed by matching water quality to needs (fit for purpose) combined with point of use treatment for high quality uses (such as drinking water).   In addition, brackish waters are a resource throughout much of the arid west.  To make effective use of these waters, robust scalable technologies with minimal maintenance requirements are needed that can manage a wide range of water contaminants including salts and toxics such as arsenic.  Non-membrane technologies such as capacitive deionization or electrosorptive technologies for salts removal and novel sorbents for arsenic removal may be effective approaches to manage these challenges. The performance of these potentially applicable technologies will be explored through both experiments and modeling.  The combination of treatment with blending of different waters to extend freshwater sources will also be explored.<br/>

Sustaining water availability in rural communities: Expanding use of poor quality waters

255th National Meeting (2018)

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