Former Mayor of Livingston Speaks on Water Conservation Efforts

Last Monday, Arlene Johnson, the former Mayor of the Township of Livingston, NJ, spoke on the water conservation efforts of the town.  Speaking about how important it is for us to save water and many of the things Livingston is doing to carry out this effort.  Among the efforts of Livingston is the rain garden at the library and town hall, installing water conservation lavatory faucets and toilets in the municipal buildings,  giving a workshop on how to make rain barrells, and passing out free rain gauges.

Livingston, NJ was one of five communities chosen by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program to pilot New Jersey's drinking water conservation pilot program called the New Jersey Water Savers.  The efforts Johnson spoke of last Monday resulted in Livingston receiving the Sustainable Jersey's Innovation Award in 2010.  Other efforts by the town that resulted in this award include "Fix a Leak Week" and "Smart Irrigation Month," bringing awareness and education on how to conserve water.

The former Mayor is now the co-chair of Livingston's Green Team, which works with Livingston's environmental efforts.

Johnson served as mayor and township council member in Livingston, where she championed environmental initiatives, including Livingston Living Green. Johnson currently is co-chair of Livingston's Green Team that coordinates the township's environmental efforts. Her talk begins at 7 p.m. at the West Orange municipal building, 66 Main St.

Study Finds Legionelle Prevalent on Hands Free Faucets

Hands Free Faucets have been become very popular in recent years.  Especially in public facilities, they save alot of water because they turn off automatically when there is no movement under the stream.  It was also thought that because you don't have to touch the faucet to turn it on and off, they were good at keeping away nasty germs as well.  Earlier in May this year, researchers at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, discovered that this is not always true.
    The team actually found that Legionella bacteria was more prominent in the new hands free faucets than in the old manual type faucet.  Originally the team was testing to see how often the the faucets needed to be cleaned out using treated water to kill off waterborne bacteria.  There testing found that Legionella was present in 50% of  the water samples of the hands-free faucets and only 15% of the manual faucets.  It is believed this is because of the complex valve system of the hands-free faucets that makes them hard to clean with the hospital treated water.

Moen Gives Your Kitchen a Spot Free Shine

Moen, one of the leading manufacturers of kitchen and bathroom faucets and accessories, has come out with an innovative spot free finish on their line of brushed nickel and stainless finishes.  They call it "Spot Resist" and the new finish resists the stain left over from water spots and fingerprints.  When it comes time for cleaning, now you can just wave the rag in front of the Moen kitchen faucet and the spots will just go away. No, we are just kidding, but you get the idea.

Kevin Campbell, director of retail marketing at Moen, said "We are always looking for ways to help solve homeowners' problems wiht innovative products for the kitchen and bath."  We think its kinda like the Jet Dry we put in our dishwashers for that spot free shine on our dishes, except.... not really, but its the same idea.
Moen is known for their "Hydrolock Connection System," which makes it easy pesy, to install new faucets, making it the right choice for those do-it-yourselfers out there.

Using Dry Steam Vapor Cleaning to Conserve Water

The United States Environmental Protection Agency predicts that 36 states in the U.S. will be facing some sort of water shortage within five years.  Hotel studies have shown that a hotel guest room can use up to 200 gallons of fresh water every day.

In recent years, we have seen more hotels try to promote water conservation using various methods.  Most hotels ask that you try to reuse your towels if you are staying multiple days, only dropping them on the floor to let the maid know you would like a new towel, please...  Washing less towels means less laundry and thus less water use.

One of the other areas where hotels use a lot of water, is in cleaning the rooms and bathrooms. Most traditional steam cleaners use gallons of water a minute and cleaning solvents to get guest rooms back to looking like new.  An innovative new cleaning solution by Amerivap Systems uses only quarts of water per hour instead of gallons per minute and also does not use any chemicals.  It's called dry steam vapor.  This technology uses steam in temperatures that kills virtually all bacteria with only a 5% moisture level.  One of greatest features that hotels love about this type of cleaning is its cigarette smelling killing ability.  The device can even be used  to significantly reduce the cigarette smell in guest rooms by removing the nicotine from the walls.

Tuscan Steps it Up on Water Conservation

Tuscan Water of Tuscan, Arizona recently announced they have rebates available for residents and businesses looking to save on their water usage and add to better water conservation efforts.  Residents who install a permanent gray water irrigation system on their property are eligible for a rebate savings of one-third of the cost of the system, up to $200.  If you were wondering what gray water is, well.....  Gray water is the water that is the waste water that comes from washing your hands or taking a shower.  That water can be reused to water the lawn, instead of fresh water from Tuscan Water Company.

The water company also has a new rebate plan for High Efficiency Toilets or HETs.  This rebate is available for residents and businesses who install new 1-pint flush urinals.  The rebate is actually good for any toilet that is certified by the EPA's WaterSense program, which is any toilet that uses 1.3 gallons of water or less to flush.  Tuscan Water will give a rebate for half the price of the toilet or urinal being replaced, up to $200 per household and $100 for commercial.

New Water Usage Rates Reflect Water Use More Precisely

Precision water usage is a new policy in Jay, Maine this week.  With the adoption of the new water rating formula, some customers will be paying less for their water and sewage, some will be paying more, and some customer's rates will stay the same.  Mark Holt, Sewer Department Superintendent, said " Revenue lost by customers paying a lower fee is estimated at $62,000 and revenue gained by customers paying a higher fee would be $72,000."

The updated billing formula will use water consumption to rate how much to charge for sewage.  The base rate is going to be set at $250 for 3,200 cubic feet of water per year starting on July 1st.  Any amount above the base rate will be charged 5.58 cents per cubic foot. As an example, a customer using 18,000 cubic feet of water per year will be paying roughly $1,000 per year.  With the current formula that customer is paying about $600 for the same amount of water.  This new approach for raising customers who consume a lot of water will raise their attention and help bring water conservation awareness to the people of Maine.

The new formula also encourages customers to try and conserve water whenever they can,  Customers who are already very good at conserving water will receive a reward in the form of lower water bills.  Anyone using less than 3,200 cubic feet of water per year will see a decrease in their bill to the base rate of $250.  This is $65 less than the current minimum.

Kohler's Opens Their Market to the Middle East

Kohler Faucets unveiled last week that it would be selling its environmentally friendly Loure Faucet Collection in the Middle East. Loure Faucets have a UltraGlide valve technology which greatly improves the performance of the water flow and the hot and cold knobs are extremely sensitive yet firm so you always get the temperature and flow your looking for.  The Loure Collection carries the EPA's WaterSense Label, which means the fuacets must have a maximum flow rate of 1.5 gallons per minute at 60 psi.

Regional marketing manager, Mohamed Nada, said "With our water saving lavatory faucets, consumers have  a wide array of designs and finishes to create the bathroom environment they desire, that lowers their water usage and utility bills, and saves them money in the process."

The Sun Lamp Faucet

If your looking for another way to light up your sink while your doing the dishes, look no further.  We found the perfect solution, The Sun Lamp Faucet.  This LED faucet has 30 LED lights to brighten up your sink so much you can see that last speck of grit still stuck to the pan.  

We know what you might be thinking, "well yea it will light up your sink, but does it actually produce any water."  Well we hope so.  It has a single handle pull out sprayer like a regular faucet so we would hope it has a good GPM (gallons per minute).  Also, this new faucet from Nobili Spa doesn't have a price tag yet.  If the price isn't to high though, we might see a trend where having a light on your kitchen faucet is not to uncommon any more.  Since it seems pretty practical to have light were you are working, this type of faucet might actually be quite common in the future.