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.

Georgia Water Planning District Takes Measures to Increase Downstream to Alabama and Florida

For many years now, Georgia has been in a battle with Alabama and Florida over who has the right to use the water reservoir of Lake Lanier as a main water supply.   In 2009, Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that Atlanta didn't have the right to keep Lake Lanier water from neighboring states and gave Georgia until July of 2012 to settle the dispute with Alabama and Florida over where the water should flow south of the lake.

Jim Scarbrough, a delegate on the Gwinnett County's water authority said "We're trying to show our neighbors to the south, namely Florida and Alabama, as well as the judge that we're doing a pretty good job with water conservation."  The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, charged with creating the new conservation measures claims it will reduce consumption by 130 million gallons a day by the year 2035.  The new measures will conserve water as well as increase downstream flow to south Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

One of the biggest changes taking place to put this plan into action is the installation of new water meters with "point-of-use" leak detection.  These will allow residents to get more involved with their water consumption by being able to monitor their own water use, almost down to the drop.  Kathy Nguyen, Cobb County water efficiency manager, said the devices will allow customers "to set their own goals for what their use should be" and alert the homeowners to leaks that occur.

Water Conservation Tightens in California

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay is a man made estuary used to supply the people of the north, their crops, and wildlife.  Currently, the Bay Delta is used for a filtration point for the water for the people in Southern California, but in recent events their have been proposals to circumvent parts of the water flow to channel it south.

When everything is Hunky Dorry, the water supply is working fine, but when their is a disruption such as an earth quake, the water supply can become quickly contaminated.  This is the reason for the discussion to take some of the water from the north and divert it south.

Several interesting statistics were brought up in light of talk to divert some of the northern's water to the south.  Tom Philip, an economic strategist for the Metropolitan Water District, claimed that families in the Sacramento area averaged 248 gallons per day while Philp's claimed communities in Southern California, like Irvine, only used 100 gallons a day.  He also brought up a point that in Melbourne, Australia rains as water conservation king with only 40 gallons per day.  We think we could all learn a lesson about water conservation from them.

Vessel Sinks | Pros and Cons

The Vessel Sink Faucet is somewhat of a new trend in modern faucets.  It mostly means, a free standing sink with a faucet, which also most of the time also looks pretty fancy.  These sinks and faucets are generally mounted directly to the furniture on which they sit.  It has become increasingly popular for the the sink and faucet to mounted completely separate of each other.

There are some pretty good things about vessel sinks.  For one they are generally taller than normal sinks.  Just in case you have some extra large hands that need washing.  They are also much easier to change out since they are not stuck in place like normal faucets and don't require difficult cut-outs in the counter top.

On the other hand, vessel sinks are on top of the counter tops so they don't normally go well with traditional faucets and they do take up a lot of space on the counter top. They are also prone to chipping.

We are torn on one subject to whether it is a good or bad thing.  The huge selection you can find..... gees....  You can get them in all kinds of cool designs made out of copper, chrome, nickel, bronze, and even bamboo.  One of our favorites would have to be the waterfall faucet......

Touch Screen Kitchen Faucet

Ok, you have to admit this one is pretty cool..  Designed by an Italian company, Fima Carlo Frattini. This faucet is a definite for a fine, tech-enabled kitchen. The Nomos Faucet comes with a full feature touch screen that comes with all the tech goodies you could ask for.  Digital control over water quantity, pressure, and temperature.  It will even notify you when there are leaks coming from the faucet.  I don't think a kitchen faucet gets any smarter than this.... unless it starts washing your dishes for you!!

PepsiCo Rolling Out Web-based Software To Aid In Water Conservation

PepsiCo this week announced that they would be rolling out a new web-based software to help their farmers to save water and reduce their green house gas footprint.  It's called "I-Crop."  Developed along side with Cambridge University, it is a cloud-computing environment that PepsiCo is testing on 22 U.K farms.  PepsiCo has said they hope to reduce water usage and emission by up to 50% within 5 years.  Other goals the company has made include their addition of some low-carbon fertilizers and also replace the potato stock with some different varieties of stock to improve the farmer's yields and reduce wasted stock by the year 2015.

PepsiCo is one of the largest buyers of Britsh grown potatoes, oats, and apples.  Richard Evans, president of PepsiCo U.K said "Farming is in the DNA of our business.  We rely on fresh produce every day.  Finding ways to produce more food with less environmental impact is essential to our future.

See if your saving water by taking this month's poll about shaving in the sink at TheKitchenFaucet.com

WaterSense Tax Holiday in Virgina

Virgina is having a tax holiday October 8th through the 11th for Energy Star and WaterSense labeled appliances. It's a great long Columbus day weekend for energy-efficent appliances, which are exempt from the normal 5% sales tax that combine the federal and state sales taxes of the state of virgina.  Very expensive products are not included in this tax exemption though.  Only products that are below $2,500 which are purchased for home use only will receive the tax benefit.  

Some examples of WaterSense products are toilets, bathroom & kitchen faucets, and faucet accessories.  If your not down for buying a brand new home applicance right now, don't fret.  Pre-owned items also qualify for the tax break.  Of course, who wants to save a few bucks on a rented kitchen faucet?  You can check out virgina.gov for some FAQ on the tax holiday.

Companies look to Water Conservation as a Way to Cut Costs

In tough economic times, many companies are looking to water conservation as a way to lower costs.  When we talk about ways to conserve water, mostly we are talking to the consumers( or residents).  It is true that as a whole, individual people consume the most water.  When it comes to putting water conservation techniques into practice and seeing results fast, industry is at the top.  A business that pays people to get things done with a governing body at the top to oversee that water saving practices are followed through, can show some pretty good results on the water conservation side.  A couple of local businesses in St. Cloud, MN have gotten pretty good at saving water.

A company called Electrolux Home Products has been able to almost cut their water usage in half down 28 million gallons from 62 million in 2007.  Tony Evans, a spokes person for the company says they were able to lower water consumption by "eliminating  a painting system that used a lot of water and using prepainted steel instead and water used for rinsing equipment is captured and reused."

CentraCare, one of the towns local hospitals, has been able to cut their water usage by 60 percent.  They have incorporated a larger sterilization department that is able to reuse water by filtering and heating to an extremely high temperature.  They have also switched to low-flow faucets and some water saving washing machines.  With a water bill of over $304K last year, they have every reason to want to save some water.

Dual Flush Technology to Save Water

Who would have thought that the toilet uses the most water in your home?  Well duh, I guess.  We really just don't think about it to often though.  Well now that I think about it, we have put out an article in the past on how to save water in the home and there is one about putting a brick in or water bottle full of water in container to displace some water that isn't really necessary(for most people) to get your waste outa there.  Well, anyway, the EPA estimates that toilets accounts for 30% of water used in U.S. residential homes, which they say is more than 2 trillion gallons.

There is a new system called the HydroRight drop-in dual flush kit which will convert a toilet into a two button system.  One button is a quick flush which is good if you only have liquid or paper to dispose of and the other button for regular flushes.  A study conducted by Veritec Consulting showed that the installation of the HydroRight reduced the water use inside the home by 30%.  Co-Founder of Veritec, Bill Gauley said "the installation of Hydrolight can be expected to save even more water if retrofitting toilets that flush with 3.5 gallons or more."

A Note about Oil Rubbed Bronze

There are many different types of finishes available these days for the many types of faucets.  One that has stuck out recently is the oil rubbed bronze finish.  Bronze is made when mixing copper with tin and phosphorus.  When you think of bronze, most people think of antiques.

Besides looking very vintage, the color and finish will not get worse with age.  With an already older look, it will continue to have the same appeal for years to come.  Also oil-rubbed bronze finish is more or less immune to bacteria because of the properties of copper, which is used to make bronze.  An oil rubbed bronze faucet can always add a nice vintage look to your kitchen or bathroom

Is there Lead still coming out of our Faucets?

Even though the government regulates and monitors how much contaminates are allowed into the water supply, do the water treatment plants really get everything out of the water?  Recent health studies have shown that even very low levels of lead in the water can still be dangerous.  Problems such as kidney disease, reduced brain function, and hypertension.  In 1986, the government enacted a federal law to reduce the amount of drinking water in our plumbing.  Even so many faucets still sold today still contain up to a quarter pound of lead in them and still be deemed "lead-free"  .Under this federal law, faucets are allowed to have up to 4 percent of lead when they are manufactured.  With the average kitchen faucet weighing around 7 pounds,  that leaves enough lead in the faucets to still do some harm.

California as we all know, is always on the forefront when it comes to the environment.  Congresswomen Anna Eshoo has introduced a federal bill to try and eliminate lead from our plumbing for drinking water.  The bill, named H.R 5289.  This bill has already been approved by Governer Schwarzenegger for the state of California to have the strictest lead standard of any state.  The bill also adds protection to make sure the faucet companies actually comply with the strict standards.  To help ensure that the H.R. 5289 bill stays strong, contact your local congressman and tell them you want H.R 5289.

Turn your Faucet into a Drinking Fountain

Have you ever wanted a drink of water from your faucet, but didn't want to waste a glass doing so.  A new product called "Tapi" by Dreamform has come out with a way to do this.

Simply slide the Tapi on to almost any kitchen faucet, to turn it into a full fledged drinking fountain.  You'll never have to waste grabbing a glass from the cabinet just for one glass of water, and then either having to take the time to clean it or putting it in the dishwasher.  You don't have to take it off the faucet even to use the regular

faucet.

 You simply squeeze the Tapi to transform it into the water fountain.   In the bathroom, the Tapi is good for cleaning out the sink after shaving or cleaning your mouth off after brushing your teeth.  Coming out this month, the Tapi is a very inexpensive addition, only $6.30, and is offered in almost every color in the spectrum.

WaterPik's New Online Community

WaterPik, Inc, one of the leading makers of really awesome shower heads, launched their online community.  It's a place where people can get together to discuss oral hi-gene and get answers from the companies experts.  You can take polls and see how others fair in taking care of them selves.  Today their poll is entitled simply "Do you Floss?  Only 7 people have taken the poll so far, but we will check it in a couple of days to see if more people have answered the question.

People can also engage in conversations with dental and medical professionals.  WaterPiks president and CEO, Richard Bisson, says "Through this community, we are providing our consumers with easy access to knowledgeable experts who can assist them with their questions and help get the most out of their product experience."

Visit the WaterPik online community on their web site today and see what is happening in the world of personal health care.