For most of the year, Alabamians have seen the effects of a decreased water supply. From low lake levels to dying crops, the state has suffered from this year’s severe drought. But with population growth and increased development, the state and nation could experience a water crisis larger than this year’s drought.
“It’s hard for any of us to imagine that you can turn on the faucet and not have water,” said Larry Fillmer, executive director of the Natural Resources Management and Development Institute (NRMDI).
NRMDI, established in January, is an umbrella organization aimed at creating and promoting natural resource products and services. The Institute also develops and promotes sustainable practices for communities across the state by bringing together faculty from all disciplines to collaborate on research and ideas.
One of the main areas NRMDI is concerned with is water resources. Graeme Lockaby, director of the AU Water Resources Center, which is part of NRMDI, said that by 2025, Birmingham will have a severe shortage of water.
“The problem is, it’s going to get worse,” Lockaby said. “We’re going to have more situations like Birmingham.”
Lockaby said the water problem increases as developers create more impermeable surfaces, such as parking lots and concrete walkways, which means water cannot reach the soil to be recycled.
“The urbanization can be a really bad thing on water quality, but it can also affect water quantity,” Lockaby said.
The Water Resources Center is working on developing a state-wide water management plan by researching different approaches to water conservation. Lockaby said faculty are researching an economic or market-based approach to a plan, which means water could be traded like any commodity. Another approach is government regulation.
Lockaby hopes the center can educate citizens about water as many water issues aren’t heavily publicized until conditions are severe.
“It’s a hard topic to get much attention,” Lockaby said. “Probably what’s going to happen is, like with any scarce commodity, we’ll be paying more for something we used to pay next to nothing for.”
Bioenergy and Bioproducts
While water may not get much attention, the creation of bioproducts is garnering more attention as oil prices continue to rise. By bringing together researchers from all disciplines on campus, the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts plans to develop some products and help solve energy issues in the state.
“Our vision would be to try to invigorate our local communities that have dried up over time,” said Steve Taylor, director of the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts. “Our hope would be that we could come up with new products and technology to invigorate those communities.”
The center has already started several projects to help individuals and communities create bioproducts to serve their home or government.
Taylor said the center has helped a west Alabama farm create biodiesel out of soybeans. The farm then uses the biodiesel in the tractors and combines. The process of transforming soybeans into biodiesel also creates a byproduct which can be used to feed the animals.
Another project the center is working involves recycling cooking oil. The center is helping the city of Gadsden create biodiesel from cooking oil in restaurants, a program already working in Huntsville. The recycled cooking oil is processed to make the biodiesel, which the cities use in their vehicles.
“It’s not like it’s going to solve the world’s energy crisis, but it’s a nice solution for a community to increase some of its self-sufficiency,” Taylor said, “and it helps the environment.”
Besides the center, the University has also received attention in this field thanks to research by David Bransby, a professor of energy crops and bioenergy.
Bransby first began looking for crops that could be used as a fuel alternative 20 years ago. That’s when he found switchgrass, a native perennial grass.
In the past two years, the idea of using switch grass has caught on, and Bransby has even briefed President George W. Bush on the crop.
“There was just a handful of us, and we thought this makes a whole lot of sense,” Bransby said. “Now it’s chaos, total chaos. Everybody’s hyped up on it.”
Bransby said the research on switch grass shows the crop will work, but the market has to develop and companies have to build plants to carry out the process for large-scale production. Bransby said eventually, it may be critical for the nation that alternative fuels are made.
“The fact that so much oil is produced in unstable parts of the world really means the whole world is at risk,” he said. “I don’t think the general public realizes how precarious this is.”
