The Irvine Ranch Water District Chlorine Contact Basin in Irvine, California. | Steve Cukrov / Shutterstock
In an interview with Reasons to be Cheerful founder David Byrne, Mark Gold, former director of water scarcity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, describes how some cities are preparing for a future with less water. According to Gold, Las Vegas and Orange County, California are leading the way on water recycling.
“In Vegas, they really had no choice, in that they [Nevada] get so little water allocated from the Colorado River — about 300,000 acre-feet a year, which is less than the city of L.A. uses per year.” In Orange County, investment in water recycling was driven largely by a desire to support growth and become more water independent…