I found a really addictive Pac-Man style game on the WaterSense website. It’s under the kid’s section, but definitely worth checking out if you’re bored.
Collect water droplets and answer questions to gain points. Avoid “WATER WASTERS” at all costs.
Water, water, everywhere...
Like Energy Star, WaterSense is an EPA backed program specifically aimed at water conservation. This program provides consumers with an information resource and an easy way to spot water efficient products like faucets, showerheads and toilets via the WaterSense Label.
The EPA designed this program with the understanding that consumers might want to conserve water but would probably not do so at a sacrifice to comfort. Products that they endorse with their stamp of certification are guaranteed to reduce water use by at least 20% while maintaining the practical standards of traditional plumbing fixtures. What would be the point of having a water efficient toilet if you needed to flush it twice every time you used it, right?
Savings from these appliances will stack up too. Using less water with your faucets and shower not only saves on your utility bill but also means less water needs to be sent through your water heater, which will reduce the cost of your electricity bill. The EPA even has a handy savings calculator so that you can calculate your savings for 3 months or up to 10 years depending.
Do you know what “grey water” is? Grey water is all household wastewater that hasn’t been used in toilets. 50% -80% of any households water usage will end up as grey water. What happens next is really disappointing though. All of this reusable grey water is mixed with unusable “black water” or sewage water and sent down the sewer to the local wastewater treatment plant before it’s dumped into the nearest river or estuary as effluent.
If we were to recycle this grey water we could reduce our water consumption by 50% or more. The good news is that it is easy to capture and reuse grey water on site. Once captured this water can be distributed to toilets or outside for irrigation. Depending on the type of system you want, and what you intend to use it for, prices can range from a hundred dollars or so for a simple irrigation setup to thousands of dollars for advanced multi-stage filtration systems.
Getting to the point where it’s the norm for individual households to be recycling grey water will take some time; but there are already large scale commercial grey water recycling systems in place right in your own back yard. Recently Chesterfield County began supplying a nearby dominion power plant with 2 million gallons of wastewater per day for use in a process that helps to reduce air pollution. Large-scale reuse systems like this are popping up all over the country and will become commonplace in the near future.
I read a recent blog post which claimed that contractors and engineers do not see themselves as environmentalists. That’s just too bad. Contractors and engineers, whether builders, diggers, HVAC techs, plumbers, or electricians all work to improve the environment in which we all live. The environmental focus for these contractors has historically been on the indoors. Today, we understand a greater dependency shared between the indoors and outdoors. Movements such as LEED, Green Home, and LIDs are an indication of the growing concern and public awareness of “contractor impact”. What has come to be described as urban sprawl was unrestrained development without any regard to quality. This was an industry-wide mistake. It was not a mistake because of greed or neglect. We just didn’t know any better at the time.
Now that we do know better, architects, engineers, and contractors should always strive for the highest quality. To be an environmentalist should mean that one has a knowledge and practice of environmental quality. If the people who design and build our communities do not have our overall environmental quality in mind, whether “inside” or “outside”, are they really doing their jobs in the first place? I am an environmentalist because I am a contractor. Its a responsibility that comes with the job.
The Lyttle Companies were able to attend the Monday and Tuesday sessions of the 2011 VOWRA Conference at the Koger Center in Midlothian, VA.
Monday was the “education day” where sessions where held on trench safety, contour digging for drainfields, online reporting/RME systems, electrical panel training, contract law, and installer math. We benefited from each session. Some of our people have decades of experience under their belts so a lot of the sessions were a review. After the session, good discussions were held about the continued application of the topics presented. Our only complaint is that some of the presenters seemed to be inappropriately assigned to each topic. Whether this was due to a lack of vendor sponsors in a particular area or simply an organizational oversight, we hope to see an improvement at next year’s conference.
The second day was primarily concerned with regulatory and environmental issues. Presentations were given by representatives of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, Virginia Department of Health, and Environmental Protection Agency.
We were proud to have the conference in our backyard and enjoyed playing host to many different companies from around the Commonwealth and beyond. Next year, we hope to see even more people involved with this conference. All in all, Kudos to VOWRA for a job well done!