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Decentralized or Distributed Treatment?
The necessity of decentralized wastewater treatment is acknowledged as an alternative to large centralized facilities. Decentralized wastewater treatment is vastly more expansive than traditional septic systems; it includes not only conventional individual onsite wastewater systems but also cluster or common systems and packaged wastewater treatment facilities. The point, however, was that to characterize decentralized wastewater treatment as a distributed concept similar to that used in electricity generation is counter productive. This is because the economic and regulatory forces that are driving the move to distributed generation are simply not present in the structure of wastewater treatment. The question now is whether drinking water treatment can fulfill the promise of distributed resource management.
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The Promise of Desalination
Desalination is often heralded as a panacea for water starved coastal regions of the world. Given these lofty expectations it is instructive to take a close look at the technology and identify the major global players.
Complete Commentary...
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