Running Dry (the project)
Posted on | July 24, 2009 | No Comments
MEETINGS are too often paid vacations for professionals who already know what they think but want to think it in a new city. Yet next Tuesday’s gathering in Washington DC of leading water managers, US Congressional delegates and state delegations looks like stage setting for the announcement of a new integrated water policy. At least that’s what the organizers, the Running Dry Project, hope.
For more information about the Running Dry Project, which sprang from the 2005 documentary by Jim Thebaut, click on the rain drop.
In defense of “behavior modification”
Posted on | July 23, 2009 | 1 Comment
APPEARING before the City Council yesterday arguing for a new plumbing ordinance, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials illustrated the fundamental difference between Them and Us.
One, they are working hard to keep us in water. Two, we their customers cannot be relied upon to worry about how this happens.
The gist of the new (and wholly laudable) water saving ordinance was that the Department of Water and Power would conserve for us by changing plumbing codes. Or, to use their phrase, this conservation solution did not require “behavior modification.”
By behavior modification, they mean our ability to change wasteful or detrimental habits on our own. Southern Californian water managers are particularly skeptical about our ability to change the way we garden.
For more on why “behavior modification” matters, click here
LA votes for lower low flow plumbing ordinance
Posted on | July 22, 2009 | 4 Comments
Reporters tour a mens room in the Los Angeles Convention Center. Urinals once requiring 1.5 gallons per flush now require 1/8th of a gallon. Savings at the Convention Center's 190 urinals alone are estimated at 1 million gallons a year.
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, City Councilmember Jan Perry, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power General Manager David Nahai and representatives from the environmental and business community gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center this morning to introduce a water conservation ordinance capable of saving an estimated billion gallons of water over the next 20 years.
The ordinance, which was passed unanimously hours later by the City Council, will set yet lower low flow plumbing standards for toilets, urinals, faucets, showerheads and dishwashers in new buildings and retrofits of existing properties.
Individual families installing the latest toilet models should expect savings of $90 per year.
Plumbing conservation into the system in addition to the calls to the public to willingly conserve is necessary, said DWP’s Nahai, because voluntary conservation by the citizenry is not consistent. “Behavior modification is not something you can rely on forever,” he said. “It’s like gas prices. They go up and people drive less. They come down and people think the crisis is over. “
Click here for more on the passage of an ordinance requiring lower low flow toilets in Los Angeles
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > Los Angeles Department of Water and Power > plumbing ordinance
News you can’t use
Posted on | July 21, 2009 | No Comments
“MWD stops paying rebates for water-saving devices”
TO THOSE confused by the Los Angeles Times headline today on page A7 of the print edition asserting that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has stopped paying rebates for water-saving devices, you’re right to be scratching your heads.
That report along with its varying online incarnations dated from July 17th to July 20th are all more than a month late, and wrong.
To read more on the state of the Metropolitan Water District rebate program, click here
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > Metropolitan Water District of Southern California > rebates
Salton Sea in July
Posted on | July 20, 2009 | No Comments
THE WEBMASTER of the Water Education Foundation blog Aquafornia today published a delightful photo essay of a visit to Salton Sea in July. To see (do see) click on the arrow.
This post has been updated.
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