Water Waste Myths

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Water Waste Myths

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Welcome to The Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot on what’s new in real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce. On today’s show we’re talking about water sustainability, a topic that often gets misunderstood particularly due to a lot of misinformation out there.

We’re currently developing a project in Colorado Springs. At a city council meeting over a week ago, several members of the public stood up in opposition to our project. Their argument was that our project would deprive people downstream from water in the Lower Arkansas River. Cities like Colorado Springs, which are located in fairly arid locations, rely on water that comes from the Rocky Mountains. Some of the water comes from the Colorado River, and some from the Arkansas River, as well as various other sources. In some cases, the city has engaged in water exchanges—purchasing of water in one location then trading those assets for using other water further upstream.

In the City Council meeting, numerous citizens spoke out against the project, using water as the argument. As someone who is developing the project, it was difficult to listen to people who seemed so misinformed and yet were clearly passionate about what they truly believed.

After the City Council meeting ended, I spoke with one of the citizens who had voiced his concerns in front of the Council. I asked him about the various water utilities in the area, about where Schriever Air Force Base gets their water from, and about wastewater recovery. He admitted he was uninformed on these topics.

Taking the history of freshwater abuse into account, water usage is an understandably sensitive topic. However, risks can be mitigated through technologies like reverse osmosis, which can purify wastewater in a treatment plant. High volume reverse osmosis systems could supply drinking water to millions of people, cutting down on the wastage. Countries like Aruba, Malta, Saudi Arabia, and parts of Israel produce all of their drinking water from seawater using similar desalinization techniques.

However, typical wastewater plants don’t return water to a pure state, leading to environmental contamination. To combat this, our immediate neighbor in Colorado Springs, Shriver Air Force Base, adopted a full reverse osmosis system in 2021. This system recovers 95% of the water entering it for reuse, greatly cutting down on wastage and opposing the misconception that urban expansion means water depletion.

It’s essential to recognize that opinions are based on facts and can be changed when new facts are presented. Proper water recovery systems can recycle water almost indefinitely, significantly reducing actual water consumption without negatively impacting the environment. These systems may be costly, but they are less expensive than building pipelines to divert water from hundreds of miles away.

Water is crucial for agriculture, but conservation methods need to be implemented. Practices like flooding fields are incredibly wasteful. Sprinklers and drip irrigation systems are much more efficient and ensure better use of such a scarce resource. Simply saying more water is needed to dilute pollution created by farms is not the answer to the problem. With proper facts and knowledge, we can put a stop to the emotional misinformation campaigns that aim to prevent well-designed communities from being developed.

As you think about that, have an awesome rest of your day, go make some great things happen. We’ll talk to you again tomorrow