Science of Water : Concepts and Applications

6 The Science of Water: Concepts and Applications
reuse of their product, because of the events of 9/11, they are also tasked with protecting this essential
resource from terrorist acts.
The fact that most water practitioners know more about water than the rest of us comes as no
surprise. For the average person, knowledge of water usually extends to knowing no more than that
water is good or bad; it is terrible tasting, just great, wonderful, clean and cool and sparkling, or full
of scum/dirt/rust/chemicals, great for the skin or hair, very medicinal, and so on. Thus, to say the
water “experts” know more about water than the average person is probably an accurate statement.
At this point, the reader is probably asking: What does all this have to do with anything? Good
question.
What it has to do with water is quite simple. We need to accept the fact that we simply do not
know what we do not know about water.
As a case in point, consider this: Have you ever tried to fi nd a text that deals exclusively and
extensively with the science of water? Such texts are few, far fl ung, imaginary, nonexistent—there
is a huge gap out there.
Then the question shifts to—why would you want to know anything about water in the fi rst
place? Another good question.
This text makes an effort to answer this question.
To start with, let’s talk a little about the way in which we view water.
Earlier brief mention was made about the water contents of a simple drinking water glass. Let’s
face it, drinking a glass of water is something that normally takes little effort and even less thought.
The trouble is, our view of water and its importance is relative.
The situation could be different—even more relative, however. For example, consider the young
woman who is an adventurer, an outdoor person. She likes to jump into her four-wheel-drive vehicle
and head out for new adventure. On this particular day, she decides to drive through Death Valley,
California—one end to another and back on a seldom-used dirt road. She has done this a few times
before. During her transit of this isolated region, she decides to take a side road that seems to lead
to the mountains to her right.
She travels along this isolated, hardpan road for approximately 50 miles—then the motor in her
four-wheel-drive vehicle quits. No matter what she does, the vehicle will not start. Eventually, the
vehicle’s battery dies; she had cranked on it too much.
Realizing that the vehicle was not going to start, she also realized she was alone and deep inside
an inhospitable area. What she did not know was that the nearest human being was about 60 miles
to the west.
She had another problem—a problem more pressing than any other. She did not have a canteen
or container of water—an oversight on her part. Obviously, she told herself, this is not a good
situation.
What an understatement that turned out to be.
Just before noon, on foot, she started back down the same road she had traveled. She reasoned
she did not know what was in any other direction other than the one she had just traversed. She also
knew the end of this side road intersected the major highway that bisected Death Valley. She could
fl ag down a car or truck or bus; she would get help, she reasoned.
She walked—and walked—and walked some more. “Gee, if it wasn’t so darn hot,” she muttered
to herself, to sagebrush, to scorpions, to rattlesnakes, and to cacti. The point is it was hot;
about 107°F.
She continued on for hours, but now she was not really walking; instead, she was forcing her
body to move along. Each step hurt. She was burning up. She was thirsty. How thirsty was she?
Well, right about now just about anything liquid would do, thank you very much!
Later that night, after hours of walking through that hostile land, she couldn’t go on. Deep
down in her heat-stressed mind, she knew she was in serious trouble. Trouble of the life-threatening
variety.
Just before passing out, she used her last ounce of energy to issue a dry pathetic scream.