Water Efficiency Issues

By Angela R. Ruberto, Juneseok Lee, and Adam Bayer ABSTRACT In this study, water and energy use data (2006–2011) from water wells are analyzed for San Jose State University (SJSU). SJSU is a four-year public university with an enrollment of 30,000 and located in San Jose, CA. It is found out that water and energy use correlate each other, and their use decreased since 2008, due to SJSU sustainability movement. Water savings have significant impacts on associated energy savings, and they double the benef...>... More >

By David Engle It’s interesting,” observes Ian MacLeod of Master Meter Inc. (Mansfield, TX), “to look at how AMI [Advanced Metering Infrastructure] and the sharing of utility information with users can affect a behavioral change.” To back this up, he cites a three-year study on the psychology of ratepayer conservation, conducted at the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) in California and completed in 2011. “Results were almost shocking, in terms of how dramatically people’s water usage was altered w...>... More >

By Dan Rafter Officials with the City of Bremerton, WA, knew that they had to make changes to the way their utility treated the 3.3 billion gallons of drinking water it supplies each year to its 55,000 customers. EPA was in the process of enacting tougher regulations on utilities such as Bremerton’s that rely on surface water for their supply of drinking water. Bremerton taps surface water from the nearby Union River Reservoir and groundwater from a series of production wells located across the Bremerto...>... More >

By Carol Brzozowski For many, a supply side approach is not much of an option. Rather, they are instituting demand side reduction programs—and in such sectors as agriculture, demand response programs—in an effort to achieve water efficiencies. “I believe that the water crisis that’s unfolding before us—faster in some areas than others—will be very most likely solved through demand side management practices,” notes Trevor Hill, president and CEO of Global Water Resources. Some technology is expensive and...>... More >

By Lyn Corum   When your agency or company decides to install a water tank, the decision is not as straightforward as you might think. You have a variety of choices and decisions. The size may dictate the type. Will it be fiberglass, prestressed concrete, welded precast steel, bolted steel, glass-fused steel, or stainless steel? Will it be underground or aboveground? What will you be storing—potable water, rainwater, stormwater, or wastewater? Have you analyzed life-cycle costs? Analyzing life-cycl...>... More >

About The Buzz We all know that man is not an island. Most of us don’t work inside a bubble, and so our professional responsibilities often bleed into places that are not officially “in our job description.” With that in mind, we’re introducing a new feature: The Buzz. As you may or may not know, Forester Media, Inc. (our parent company) publishes six national publications that focus on everything from stormwater management to municipal solid waste to energy efficiency. Because of the overlap that occur...>... More >

By Graham Symmonds and Trevor Hill “The world today faces the enormous, dual challenges of renewing its decaying water infrastructure and building new water infrastructure. Now is an opportune moment to update the analytic strategies used for planning such grand investments under an uncertain and changing climate” (Milly et al. 2008). “A change to freshwater availability in response to climate change poses a more important risk to human societies and ecosystems than warming alone. Changes to the global ...>... More >

ACLARA The industry’s only fixed-network, remotely correlated, acoustic leak detection system cost effectively helps water utilities quickly identify leaks on water mains before they become major problems. Combining the Aclara STAR Network Advanced Metering Infrastructure system with leak detection technology from Gutermann International, the system automates the process of gathering the necessary data to identify leak locations and minimize water losses, enhancing conservation efforts. STAR ZoneScan’s ...>... More >

ACLARA The industry’s only fixed-network, remotely correlated, acoustic leak detection system cost effectively helps water utilities quickly identify leaks on water mains before they become major problems. Combining the Aclara STAR Network Advanced Metering Infrastructure system with leak detection technology from Gutermann International, the system automates the process of gathering the necessary data to identify leak locations and minimize water losses, enhancing conservation efforts. STAR ZoneScan’s ...>... More >

Aclara www.aclaratech.com American Water Works Association www.awwa.org Capstone Metering LLC www.intellih2o.com ET Water www.etwater.com Hunter Industries www.hunterindustries.com Isolux Technologies Div.; MEL Chemicals Inc. www.zrpure.com ITRON www.itron.com Janney Capital www.janney.com Johnson Controls www.johnsoncontrols.com Micro-Comm Inc. www.micro-comm-inc.com Neptune Technology Group Inc. www.neptunetg.com Sensus Metering Systems www.sensus.com Sewerin USA LLC www.sewerin.net SJE-Rhombus Contro...>... More >

Most of us could do better. Some water professionals with whom I have spoken tell me that the public does not know and does not care much about water problems. “As long as somebody else is addressing the problem and the cost isn’t too high at the moment, most of our residents don’t seem to care,” was how one professional put it. The comment, I suspect, was as much an example of frustration at inactivity as anger at the general public. Let me start, then, by pointing to two places where the public is bei...>... More >

Intelligent irrigation products are key to solving issues of higher water prices, while reducing stress on aging infrastructure and facilitating corporate responsibility programs. They also help utilities stretch their budgets. The good news is that manufacturers are introducing products that provide even more efficiency and flexibility for saving water. Back to School Soil moisture sensors are contributing significantly to conservation and water savings. Rain Bird, in Azusa, CA, recently introduced the...>... More >

By Lori Lovely   December declared war on water pipes. Early in the month, three water main breaks in San Diego County, CA, created sink holes that closed roads. Residents were without water and plumbing in several districts while crews rushed to repair water mains and roadways. A San Diego Water Department spokesperson told Fox 5 news that water main breaks were occurring more frequently as the life expectancy of the cast iron pipes expired. The 6-inch water main in North Park was 61 years old. Re...>... More >

Aclara www.aclaratech.com AdEdge Technologies           www.adedgetechnologies.com American Water Works Association           www.awwa.org           Badger Meter Inc.     www.badgermeter.com         Bluescope Water Co.            www.pwtusa.com Containment Solutions Inc.  www.containmentsolutions.com Crane Pumps & Systems      www.cranepumps.com E...>... More >

By Carol Brzozowski   The need for water tanks with a long service life in a time of aging infrastructure has become an increasingly critical issue. Additionally, that issue is being compounded by continued development and drought. And whether a conveyance provider is constructing a new tank or replacing an old one, there are many choices to fit the need. The Problem of Aging Infrastructure Bill Neighbors, president of Tank Connection, says that water storage issues are being compounded by North Am...>... More >

By Elizabeth Cutright   “What cost are you willing to pay for energy independence?” I asked in a recent blog post . “Does it make sense to sacrifice our water quality to achieve a lower price at the pump?” We all know it takes energy to collect, treat, and deliver water. Many of us are also painfully aware that, in order to generate power using traditional means (like oil and gas), you must have access to ample water resources. So although there’s a lot of excitement regarding the International Ene...>... More >

By Peter Canessa, Sarge Green, and David Zoldoske   “Agricultural Water Conservation in California with Emphasis on the San Joaquin Valley” (DH Report), by David C. Davenport and Robert M. Hagan, was published in 1982 by the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at the University of California at Davis, and their conclusions are largely true today, including: It is erroneous to conclude that a particular irrigation system such as sprinkler or drip requires only a fraction of the water applie...>... More >

By Elizabeth Cutright   According to National Rural Water Association estimates, almost 30,000 rural water utilities dot our national landscape, including many located in unincorporated hamlets and isolated backwaters. And whether their water comes from a nearby lake, a local river, or a reservoir several miles away, all of those rural customers expect access to clean, affordable drinking water. Unfortunately for many rural water utilities, shrinking tax bases, challenging local environments, and c...>... More >

By Penelope B. Grenoble According to the US Conference of Mayors, local governments spent $105 billion in 2010 to provide water and wastewater services in this country. Although the figure includes infrastructure, there can be little doubt that a good chunk of that change went to meet federal and state drinking water standards and maintain water quality, a challenge that is becoming increasing complex. As Mark LeChevallier, Director of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship for American Water, an inve...>... More >

ACLARA The industry’s only fixed-network, remotely correlated, acoustic leak detection system cost effectively helps water utilities quickly identify leaks on water mains before they become major problems. Combining the Aclara STAR Network Advanced Metering Infrastructure system with leak detection technology from Gutermann International, the system automates the process of gathering the necessary data to identify leak locations and minimize water losses, enhancing conservation efforts. STAR ZoneScan’s ...>... More >

In 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was enacted, providing a cohesive federal set of standards for water quality delivered to consumers 1 . As a result, utilities were required to meet Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) of certain constituents prior to water entering the distribution point. Today, the SDWA regulates 87 primary contaminants, and the EPA publishes and maintains a Contaminant Candidate List and is required to make regulatory determinations (i.e., a decision to regulate or not) for a...>... More >

The small- to medium-sized water storage industry is seeing strong sales from the sustainability trend in water reclamation and decentralized wastewater treatment, and the locations aren’t just for those lonely tanks standing in a deserted field or far away hillsides. Water reclamation and wastewater treatment projects are part of sustainability efforts at major food processing sites, universities, swank retail locations, and sports stadiums. Decentralized wastewater treatment has even found a home in a...>... More >

The city of O’Fallon, MO, was losing 83,000 gallons of water day because of leaks in its municipal water lines. Dan Scherer, director of water and sewer operations for the city, thought it’d be even worse. Still, 83,000 gallons multiplied by 365 days does equal a lot of lost water throughout a typical year. “You hope that leak testing doesn’t find anything,” says Scherer. “But you have to be realistic. A lot of our water system is relatively old: our water loss was creeping up from year to year. We want...>... More >

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” –Loran Eisley Introduction Prior to reservoirs and the extraction of groundwater, the availability of fresh water greatly influenced the movement of human populations within ancient Utah. Located within the geographical boundaries of the Great Basin, Utah’s early indigenous people lives were intricately connected to fresh water sources. While tribal boundaries were often determined by waterways, the appropriation or diversion of water resourc...>... More >

By Ed Ritchie   When backup power fails at water and wastewater treatment plants, the results can be catastrophic. But the good news is that such events are often avoidable by a proper assessment of backup equipment and disaster planning strategy. For example, a thorough assessment of equipment could have avoided a disaster in Connecticut in late 2011, when tropical storm Irene and October snow resulted in 47 spills with severity ranging from 42.7 million gallons of partially treated sewage dumped ...>... More >

By Dan Rafter   Reinhard Sturm knows that water utilities across the country are losing water through leaks in their system. And he knows that many are losing a significant amount of water. Sturm is vice president of operations with Water Systems Optimization Inc. (WSO), an international engineering group with US offices in San Francisco, CA, and Nashville, TN. His company specializes in helping utilities determine how much water they are losing and identify the steps they can take to reduce this l...>... More >

By Dan Rafter   When officials with Houweling’s Tomatoes installed two 4.36-MW Jenbacher J624 natural-gas engines in their Camarillo, CA-based greenhouse, they made history. By installing the engines, Houweling’s Tomatoes became the first greenhouse grower in the United States to unveil a combined heat and power (CHP) greenhouse that captures carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and uses it to fertilize plants.   Photo: ELIZABETH CUTRIGHT Howeling’s reuses irrigation water as cooling for their onsite power ...>... More >

  By Carol Brzozowski An increasing number of regulations and a need to obtain water from alternate sources are prompting water utilities to increase efforts to ensure water quality. With the drought conditions that have prevailed throughout the United States, “we’re seeing less availability of high-quality surface water streams, so many municipalities are looking at using surface water that hasn’t typically been used for potable water supply because of concerns around organics or potentially some ...>... More >

By Lyn Corum   “The new technologies are automating data collection and the correlation process without field activities. This is reducing the time and expense of labor, equipment, and transportation costs. This is a big deal to utilities.” –Dean Slejko, Water Products Manager, Aclara From Pitometers to magnetic pod loggers, leak detection has been transformed in the past decade by new technologies so much so that non-revenue water loss can now be detected and repairs scheduled without the utility ...>... More >

ACLARA The industry’s only fixed-network, remotely correlated, acoustic leak detection system cost effectively helps water utilities quickly identify leaks on water mains before they become major problems. Combining the Aclara STAR Network Advanced Metering Infrastructure system with leak detection technology from Gutermann International, the system automates the process of gathering the necessary data to identify leak locations and minimize water losses, enhancing conservation efforts. STAR ZoneScan’s ...>... More >

Aclara  www.aclaratech.com   Capstone Metering LLC                                           www.intellih2o.com    CB&I                                                                         www.cbi...>... More >

By Cindy Wallis-Lage   Unlike Albert Einstein’s famous relativity equations or the Pythagorean Theorem, the water efficiency equation is neither famous nor constant. The specific factors and associated weights that determine water efficiency vary over time and even then are subjective. The best we can do to define the ever-evolving water efficiency equation and its corollary—the sustainability solution—is to share information about recognized factors.        Conse...>... More >

ADVANCE PRODUCTS & SYSTEMS Advance Products & Systems’ Kleerband Flange Protectors and Radolid Protection Caps protects bolts, nuts, and flange faces on raised-face or full-face flanges in areas subject to the ravages of extreme corrosion conditions. Kleerband Flange Protectors are a transparent polymer band with grease injection fittings and relief vent plug that allows 360° of continuous inspection without removing the flange protector. They are for use in valve vaults, meter pits, lift statio...>... More >

Utilities and water agencies continue to adopt automatic meter reading (AMR)/Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) at a record pace. Could it be called a stampede? Not yet, but nonetheless, we see city after city announcing another energy-saving, labor-saving, water-saving AMR/AMI project. Smart metering makes it possible, but it’s a foregone conclusion that, no matter the meter, accuracy of the data is no longer the question. Now utilities are asking about wringing the maximum value from the data. And...>... More >

Some people may say an anniversary is just another number, but some numbers can be quite meaningful. It seems like it was only yesterday that EPA’s WaterSense program was launched and shortly thereafter released its first specification for high-efficiency toilets. In the five years since the program’s launch, WaterSense-labeled products have helped consumers save 125 billion gallons of water and $2 billion on utility bills. These impressive numbers are a reflection of the effort WaterSense partners have...>... More >

Over the summer, the East Coast found itself in the crosshairs of a storm that threatened to pound the region with record wind and rainfall. As prognosticators, weathermen, and news anchors conspired to predict the worst—flooding, deaths, billions of dollars in damage—Hurricane Irene made landfall with some vigor, but not nearly the level of violence that had been predicted. And while much of the eastern seaboard emerged from the storm unscathed but underwater, ultimately Hurricane Irene will most likel...>... More >

By Stu Hamilton   Introduction Water is the natural capital of the growing world population. Services built on our natural capital are the currency of the 21st century. The timing and spatial distribution of surface water quantity—and the variability in quality of that water—define how we design and build the infrastructure necessary for our energy, agriculture, mining, transportation, and industrial sectors. While water supports our infrastructure, it can also take lives. Droughts and floods are t...>... More >

By Dan Rafter   The city of Enid, OK, used to rely on three meter readers who traveled 5 or 6 miles every day to read between 300 and 350 water meters. This meant that the city utility would get just one reading a month for each of the water meters in this community of more than 50,000 residents. That has now changed. Today, Enid’s water distribution department relies on Neptune Technology Group’s R450 fixed-network Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system to automatically read its meters remo...>... More >

By Amber Lefstead Since the program began in 2006, WaterSense labeled products have helped save Americans $4.7 billion in water and energy bills and 287 billion gallons of water—but it takes more than just a label to achieve that kind of success. Thousands of WaterSense partners help EPA spread the water efficiency message and grow the number of WaterSense labeled products, programs, and new homes. Several partners in particular stand out for their cooperation and support for the program. “This year’s d...>... More >

By Harbans Lal and Shaun McKinney   Introduction The water quality index (WQI) is a simple, convenient way to express quality of water in easy-to-understand value. Miller (1986) describes it as a dimensionless number that combines multiple water quality factors into a single number by normalizing values using subjective rating curves. Traditionally, it has been used for evaluating the quality of water for water resources such as rivers, streams and lakes, etc. Factors included in a WQI vary dependi...>... More >

ACLARA The industry’s only fixed-network, remotely correlated, acoustic leak detection system cost effectively helps water utilities quickly identify leaks on water mains before they become major problems. Combining the Aclara STAR Network Advanced Metering Infrastructure system with leak detection technology from Gutermann International, the system automates the process of gathering the necessary data to identify leak locations and minimize water losses, enhancing conservation efforts. STAR ZoneScan’s ...>... More >

These are tough times for water resource managers and utility operators. Stricter regulations, aging infrastructure, and an aging workforce are just some of the many challenges plaguing utilities as they struggle to modernize their facilities. But there is some good news, SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)—one of the key technologies for improving performance and controlling costs—now offers more power, more convenience, and more accessibility. The days of SCADA being out of reach financia...>... More >

What could you do with a chunk of $1.8 billion in grant funding for infrastructure upgrades? If the backers of HR1189 finally succeed, the Clean Water Affordability Act will open up the congressional checkbook and funnel some much-needed funds to financially stressed communities burdened with leaky pipes, inefficient pumps, and all manner of conveyance system meltdowns.   HR1189 is an ongoing attempt to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act so that “municipalities that would experience a si...>... More >

Aclara www.aclaratech.com American Water Works Association www.awwa.org Capstone Metering LLC www.intellih2o.com Clarus Environmental www.clarusenvironmental.com Hobas Pipe USA www.hobaspipe.com Isolux Technologies Div.; MEL Chemicals Inc. www.zrpure.com ITRON www.itron.com Johnson Controls www.johnsoncontrols.com Master Meter Inc. www.mastermeter.com Neptune Technology Group Inc. www.neptunetg.com Plast-O-Matic Valves Inc. www.plastomatic.com Rugid Computer www.rugidcomputer.com Sensus Metering Systems...>... More >

Inextricably linked, unavoidably interconnected and, at times, conflicted and conflagrant, the relationship between energy and water is the ultimate duality—polarized and indivisible. Those of us working in the fields of water resource management and/or energy efficiency and reliability know that while our concerns are often interchangeable and our challenges similar, we nevertheless find ourselves operating in two separate spheres, focusing only on our own specific challenges and demands and rarely gla...>... More >

A. Y. MCDONALD MFG CO. The Unmeasured Flow Reducer (UFR) works with water meters to measure low-flow water caused by drips and leaks. Since low-flow water can account for up to 14% of household use and unmeasured water is non-billable, the customer can maximize revenue by installing the UFR. By capturing low-flow water and then batching it through the meter at a measurable volume, the UFR helps meters register nearly every drop. The UFR can also help homeowners identify and fix drips and leaks, for grea...>... More >

Continuing education is a familiar topic of conversation among those in the water and wastewater industry. An important component of any operator certification program, continuing education is somewhat like adult education, in that both involve furthering knowledge about any given topic and expanding technical knowledge among certified professionals. While some embrace this opportunity, according to one operator not everyone feels the same way.  “While some are prone to welcome the good that comes ...>... More >

A.Y. McDonald  www.aymcdonald.com Aclara  www.aclaratech.com Badger Meter Inc.  www.badgermeter.com Capstone Metering LLC  www.intellih2o.com Clarus Environmental  www.clarusenvironmental.com Containment Solutions Inc.  www.containmentsolutions.com Degremont Technologies  www.degremont-technologies.com ETwater  www.etwater.com EWRI - Environmental & Water Resources Institute  www.asce.org/ewri Global Water Resources  www.gwresources.com Isolux Techno...>... More >