- Here on the snowy slopes of Mt. Hood, Oregon,

it seems impossible

that the U.S. could ever run low on water.

But government-backed research says it could,

in little more than 50 years.

(gurgling water)

Oregon relies heavily on snow melt for its fresh water.

But when the winter snows fail,

it can cause severe water shortages in the summer.

And those snows are failing more.

(gentle music)

Today I've come to the City of Portland

to meet Kyle Anderson, lead architect

of Hassalo on Eighth, an innovative housing development

where technology is helping to significantly

reduce residents' water footprint.

- The one thing about this project,

what makes it real unique,

is that we had the opportunity to have critical mass.

You know, to take three acres of asphalt

and bring on a million square feet

of 657 apartments, all of a sudden the demand

for the resources becomes much higher.

So, the savings become that much higher as well.

- And so talk to me about the red tanks.

This is the NORM system.

- So, NORM is an acronym for

Natural Organic Recycling Machine.

This development treats all black and gray water

on site for the residents.

We basically are harvesting water.

All of the apartments for flushing toilets,

for watering gardens, we're treating 45,000 gallons

of black and gray water daily.

And then we just celebrate it.

It becomes part of the vernacular of the architecture.

We call it science on display.

Actually drove people to this development.

As we build more and more

and we get denser and denser

this is going to become more and more important.

Maybe we should be approaching infrastructure

in a different way.

- There are a lot of simple and accessible technologies

that have been put into this building

that we can use in all our homes.

- Hi, good to see you. - Hi, how are you?

- Talk to me a little bit about the water saving

features in the building.

- We have compact four gallon dish washing system,

the low-flow shower, and the front loading washers

and dryers.

- You didn't think about all these sustainable things

but they're already just built in for you.

- Sustainability by design, right?

And it's becoming like the new norm.

- But many homes in the U.S. still use

standard top-loading washing machines

that can use around 45 gallons of water per load.

But front-loaders use as little as 13.

- And many of us still rinse our dirty dishes

under a running faucet before loading them

into the dishwasher.

This is a huge waste of water

because you actually need the dishes to be dirty

as the enzymes in the detergent latch onto food particles

to work effectively.

It's these small actions done by housebuilders

and homeowners across America that can

add up to big water savings.

And that can make a huge difference

to our nation's water security.

(upbeat music)