All posts by Steve

IARA Water Purifier System With Rolling System

Future Technology Design News

 

January 11, 2011 Filed Under: Home Appliance

Purifying water for daily need can be done with several way and device. Here is innovative water purifier entitled IARA System Collect by Brazil based industrial designer Baita Design Studio. This innovative water purifier IARA System collect is very eco friendly and user friendly to collect rain water and purify it, then the purified water will be transported in far-off location which need the pure water. This amazing water purifier IARA System features 5 bottles for dirty water, the empty bottle at the center for purified water and also equipped with the condensation processes and evaporation for purifying the unhygienic water. IARA water purifier and collector also has rolling system with ergonomic handle for carrying hygienic water from one location to another in easier way.

EPA Launches Green Infrastructure Drive

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an initiative to promote the use of “green infrastructure” by cities and towns, in an effort to reduce stormwater runoff.

The agency says it will partner with local governments and other bodies in 10 cities that use such environmental tools as green roofs, permeable street materials and increased tree cover to “encourage and support” the cities’ expanded use of such infrastructure.

The 10 cities are: Austin, Texas; Boston, Mass.; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colo.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Puyallup, Wash.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Washington, D.C. and some neighboring communities.

According to the EPA, stormwater is one of the most widespread challenges to water quality in the nation. Large volumes of polluted stormwater degrade rivers, lakes and aquatic habitats and contribute to downstream flooding, the agency says. Green infrastructure decreases pollution to local waterways by treating rain where it falls and keeping polluted stormwater from entering sewer systems.

In addition to protecting the public’s health by decreasing water pollution, green infrastructure provides many community benefits including increased economic activity and neighborhood revitalization, job creation, energy savings and increased recreational and green space, the EPA says.

Energy savings are one of the greatest benefits of green infrastructure. For example, green roofs can reduce a building’s energy costs by 10 to 15 percent, and an additional 10 percent of urban tree canopy can provide 5 to 10 percent energy savings from shading and through blocking wind, the agency says. Green infrastructure also conserves energy by reducing the amount of stormwater entering combined collection and treatment systems, which reduces the amount of wastewater processed at treatment plants.

“Through this agenda, we’ll help cities and towns across the nation clean up their waters and strengthen their communities by supporting and expanding green infrastructure,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe. “Green infrastructure changes improve the health of our waters while creating local jobs, saving communities money and making them healthier and more prosperous places to raise a family and start a business.”

A report out at the start of April showed that the square footage of green roofs in the U.S. grew by 28.5 percent in 2010.

Washington, D.C. – one of the EPA’s partner cities in the strategy announced today – is the U.S. city with the second-most green roofing, according to the survey. Chicago topped the poll.

4/29/11 environmental Leader

JOINT RAINWATER HARVESTING STATEMENT

UNHRC Resolution A/HRC/15/L.14, September 30, 2010

22 March 2011

The UN Human Rights Council affirms the human right to safe drinking water.1 Now is the time for the world’s governments to contribute to the provision of a regular supply of safe, accessible and affordable drinking water in sufficient quantity for 884 million more people.

On World Water Day 2011, the undersigned organizations wish to strongly advocate for the use of rainwater: it must be considered as an important tool in efforts to minimize the water related problems that already exist.

• Rainwater is a valuable resource that is underutilized. Its capture and use can alleviate challenges related to potable, non-potable, storm water and energy.

• Local rainwater harvesting solutions enhance water security and provide important relief to households and communities. All around the world, rainwater infiltration, collection and storage

offers benefits for the environment, wildlife and humans, and improves water availability for industry and agriculture.

• It is time for rainwater catchment to be included in the development plans of all governmental agencies as part of their integrated water resource management strategies.

• Introduction of the concept of rainwater management – maximizing rain’s benefits as a vital resource while minimizing potential rain hazards – to curricula of technical schools and universities will bring future benefits to urban planning, architectural and agricultural projects.

Signatories:

American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA) www.arcsa.org

International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance (IRHA) www.irha-h2o.org

International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (IRCSA) www.ircsa.org

Southern and Eastern Africa Rainwater Network (SearNet) http://worldagroforestry.org/projects/searnet

Ingénieurs du Monde www.ingenieursdumonde.org

Safe Water International www.safewaterintl.org

Consortium Across the Community to Harvest Water

University of Arizona www.arizona.edu

Watershed Organisation Trust www.wotr.org

Rain Harvesting Pty Ltd www.rainharvesting.com.au

INTEWA GmbH www.intewa.de

Association pour un environnement CONstruit VIvant et VErt www.convive.org

Rain for All www.rainforall.org

Integrated Rainwater Management Systems Project for the Ethiopian Highlands

Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association www.horttrades.com

Dundee UNESCO Centre, University of Dundee www.dundee.ac.uk/water

Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association www.GardenMinnesota.com

NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation www.ngoforum.net

Rainwater Harvesting Implementation Network www.rainfoundation.org

Groupements pour la Promotion et l’Exploitation des Ressources de l’Environnement (GROPERE)

DEMON of ECOLOGY-AVGI

Kenya Rainwater Association www.gharainwater.org/kra_about.html

RainWater Cambodia

Combined Harvesters Ltd. www.combinedharvesters.co.uk

Watershed Management Group www.watershedmg.org

Ontario Parks Association http://www.ontarioparksassociation.memberlodge.com/

The Cabell Brand Center www.cabellbrandcenter.org

FAKT GmbH www.fakt-consult.de

RainWater Harvesting Ltd. www.rainwaterharvesting.co.uk

Rainwater Services http://rainwaterservices.com

Conseil de gouvernance de l’eau des bassins versants de la rivière Saint-François www.cogesaf.qc.ca

Europe Rainwater Catchment Association www.rainwaterconference.org

Save Our Life – Ghana Foundation

LABARONNE-CITAF www.labaronne-citaf.fr

Network of Rural Women Producers Trinidad and Tobago http://ttnrwp.net/

Green Cross International http://www.gci.ch/

Oasis Aquatic Gardens www.oasisaquaticgardens-ky.net

Rainwater Club www.rainwaterclub.org

iMAP Africa www.imapafrica.com

LivingEducation www.livingeducation.org

Rainwater Collection Solutions, Inc ~ The Original Rainwater Pillow www.rainwaterpillow.com

IWA Rainwater Harvesting and Management Specialist Group http://www.iwahq.org/Home/Networks/Specialist_groups/List_of_groups/Rainwater_Harvesting_and_Management/

Additional Signatures

BUILDINGGREENER LLC – www.therainsaver.com

 

EPA Issues Water Infrastructure Sustainability Policy

By Patrick Crow, Washington Correspondent

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its long-awaited Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Sustainability Policy.

EPA said U.S. communities face challenges in making upgrades and repairs to their aging sewer systems and treatment facilities. It said that making the infrastructure last longer while increasing its cost-effectiveness is essential to protecting human health and the environment — and maintaining safe drinking water.

The federal policy emphasizes the need to continue promoting sustainable water infrastructure. It also focuses on working with states and water systems to use planning processes that result in projects that are cost effective, resource efficient, and consistent with community sustainability goals. It encourages utility management practices to build and maintain the technical, financial, and managerial capacities needed to ensure long-term sustainability.

EPA drafted the policy with input from its federal, state, and local partners. It will provide technical assistance and target funding sources to support the sustainability of water infrastructure.

Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe said, “Through cost-effective, resource-efficient techniques — like green water infrastructure alternatives — this policy aims to make our communities more environmentally and economically sustainable. These smart investments in our water infrastructure, along with increased awareness of the importance of these investments, can keep our water cleaner and save Americans money.”

Separately, EPA issued its 5-year strategic plan (for fiscal years 2011 to 2015) with five goals for advancing its environmental and human-health mission. They are: acting on climate change and improving air quality; protecting waters; cleaning communities and advancing sustainable development; ensuring the safety of chemicals and preventing pollution; and enforcing environmental laws.

Incineration Rule

EPA has proposed standards under Section 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) that would affect the options that local governments have for the management of sewage sludge.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) said nearly a fifth of all the sewage sludge produced annually in the U.S. is burned in incinerators. It said EPA’s proposed new source performance standards could effectively eliminate the construction of new incinerators, and the tougher standards for existing ones could force many communities to abandon incineration as early as 2016.

The association said EPA now regulates the incinerators under regulations in Section 405 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). NACWA has urged that incinerators be regulated under Section 112 of the CAA but it said EPA, in response to a series of court rulings, developed the proposed standards under Section 129.

EPA has estimated the new standards will require most existing incinerators to install additional pollution control devices at a total capital cost of more than $200 million and annual operating costs of $100 million. The agency said some of those costs would be avoided since many public wastewater utilities would abandon incineration and send their sludge to a landfill instead. NACWA said EPA’s analysis understated the costs and environmental impacts of placing sludge in landfills.

NACWA said, “Rather than encouraging upgrades to newer, cleaner incinerators paired with energy recovery that can offset a significant amount of the energy needs for treating wastewater, the proposed standards will result in many of the nation’s wastewater utilities abandoning their significant capital investments and simply sending an energy-rich secondary material for disposal in a landfill.

“During a period of time where municipalities are facing enormous economic challenges and an ever-expanding regulatory landscape, it is critical for EPA to ensure its policies are environmentally and economically sound, and ensure those policies allow municipalities to manage their resources wisely and engage in practices that can maximize their resources and limit their carbon footprint.”

Climate Change Study

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) will lead a two-year study on how municipalities can forecast water demand within the context of anticipated climate change.

The project, funded by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant, will provide recommendations on how to improve current water demand forecasting and identify areas of essential future research.

The study will include an assessment of current computer models, workshops to identify knowledge gaps, development of research priorities, and recommendations for reducing risk through improved demand forecasting. Researchers will conduct model simulations at two drinking water utilities.

AWWA Executive Director David LaFrance said, “This project is historic in its focus. Most studies on climate change and drinking water have focused on the supply side, looking at water resources. The examination of water demand adds an important new perspective.”

AWWA Director of Federal Relations Alan Roberson will serve as principal investigator for the project. Other members of the team will include faculty from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Colorado at Boulder, along with staff from the environmental facilitator, Kearns & West.

In other Washington news:

  • EPA has notified the Office of Management and Budget that it plans to regulate the chemical perchlorate under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA will have up to two years to propose a rule after the decision to regulate is published.
  • A National Center for Atmospheric Research study has warned that global warming may cause the U.S. and other heavily populated countries to face the threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades.
  • The National League of Cities said the economic recession is continuing to hurt municipalities. It said cities have reported their revenues will decline 3.2% and spending 2.3% next year. NLC said those cutbacks are the largest in the history of its annual surveys.
  • The American Farm Bureau Federation is opposing a Senate bill, the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act. It warned, “The bill makes sweeping changes to the CWA and sets adverse water policy precedents that would impact watersheds throughout the nation.”

Urban Runoff Bad for Biodiversity in Streams

January 05, 2011

This article originally appeared on BuildingGreen.com

Scientists have demonstrated that stormwater runoff has a negative impact on the biological diversity of urban streams. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center ran experiments to measure the effects of polluted stormwater on the insect population of a creek in the Seattle area. The scientists created test channels (similar to rain gutters), and stocked them with rocks from healthy streams that were colonized with insects. Some channels received unfiltered stormwater (with pollutants), while the others received filtered water.

At the end of the 2009 experiment, insect populations in the channels with unfiltered water had dropped by 26 percent, and species diversity had dwindled. These findings suggest that green building strategies that filter and reduce stormwater runoff, such as bioswales and green roofs, are important to the biological health of urban areas.

Skyrocketing water bills mystify, anger residents

By Scott Zamost and Kyra Phillips, CNN Special Investigations Unit

March 2, 2011

Editor’s note: This report follows a four-month look into Atlanta water bill complaints conducted by CNN’s Kyra Phillips and the CNN Special Investigations Unit. Follow CNN Senior Investigative Producer Scott Zamost on Twitter.

Atlanta (CNN) — Imagine paying as much for water as you do for your mortgage.

Residents throughout Atlanta are outraged by hundreds, even thousands of dollars in monthly spikes in their water bills, and have questioned the legitimacy of the charges for years. Now, they’re demanding answers.

“I thought we were sinking in a hole of water,” said Debbi Scarborough. “It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill.”

Over two months last summer, her family’s monthly water bill, shot up to $1,805 In July and then $1,084 in August, leaving a balance due of more than $3,000. She said in the past her bill has averaged $200 to $250.

“I’m not paying a $3,000 bill. And for those three months, we were pretty much out of town most of the time and there’s no leaks,” she said, showing CNN a copy of her plumber’s report.

The city installed a device on her meter to track daily usage. In the meantime, Scarborough’s bill remains unpaid while she disputes the charges.

She is not alone.

While similar complaints about huge water bill spikes have popped up in Cleveland, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Brockton, Massachusetts; it appears that the issue has lasted the longest in Atlanta.

See how top 50 cities rank

It’s led to a class-action lawsuit, countless meetings with city officials and continuing complaints from fed-up residents.

Thousands of residents who have seen unusual spikes have appealed their high water bills. Just last year, the city issued credits totaling $466,368 to customers.

Atlanta, with more than 500,000 residents, says it already has the highest water rates of any major city in the United States, due in part to federal consent decrees to overhaul the city’s water supply infrastructure.

Many of the problems arose after the installation of new, automated water meters, which began nearly five years ago, and involved contracts for meter installations, the electronic meters and software equipment.

The automated meter-reading technology eliminates the need for city workers to manually check every meter. Instead, they retrieve the data by driving by each property. The meter electronically transmits data showing the amount of water used.

From the beginning, there were problems.

In 2007, city auditors found they were “unable to verify electronic meter readings” because of “meter read errors, equipment failures or human errors.”

Specifically, the audit said “about 9% of the meters could not be read due to broken or malfunctioning equipment.”

Two years later, another audit concluded that a “high number of accounts” were not getting “actual meter readings” because of “meter read errors, equipment failures or human errors.”

CNN reviewed hundreds of complaints from Atlanta residents as well as city e-mails obtained through a public records request.

On August 26, 2010, Mitch Elliott, a sales executive of Neptune Technologies, which manufactured the meters, wrote to a city official: “It has been an industry experience that typically when a utility does an AMR (automatic meter reading) meter changeout and also switches software billing companies that generally high bill complaints are either due to new meter accuracy and/or a billing multiplier error.”

Elliott would not comment, referring CNN to city officials.

Peter Aman, the city of Atlanta’s chief operating officer, said in an interview that he realized at that time the situation was serious. He’s been on the job since January 2010. Last September, he replaced senior management in the Atlanta Dept. of Watershed Management.

He said the city has sampled about 9,000 of the 132,954 residential meters and made a major discovery: About 1% of the meters’ registers, which show how much water is being used, and the meter base underneath do not properly fit. That mismatch could result in a doubling of the water bill, Aman said.

“These two components don’t match and guess what? They’re labeled. This one says three-quarter (inch) on it and this one has a “1” (inch) on it. Now, it’s small print but it’s big enough to see,” Aman said.

That would explain a billing multiplier error, which leads to higher bills, he said.

He added that the problem was first “identified in the audit back in (2007) and [the city] put in place, or were supposed to put in place, a whole system of checks and balances as they went through the rest of the system upgrade, and clearly they failed because we’re still finding these mismatches out there.”

Experts: U.S. water infrastructure in trouble

Operators of Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza, two large shopping malls, complained about water billings “nearly $300,000 over last year for this same period of time,” according to another e-mail.

“There appears to be serious errors in the water billings that are creating huge hardships for both centers,” wrote Michael F. Romstead, regional vice president of Mid Atlantic Mall of Georgia. “We need the city’s full attention to correct the problem.”

The city responded by changing the meters’ registers. Romstead did not return calls to check whether the bills had gone back to normal, but there are no follow-up complaints in the city records supplied to CNN.

Asked about problems with the rest of the meters, Aman said, “The majority of the people who complain about high water bills have some issue that is not associated with the meter. Many, many of them have either leaks, or increases in usage through irrigation or pool filling that they didn’t fully understand the impact of, but that’s not to minimize the fact that we do have some cases of meters that aren’t functioning properly. And we’re addressing those on a case-by-case basis and giving people their money back. To me, the story here is there has been a complete loss of trust between the city and its citizens and its customers.”

The city has not found issues with meter manufacturer Neptune Technologies Inc. or Systems and Software Inc. which installed the billing software, Aman said. Executives at both companies declined interview requests. Two other contractors that installed meters at commercial locations did not return calls.

“We have not found a smoking gun, if you will, in terms of a system problem,” Aman told CNN.

However, he said the company that installed the residential meters should be held accountable. KHAFRA, an Atlanta-based firm, joined a Pennsylvania company to carry out the $40.3 million contract.

After months of calls, KHAFRA President Valentino Bates agreed to an interview, but only after CNN had spoken to Aman.

“When we ended the contract in December of 2009, we had a 90-day window to come in and address any concerns. No concerns were brought to us. So as of today sitting here with you, it is our understanding that the meters are functioning properly as they were supposed to when we installed them,” Bates said.

He said the company had identified 968 meters that had the mismatching problem, and fixed all of them by last March. The project, he said, was “very successful” and he added that he had not been informed about additional meter issues.

Asked if his company would repair any other meters the city said were not correctly installed, Bates told CNN, “If it is our problem, we will do that.”

Meanwhile, Atlanta residents continue to complain to the city, which received more than 22,000 calls to its Department of Watershed Management in January. And last year alone, there were a total of 12,291 water bill disputes, according to the city.

“Clearly, people are upset, and one of the things that we said to people is that we hear you and that we do believe we have problems in the water meter and billing system,” Aman said.

That doesn’t convince residents like Wilda Cobb, who is astounded at a water bill that now totals $10,071.

Her bill spiked to more than $1,200 in November, then skyrocketed to $6,879 in December.

“I am furious, I am upset, I’m confused,” Cobb said. “I can’t get an answer from the city because they won’t admit there is a problem.”

A city official reviewed Cobb’s bills, and said the unusually high usage for the two months would normally mean there was some kind of leak, possibly with the irrigation system. The city installed a data logger meter that tracks usage during each day.

Her latest bill is down to just $34.

Ironically, Cobb knows something about water issues. She’s an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency.

“As I person, I know something’s wrong here,” Cobb said. “As an attorney, what can I do about it? But, I don’t think it takes a law degree to say $7,000 for a month’s use of water by one person in a small home is just crazy without a leak.”

Let It Rain

Green infrastructure strategies for cheap, effective, and beautiful rainwater management

January 2011

By Katharine Logan

Perhaps my most vivid memory of architecture school comes from a studio in which we built a model of a neighborhood design,and then poured water all over it. The trick was to use enough little pieces of sponge in the model, representing rainwater retention strategies at a variety of scales, so that no water spilled onto the floor. Across North America, regions and municipalities are now trying this trick for real. Why? Because the centuries-old approach of piping water off the land as fast as possible and dumping it into waterways is failing fast.

Each year in Philadelphia, a city with some of the oldest combined storm and sewer infrastructure in North America, billions of gallons of sewage over-flow from 164 outfalls into the city’s creeks, streams, and rivers during major rainstorms. In Milwaukee, a hospital study shows the number of children with serious diarrhea rising whenever the city’s sewers overflow. Run-off pollution from suburban and agricultural sources threatens New York City’s drinking water supply. And it’s estimated that every twenty-four months, rainwater run-off from the streets of Seattle flushes into Puget Sound a volume of oil equivalent to the Exxon Valdez spill.

Nor is the impact on water quality the full extent of the problem—the effecton water quantity is just as devastating. Conventional engineering practice treats rainwater as a problem to be carried off the land as quickly as possible. Under such circumstances, in a matter of hours pipes dump as much as a hundred times more water per minute into a stream than the stream, whose banks have stabilized over millennia, can accept. This wreaks havoc on fish habitat. In Vancouver, British Columbia, there were once over fifty salmon- and trout-bearing streams—by 2009, there were two.

Patrick Lucey is an aquatic ecologist and urban geographer, and one of the designers of the rainwater management system at South East False Creek, a LEED Platinum-certified neighborhood that served as Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic Village: “In shifting to sustainability by design,” Lucey says, ”we’re really talking about shifting from a 2,000-year-old engineering convention to a fundamentally new approach to municipal infrastructure.” This approach is a form of biomimicry, a system based on nature’s implicit design principles, which he sums up in three steps: capture, store, beneficial use.

Starting at the rooftops, green roofs at South East False Creek retain and use a varying amount of rainwater, depending on the season. Water that isn’t captured on the roofs is caught in basement cisterns. Until it’s used for landscape irrigation or toilet flushing, water from the cisterns circulates continuously through neighborhood water features. Not only does moving water delight human beings, the movement aerates it and exposes it to sunlight, which keeps it at a level of quality good enough to swim in.

Once it reaches the ground, water at South East False Creek is kept in the open. Streams that were once piped and buried have been brought back into the daylight. Site water makes its way across a variety of permeable and textured surfaces either to a bioswale on the eastern edge of the project or to Hinge Park wetland on the site’s western edge, and from there to False Creek.

Key to the success of South East False Creek’s rainwater system is the difference between total impermeable area and effective impermeable area. The green infrastructure at South East False Creek makes a high-density urban development behave in the watershed like a site with an impermeable area closer to zero. Along False Creek’s rehabilitated shoreline, herring have spawned for the first time in decades. “That’s amazing,” says Lucey, “herring are very sensitive. That must mean you guys got it right.”

A little further south, but still in rain country, Portland, Oregon’s pioneering work in rainwater management has produced some of the most inspiring examples of street edge rain gardens anywhere, winning awards two years in a row from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The SW 12th Avenue Green Street Project, built in 2005, converts an underutilized stretch of ground between the sidewalk and the street into a series of four planters that capture, slow, and clean street runoff, and allow it to infiltrate into the earth. The planters effectively disconnect SW 12th from the conventional storm system, and handle the street’s 180,000 gallons of rainwater on site. More than that, planted with trees and well-composed plants, and with tumbled concrete pavers defining their place in the street, they’re beautiful.

Similarly, the NE Siskiyou Green Street Project, built in 2003, consists of two curb extensions, familiar as a traffic calming and pedestrian safety strategy, but with curb cuts to allow rain to flow into well-designed plantings behind them. Cheap and simple, the rain gardens manage NE Siskiyou’s day-to-day rainwater on site, and are projected to manage 85 percent of a 25-year storm.

As well as the technical success and aesthetic appeal of sustainable rainwater infrastructure, its cost-effectiveness warms its welcome with municipalities struggling to maintain outdated and overburdened pipe infrastructure. In Philadelphia, upgrading the existing combined storm and sewer system would cost over $10 billion. “There is no way in the world that we could ever pay for something like that,” Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter told an audience at the recent “Charting New Waters” conference in Washington, D.C. Instead, Philadelphia’s Green City Clean Waters program proposes to spend $1.6 billion to achieve a safe and sustainable rainwater management system using green infrastructure.

Philadelphia has set a goal of transforming at least a third of existing impervious cover in its combined sewer system drainage area over the next two decades into “greened acres” that will filter or store the first inch of each rainfall. That first inch, it turns out, is enormously significant. Except in Florida, most rainstorms in North America deliver less than an inch of rain per day. So if a site can infiltrate an inch a day, it will treat 80 to 90 percent of its rain on site.

An early adopter of green rainwater strategies, Philadelphia has already completed projects to reduce the imperviousness of its public domain, including the creation of raised bed vegetable gardens and rain gardens in school parking lots, tree trenches in road meridians, bioswales in parking lots, and sidewalk infiltration planters modeled after the Portland examples. Neighborhood basketball players particularly appreciate Philadelphia’s pervious asphalt basketball courts, which are dry enough to play on much sooner after rainfall than regular courts.

Not only is Philadelphia implementing the first inch strategy in the public realm, it is requiring it for any private development that disturbs more than 15,000 square feet of earth. As a result, rainwater management is integrated early in the zoning and building permit process.

The city provides information and support to homeowners wanting to collect roof runoff in rain barrels, disconnect downspouts to direct runoff to pervious areas, or use site slopes to create rain gardens. To encourage retrofitting commercial and residential property for on-site rainwater management, Philadelphia is phasing in an initiative, which separates stormwater billing from the water bill, and ties it to the impervious cover of the site.

The public response to Philadelphia’s green infrastructure agenda has been overwhelmingly positive (92 percent), according to the city’s water department. In response to its Green Streets Survey, the department heard the public say, “I love the idea! It would make us healthier and happier all around,” and “we are proud to be a model neighborhood.”

Katharine Logan is an architecturally trained and LEED-accredited writer based in British Columbia

This article appeared in the January 2011 print issue of GreenSource Magazine.

Water Labeling Systems under Consideration

February 25, 2011

Some experts are now calling for a labeling system so that consumers can have a better idea of how much water is used to grow agricultural products or manufacturer goods.

One of the leaders of the movement is Dr. Brent Clothier of the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd., whose specialty is plant water use. He urged the introduction of a water labeling system at the Australian Society of Agronomy conference, held in Lincoln, New Zealand, toward the end of 2010.

Clothier believes a water-labeling system would increase consumer awareness of water use and encourage manufacturers to use less water to manufacture products.

“ENERGY STAR and WaterSense has been very successful in this way,” says Klaus Reichardt, founder and CEO ofWaterless Co. Inc., manufacturers of no-flush urinal systems. “They have made consumers much more energy and water conscious and encouraged manufacturers to make products that are more efficient.”

Reichardt cites two key reasons we are now hearing calls for a water-labeling system.

“The first is because we are becoming much more concerned about water shortages around the world and the other is due to recent studies that surprised many people, indicating just how much water is used to manufacture products we use every day,” he says.

Reichardt is referring to studies released in the past year that indicate:

  • An estimated 39,000 gallons of water are used to make one car;
  • Two thousand gallons are used to make tires for the car;
  • More than 1,800 gallons of water are necessary to grow the cotton for one pair of jeans;
  • One pound of plastic requires 24 gallons of water; and
  • One latte requires 53 gallons of water, which includes the water necessary to grow the coffee as well as to make the paper and plastic for the cup.

Although the water-labeling idea has not garnered government interest as yet, it is getting attention in private industry. Corporations such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Coca-Cola Co. are getting much more water conscious.

Sustainable Facility