University of Massachusetts Boston. Image courtesy of www.umb.edu.

Should coastal universities, cities, and communities take the lead regarding the future of water? A breakthrough almost achieved by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) might be realized. Archives of Senator Morris K. Udall reveal issues considered by the United States’ Interior Committee during the 1930s’: scientists and engineers envisioned a way to desalinate water at cost of one cent per kilowatt-hour; this prediction has yet to achieved, although Singapore/Siemens may soon succeed. Another consideration: power and environment. Yet another – urban portals. Massachusetts’ great universities might consult the plan by Richard Williams, completed in 1775, now at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, for Boston‘s leadership.

For Senator Udall’s archives: http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/collections/papers-morris-k-udall

For “A Plan of the city of Boston” by Richard Williams, 1775: Building the World, p. 824.

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.