A couple of months ago I was talking to a grandmother of a young student going to engineering school. She asked me what type of career path in engineering that her grandson should take. We talked about alternative energy, but I suggested to her that unfortunately the alternative energy bubble has been blown to big, and it is about ready to pop; for instance Solyndra and quite a few other alternative energy failures.
We talked about private space flight in the future, aerospace, infrastructure, architecture, and even water treatment and filtration. I indicated that I thought this was a wonderful place for an engineering student to go into because water is always an issue somewhere in the world. There are desalination plants which need to be built, and new technologies on the horizon which will help us do it more efficiently and cheaper.
We have to do this if we are to maintain our societies and civilizations and keep things running in smooth order without chaos and collapse. In many regions of the world we have a terrible problem with perpetual drought issues, and lack of fresh water supplies; the Middle East for instance. Of course, industry in the United States also needs excellent water treatment and filtration, not just to meet the EPA standards, but also to protect wildlife and groundwater supplies.
There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal on September 4, 2012 titled; “Heckmann to Bulk Up Its Fracking Business,” by Sharon Terlep where the president of the company, Mr. Heckmann basically said; “I told you so,” to investors about the enormous growth of his company and the waste water treatment sector. Well, he is absolutely right, and he ought to know being in the business. If we are to keep our manufacturing sector strong while still complying with all the environmental regulations then water filtration and industrial water treatment should be at the top of everyone’s list.
Luckily with new materials and tricks of physics we are able to clean the water quicker and more efficiently for quite a bit less money. This is an excellent technology to export to other places in the world, not only because it brings jobs to America and money from foreign lands in positive trade flows, but also because it helps those people throughout the world deal with their own issues which are as wide-ranging as some of the challenges we face here at home in our own civilization.
What I’m saying to you is this; water treatment and filtration will always have a strong market, it isn’t cyclical like Internet stocks, or other industries. It’s something that is needed all the time and has been needed for decades, and will be needed for decades into the future. We have no choice, without clean water humans will die. Please consider all this and think on it.