Billions of dollars worth of water infrastructure upgrades are needed in the United States to stop major water losses each year. There will soon be too many people on this planet for everyone to consume as much water as they do today. Earlier this month, as U.S. newspapers warned of a drought-induced bacon shortage, international scientists cautioned that pending water shortages could result in food shortages of all kinds, urging people to eat fewer water-intensive foods (namely, meat).

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As Deep South Texas bid 2012 goodbye, a lingering drought isn’t going anywhere.

All year during 2012, Cameron County bounced between severe to extreme to exceptional drought conditions, said Alfredo Vega, a Hydro Focal Point expert with the National Weather Service in Brownsville.

“It’s gotten worse,” he said of the drought. “We had some good rains in the early part of 2012 but we went to extremely dry conditions that have continued all year-round for Cameron County.”

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Most of the bacteria that remain in drinking water when it gets to the tap can be traced to filters used in the water treatment process, rather than to the aquifers or rivers where it originated, University of Michigan researchers discovered.

Water Treatment Systems - For Boilers & Cooling Towers. Safe, Easy to Use, Cost Effective. - www.EnduroSolv.com Their study—a unique, broad-based look at Ann Arbor's water supply from source to tap—could open the door to more sustainable water treatment processes that use fewer chemicals and, as a result, produce lower levels of byproducts that may pose health risks. Eventually, the work could enable engineers to control the types of microbes in drinking water to improve human health like "live and active cultures" in yogurt, the researchers say.

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