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.

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.

Wayne Drop | Water Conservation Hero

There is a new hero in town and his name is Wayne Drop.  He is the newest mascot to promote Water Conservation and is associated with one of our favorite websites.  Water Use It Wisely.  Wayne Drop met with the local officials to promote the Whatcom Water Alliance, or WWA for short.  The WWA works to promote water conservation by having fun activities and getting the people of the community educated on water conservation awareness fun for kids of all ages. 


Birch Bay Water and Sewer District in Whatcom County provides water and wastewater services to 7,500 in Whatcom County which is located in northwest area of Washington state.  An increase in water consumption happens every summer. So to try and keep the consumption at a minimum, the WWA promotes a voluntary watering schedule which always starts on June 1st and goes to September 15th.  


The winters in this region are warmer and dryer than usual in this area which heightens the concern about drought and reduced water supplies for 2010.  This makes water conservation more important than ever.  The WWA requests that residents with odd-numbered streets limit outdoor watering to Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays and even numbered street address water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.  Monday's are reserved to let the reservoirs fill back up after the weekend comes.

Ecologic Transportation Promotes Water Conservation

Ecologic Transportation, Inc, a holding company to a lot of subsidiaries who are all dedicated to environmental friendly transportation is launching an awareness initiative for water conservation.  Ecologic is at home in Santa Monica, CA where they promote green cars and clean fuels.

Their first product, called Ecologic Shine is a biodegradable waterless car cleaner that has no environmental impact because of no contaminating water run-off.  Each car cleansing saves 40-60 gallons of water. You can follow Ecologic's conservation initiative on their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ecologictranspo

Check out our new LED Faucets at TheKitchenFaucet.com

American Standard Hits the Road

American Standard, one of the leading manufacturers of kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, and shower heads has a 44 foot mobile showcase room where they are teaching people about water conservation.  They call it "The Responsible Bathroom Tour" and they are planning on visiting 300 locations this year in the U.S.

The American Standard Tour's goal is to raise awareness about how to conserve water.    The teaching and techniques they show will help a four-person family save almost 50,000 gallons of water each year.  Saving water is good for the environment, but some people might not see how saving water can reflect a significant dollar amount on their water bill.  At the TheKitchenFaucet.com, we're pretty confident people can see how saving that much HOT water can save on their electric bill though.

The tour is educating locals on some financial estimates of how much they can save with low flow bathroom fixtures.  Some water saving tips that will help the environment. As well as some demonstrations of their new water saving products.  Don Devine, American Standard CEO said "Our goal is to educate consumers that conservation can and does begin at home."

Los Angeles water usage in Feburary is the lowest in 30 years

The Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles is proud of their report this month.  The city reached a 31-year low for the month of February.  Officials say this is because of the ongoing water rationing starting in 2007 due to drought in the city.  


Even with an 3 million person increase in these past 30 years, the citizens of L.A. managed to reduce there water usage by nearly 30% compared to February of 1997.  City water operations offical, Jim McDaniel, says "What we're hoping is that people are learning to live with these wiser water habits in a way that hopefully doesn't negatively impact their lifestyle."


TheKitchenFaucet.com is a strong advocate of water conservation and will continue to keep on the look out for positive acts of saving water around the globe.

Culture of Conservation Approved!!

        A new Georgia State Bill recently passed to promote even more water conservation in the State of Georgia It also sends a message to our neighbooring states of Florida and Alabama who share our water resource that Georgia is doing all that it should to be a good steward and taking care of our natural resources.
      The bill passed almost unanimously with the State Senate at 52-0 and the house with 166-5.  Some of the major points of the bill will allow watering outdoors between the hours of 4.pm. and 10 a.m.  Even more importantly this bill requires that builders constructing new homes and buildings. have to use more efficient water fixtures, such as aerated bathroom faucets and low-flow toilets. 
     Governor Sunny Perdue says "I will sign the bill as soon as it lands on his desk."  Perdue is also negotiating an agreement, for water-sharing of the  Chattahoochee river which feeds Lake Lanier, with our neighboring states, Florida and Alabama, who depend on the natural resource as well.

Dale City, CA has new water conservation rules

      Mayor Carol Klatt said last week "We have to look to the future for our water.  Landscaping is on area where measures can be taken to save water."  after the city council passed an ordinance which requires owners of new construction or landscaping projects to reduce their outdoor water usage by 25 percent.

   Dale City has really been promoting their water conservation effort lately.  Last month, the council passed an ordinance for indoor water usage.  Requiring that all new construction to feature water-efficient fixtures such as new aerating kitchen faucets.  Many cities in the surrounding areas are creating similar ordinance in their regions in response to recent legislative pressure to address the water supply problem.

Fix a Leak Week!

Last week in the Chesapeake bay area was "Fix a Leak Week." Sponsered by EPA's WaterSense® program, the event helps consumers in the mid-Atlantic and across the country save water by indentifing and repair dripping kitchen and bathroom faucets, running toilets, leaky shower heads.\
    
      EPA regional administrator Shawn M. Garvin said "Leaks can add up to more than 10,000 gallons of water wasted at home every year--that's enough to fill a backyard swimming pool.  The EPA created Fix a Leak Week to save water for future generations and to help homeowners save more than 10 percent on their water bills."

Water Conservation with your Bathroom and Kitchen Faucets

Recently, we posted an article on our site, TheKitchenFaucet.com, on how you can promote water conservation in your home.  Aerators on your bathroom faucets and kitchen faucets help keep the rinsing power of your faucets while reducing the gallons per minute(GPM) coming from the faucet.  The article is called 10 Ways to Promote Water Conservation in your home.  Next week we will be writing an article on 10 Ways to Promote Water Conservation around the yard.  This article will focus on conserving water around the yard.  We have also recently made a HubPage on water conservation and why it is so important to the future of our society.  It also has some neat polls to see what people are already doing to help promote the conservation of water.

Florida stumbles over its own feet with water conservation and energy efficiency

Lee County in Florida is facing a common problem with many other states when it comes to implementing with use of renewal resources along side our current use of fossil fuels.  Since some states only have one or two power companies, these companies have to be heavily regulated.  To stop these companies from having geo-isolated monopolies over their regions, the cost of energy is set at a settled upon price.

Since the energy company’s revenues are heavily regulated, they don’t have much room to invest in new technologies.  One logical idea to this problem is creating cheaper to generate power in more efficient ways. Eric Draper of Autobon says “Consumers know that it is not the rate per kilowatt that matters. It's the cost of the kilowatts used. If electricity can be generated with renewable sources and used more efficiently, bills will come down now and in the future.”

TheKitchenFaucet.com is an advocate of water conservation.  If your in the market for a new bathroom faucet,  Check out our discount bathroom faucets today.

Best Kitchen Faucet for 2009 | Pilar Touch by Delta

Delta has had quite a year with their pursuit of going green campaign with water conservation technology.  Our favorite this year is their Pilar Touch Kitchen Faucet with H20 Technology.  Making it easier to turn the water on and off while your hands are full with other things around the kitchen,  is a great idea when it comes to water conservation.  Most people working or cooking in the kitchen would probably turn off the water in the sink much more often if they could do it with out having to put their hands on it.

Its a decision everyone has made before.  Should I clean off my hands so I can turn off the faucet or just turn it off and then clean my hands as well as the faucet too.  While it doesn't take too long to do either task, most of us don't think twice about it.  Well I think if people had the choice of that split second decision, they would chose to turn off the kitchen faucet.  Well with the Pilar Touch, we can now test that theory.

We hope to carry the Pilar Touch at TheKitcheFaucet.com in 2010, but for now you can find many discount kitchen faucets on our website.

Delta Faucets company is going Green

Recently, one of my favorite manufacturers of kitchen and bathroom faucets has released a new model of faucet that has gone over to the green side of things. Delta has started building there faucets with water conservation and maximizing water efficiency in mind.

The Delta Company is working with the EPA to offer what they call WaterSense. Basically they are making their faucets that operate at 1.5 gallons per minute instead of the standard which is 2.2 gallons per minute. We at TheKitchenFaucet.com love any company who has committed themselves to help clean up the environment, and hopefully we will be caring their product soon. You can read more about Delta's new campaign on there website.