Archive for the ‘Conservation’ Category
Cheers — this week is national Drinking Water Week. For more than 30 years, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and its members have celebrated Drinking Water Week — a unique opportunity for both water professionals and the communities they serve to join together to recognize the vital role water plays in our daily lives.
Only Tap Water Delivers is a grassroots and media campaign to help utilities and public officials communicate the value of tap water service and the need to reinvest in water infrastructure to consumers, media and other stakeholders.
A safe, reliable water supply is critical to the success of any community. It creates jobs, attracts industry and investment, and provides for the health and welfare of citizens in ways ranging from disease prevention to fire suppression. We often take water supply for granted until it is threatened, either by drought, water main breaks or some other event.
For more information, visit AWWA.
First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers go out to all of our friends in Nashville who have suffered losses from the recent flooding.
When you see an image like the one on the right, probably the last thing you think of is a water shortage. And yet, despite the severe flooding in Nashville over the weekend, residents have been asked to conserve water for just that reason.
In this case, the rising of the Cumberland River has swamped several municipal water treatment facilities and now threatens the city’s last fully functioning treatment plant. The article below explains why Metro Water is asking everyone to conserve water by 50% or more.
By Mike Wolterbeek
A successful University of Nevada, Reno renewable energy research project is moving from the lab to the real world in a demonstration-scale system to turn wastewater sludge into electricity.
The new patent-pending, low-cost, energy-efficient technology is scheduled to be set up in the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility next month following the recent signing of an interlocal agreement with the cities of Reno and Sparks.
“Our plan is to test the unit by about May 15,” Chuck Coronella, principle investigator for the research project and an associate professor of chemical engineering, said. “We’re designing, building and assembling a continuous-feed system that will ultimately be used to generate electricity. We’ll run experiments throughout the summer, creating a usable dried product from the sludge.”
The experimental carbon-neutral system will process 20 pounds of sludge per hour, drying it at modest temperatures into solid fuel that will be analyzed for its suitability to be used for fuel through gasification and, in a commercial operation, ultimately converted to electricity. The refrigerator-size demonstration unit will help researchers determine the optimum conditions for a commercial-sized operation.
There’s something about the acoustics of a shower that magnifies raw singing talent and washes away inhibitions. Every morning American Idol rejects all across the country turn into Beyonce or Bono as soon as the water starts to flow.
If you’re going to sing in the shower, try to pick a song like “She Loves You” by The Beatles, not “Terrapin Station” by The Grateful Dead Live from The Garden ‘91. That’s because, when it comes to water conservation, a two-minute pop song is better than a slow, sandwich-laden jam session complete with musical guests and a laser light show.
The graph above (click to enlarge) shows just how much water goes down the drain during a typical shower. The numbers vary, of course, depending on the efficiency of your showerhead. And your musical aspirations.
For more information, visit the Alliance for Water Efficiency.
HARRISBURG, Pa. – A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odor.
With fortunes, water quality and cheap energy hanging in the balance, exploration companies, scientists and entrepreneurs are scrambling for an economical way to recycle the wastewater.
“Everybody and his brother is trying to come up with the 11 herbs and spices,” said Nicholas DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.
