While California’s politicians continue to argue, Popular Mechanics magazine has come up with six practical suggestions to resolve the crisis. Meanwhile Water World has weighed in on the debate.
One element that many water utilities include in their bills and which their water billing software must include is billing for stormwater. This is usually based on the impervious area, including roofs and driveways, of the property. But what id the roof is “green”? As a recent Couric & Co blog on CBS comments, preventing storm water runoff is a significant bonus of green roofs. There is a tremendous amount of water that literally goes down the drain after a rainfall which green roofs prevent. Traditionally when a rain drop hits a roof – perhaps it is coated in black tar painted with silver, or maybe it slides across a series of chemically treated shingles, down a rain gutter and out across a driveway or street. That street may have residue from rubber tires or motor oils, before this drops finds its way into the storm drain. Several major cities don’t treat the water that goes into a storm drain, sometimes they flush it all directly or with minimal filtration out to local water ways. Depending on the thickness of the soil and type of plants, green roofs can absorb a whole lot of that water and use it as fuel for the plants.
While most people may worry about the idea of a heavy rain filled, soil heavy roof over their heads causing a roof to leak, the opposite seems to be true. Green roofs actually extend the life of what is known in roofing circles as “the membrane” because they keep out harmful UV rays and moderate the contraction and expansion that roofs do in extreme temperatures.
Grey water is a term used for recycled household water from sources such as dishwashers and clothes washers. As water becomes a scarcer reource, cities are looking at all recycling options, including grey water. One impact will be that less water goes down the sewer, and the water billing software may need to be calibrated for that change. In California, Sunnyvale officials are waiting for the county to develop a filtered gray water system policy before deciding whether the city should move forward with its own guidelines.
The council unanimously decided Sept. 29 to delay making changes to control the installation of residential gray water systems for at least 90 days so staff can attend the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s County Graywater Working Group. The group formed in August to put together countywide guidelines after the state approved an emergency adoption of standards to make it easier for residents to use recycled water during the drought. The new standards allow residents to install gray water systems. Previously, the installation of residential systems was not permitted. All pipes had to connect to the sewer. Now, pipes can drain into gardens and other areas. The Graywater Working Group could put additional model guidelines in place, above and beyond what the state has done.
“The state has taken action, and all we’re suggesting is the council not take action now, unilaterally when the county is getting together and deciding to come up with the guidance that we can give to our residents,” said Marvin Rose, director of public works.
The state’s Health and Safety Code says gray water includes, but is not limited to, wastewater from bathtubs, showers, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machines and laundry tubs. Water from kitchen sinks or dishwashers is not considered gray water. Gray water can be used for things such as watering plants. The state’s revised standards began Aug. 4 and will remain in effect for at least 180 days.
Climate change is about another incredibly important problem: water. The water we all use to drink, swim, wash and bathe is seriously threatened by climate change, as altered weather patterns and water cycles could cause communities all over the country to face longer droughts, more frequent floods and storms, and increased water pollution. Obtaining, transporting, and treating water also uses lots of energy, creating the same global warming pollution that threatens our water in the first place.
The new climate bill recognizes these challenges and includes provisions designed to help America’s water resources adapt to the impacts of global warming. The bill includes funding for states and federal agencies to develop and implement natural resources adaptation plans. It also promotes water efficiency by supporting the EPA’s WaterSense certification and labeling program (an efficiency rating system, similar to Energy Star), requiring federal agencies to be leaders by using water-conserving items, and providing grants to states and other entities who offer consumers financial incentives to buy water-efficient products and services. It even establishes a research program to study impacts to our drinking water and develop strategies to make our water resources more resilient.
In Maryland eight residents of Rosemont have sued Brunswick to prevent the city from carrying out an adopted resolution to stop water service to the community. In Frederick County Circuit Court Aug. 19, Judge Theresa M. Adams took under advisement two motions in the case: one from Brunswick to dismiss the case; and one from Rosemont plaintiffs for class certification. Adams denied both motions last week. Rosemont ’s eight plaintiffs had wanted the case to become a class-action suit affecting all water customers in Rosemont , about 80 properties. Because the interested parties are closely located and known to the court, Watson said the judge found the case did not qualify for class certification.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that California has taken the first step in the nation toward setting maximum drinking-water levels for the cancer-causing chemical made famous by the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich." After a controversial decade of study on the health effects of hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment on Thursday proposed a level of 0.06 parts per billion for the heavy metal. Regular drinking water exposure below that level would qualify as "negligible risk," according to researchers.
The proposal, which is subject to further review and public comment, is not an enforceable standard. However, it represents the initial step in developing a statewide chromium 6 ceiling for drinking water under the Department of Public Health - a criteria probably several years in the making. That, in turn, would give authorities the power to order cleanup of contaminated drinking water sources. Currently, California and the United States have maximums for total chromium, which includes chromium 6 as well as other benign chromium variants.
The Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant (SCNP), soon to be one of the world’s largest water recycling plants, has started its Stage 1 operations here, according to an August 26 press release from Black & Veatch, the US-based company that has done design engineering, construction support and commissioning services for the plant. By the time the second stage of construction is finished next year, the SCNP will be producing 228,000 cubic meters per day (m3d), or 60.2 million gallons per day (gpd), of treated water, Black & Veatch said. In SCNP’s first stage, it is treating 69,000 m3d (18.2 million gpd).
The plant uses microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection to treat water, which is recycled for use throughout Singapore. It is Singapore’s fifth and largest NEWater plant and when all are in full operation by 2010, they will together supply 30 percent of the nation’s needs. The NEWater project is an ambitious program of Singapore’s water utility, the Public Utilities Board (PUB), to recycle wastewater for reuse. Natural water resources in Singapore, a small city-state, are limited. Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries, which is involved in utility and marine businesses worldwide, owns the plant and supplies its water to the PUB. Ralph Eberts, senior managing director of Black & Veatch’s Asia Pacific water business, says his company developed a strong working relationship with Sembcorp on the SCNP project and is now looking for opportunities for the companies to work together outside of Singapore.
As the user-pays principle continues to take hold, an aggressive effort to conserve water with the installation of water meters got a $5 million boost Thursday, the Sacramento Business Journal reports. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated funding through the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, greatly helping a $15.3 million effort to install 3,750 water meters in the region by 2011. “Among talks of saving the Delta, one of the best ways we can help conserve water is with proper metering and water management,” said Congresswoman Doris Matsui, who represents the Sacramento region and announced the $5 million in stimulus funds for the local program Thursday. “This funding will directly help local communities conserve California’s most precious resource. The water saved through new meters will help provide more water to California’s Delta and create jobs here in Sacramento.”
The Sacramento Regional Water Authority estimates the meters will save about 1,730 acre-feet of water per year. Water officials say the effort will curb the demand for Folsom Lake water, increasing water flow to the habitat-rich Sacramento Delta. The water billing software will record these new meters and bill for the water consumption they measure.
Dr Peter Gleick’s blog in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted an Australian study on success in encouraging people to use less water. Water Number: 34 gallons per day. This is the level to which per capita residential water use in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia dropped during 2007 and 2008 in the midst of a historically severe drought. Before the drought, Queensland homeowners were using around 70 gallons per person per day. For comparison, the average Californian uses around 135 gallons per person per day in their homes. SEQ includes the city of Brisbane and is home to about 14% of Australia’s total population. Previous work suggested it was possible to reduce residential (as well as overall urban) water use by a third: this would drop daily Californian use from 135 gallons per person to around 90 — still 20 gallons per day more than each Queenslanders used before the drought.
In Mexico City, officials are rationing water and threatening worse cuts as Mexico endures one of the driest spells in more than half a century, the Boston Globe reports. A monthslong drought has affected broad swaths of the country, from the US border to the Yucatan Peninsula, leaving crop fields parched and many reservoirs low. The need for rain is so dire that water officials have been rooting openly for a hurricane or two to provide a good drenching.
This is supposed to be Mexico’s wet season, when daily rains bathe farmland and top off rivers and reservoirs. But rainfall has been sporadic and unusually light - the result, officials say, of an El Nino effect this summer that has warmed Pacific Ocean waters and influenced distant weather patterns. Mexico’s hurricane season has been mild, with no major hits this summer, although a weak Hurricane Jimena dropped plenty of rain on parts of Baja California and the northwestern state of Sonora last week. The sparse rainfall nationwide has made 2009 the driest in 69 years of government record-keeping.
In the Middle East an acute water shortage has prompted Jordan and Israel to embark on audacious water-supply projects that supporters say will prevent an impending regional crisis but environmentalists have criticized as ill-advised attempts to rewire nature, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The efforts include a pipeline to Amman from the Dissi Reservoir in Jordan’s southern desert and an extensive network of desalination plants Israel is building along the Mediterranean coast. The Dissi is an ancient, nonrenewable, underground pool of water that, once tapped, will run dry in an estimated 50 years.
Most controversially, the two countries are pushing for action on the long-standing idea of cutting a 110-mile path north from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. Nearly 2 billion cubic meters of water - about half a trillion gallons - would be sent through a network of pipelines or tunnels each year, with some of it desalinated en route and some used to reverse decades of decline in the Dead Sea’s water level. The historic water body, the lowest point on the Earth’s surface and a major tourist and industrial asset because of its unique chemistry, is dropping by about three feet a year because of evaporation and the fact that its upstream sources, chiefly the Jordan River, have been heavily dammed.
Water is a major source of contention in the Middle East, whether it is tension over Egypt’s concerns about Sudan’s management of the southern Nile or disputes between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over shortages in the occupied West Bank. The water shortage is severe enough to upend some of the region’s traditional dynamics. Jordan and Israel are often pressured by Western nations and international organizations to cooperate in the name of Arab-Israeli peace. Water is one area in which pressure is running in the other direction, with the two pushing quickly on the Red Sea-Dead Sea connection while outside observers urge restraint.
