It’s Time for Industry & Agriculture to Treat Their Dirty Water
We’re constantly hearing news of droughts, water crises, and skyrocketing water rates. We often hear that we should just “take shorter showers.” But did you know that residential users are only 10% of the demand? That’s not going to move the needle.
What’s going to move the needle is what we do with industry and agriculture, who account for 9/10ths of freshwater demand in the US — and similar goes for water usage across the world. The ratio between business and agriculture varies. In countries like Somalia, it’s almost all agriculture. In the US it’s about half and half. But the same thing rings true across the world: the big users are not the residential users.
Cities Are Being Abandoned
Jackson Mississippi was losing an estimated 65% of its water, and the system almost collapsed in 2022. At the time, I asked a friend of mine, a state representative in Jackson, what was going on, and he said, “Oh no, that’s the city. Not my problem.” The cities are virtually being abandoned by state and federal government. There’s just no money being allocated.
Meanwhile, the EPA is increasing their mandates — they just put in some new rules on toxic PFAS. The cities have no idea how they’re going to pay for it. They try to raise rates, but that only increases the number of defaults, and it just comes back to zero.
The Water Independence Movement
We learned from a Lux Research report in 2016 that decentralization is needed in the water industry. What my company OriginClear predicted would happen has since happened, which is a movement toward businesses and communities treating their own dirty water. It’s not just a wonderful idea — it is urgent that we disengage business from the central systems because they are being choked to death. It’s really a water independence movement.
Benefits of Decentralized Water Treatment and Recycling
The good thing is that businesses want this. Why? First, it’s cheaper. Water and sewage rates have been inflating now faster than college tuition, and much faster than health expenses. With a $100 billion deficit annually, it’s no surprise. The massive inflation in water is causing businesses to want — and sometimes need — to have their own systems. You have the cost of the system and you’re done.
Second, they can recycle their water, which saves even more money and makes more water available for the rest of us. The US recycles less than 1% of its wastewater. It’s really a scandal, and it’s something we must fix.
And thirdly, they’re not stuck with the politics of the local water utility, which is especially great for entrepreneurs. A lot of businesses like it and it’s becoming increasingly popular.
It’s Happening Now
And so, we hitched our wagon to decentralization. We bought a company that was operating in the space that does exactly that. We created another company that does these modularized, drop-in-place pods for smaller sites. Think breweries, housing developments, animal farms, and many other locations.
And finally, we devised Water On Demand™, a way to avoid the capital expense for endusers, which is currently in the pre-pilot stage. The idea is that if you’re going to do your own water treatment, and you don’t have a spare million dollars — don’t worry about it. Just sign here and we’ll give it to you as a service. We’ll give you an incredible machine that treats and recycles your outgoing water. You save money, the burden on the city is reduced, and the rest of us are better taken care of as a result.
We are working hard to get our first pilot site, and we have a very exciting potential application in the mobile home park space, which desperately needs our help. More on that soon…
The Key to a Better Future
Finding a way to solve the financing issue is really the key, and now we are firmly in the water as a service space for this new decentralized future. The cities would continue to supply freshwater as they always have, but industry, business, and agricultural users would be able to treat and recycle their own dirty water. We could have a future with less pollution, more abundant freshwater, and, perhaps, water could one day be free for the people, as it is in Ireland.
This is how we change the state of water in the world for the better. If we make the right investments now, this future could be ours soon.
Until next time…
Yours In Water,
Riggs Eckelberry
President & CEO
OriginClear, Inc.
PS: Questions? We’re happy to help! Just schedule a call here now: www.oc.gold/help. Or email us here.
