A few water-related news articles from around the world we thought you’d like to see.

treating wastewater is bad for the environment

Yes, you read that correctly. The engineers at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago wanted to know what their carbon footprint was and to figure out how to reduce it. One of their conclusions: disinfecting wastewater increases greenhouse gas emissions.

step away from the rain barrel

If you live in Utah and capture the rainwater that falls on your property, you’re breaking the law. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, wants to change that. He’s introduced a bill to allow people to store up to 2,500 gallons for use on their property. This isn’t the first time this issue has debated. Last year it didn’t pass. But a new provision requiring people to register as a rain-gatherer (our term, not theirs) may help this bill become law.

4 billion gallons contaminated daily

Each day the natural gas industry pollutes 4 billion gallons of water a day just during the drilling process. The Environmental Leader reports that an innovative company has devised “water reclamation process that uses osmosis technology to recycle wastewater in the oil and gas industry.” We’re pleased to see, and not at all surprised, that the company has also found that it’s not only saving water, but energy and transportation costs too.

sun-powered desalination plants

One might not expect to hear that of all the countries in the world, Saudi Arabia is trying to wean itself off of oil. At least, that’s the plan when it comes to providing clean water for its people. The Kingdom gets 50 to 70 percent of its drinking water from desalination plants. And to convert all that salt water to fresh, they use 1.5 million barrels of oil each and every day. The new solar-powered desalination facilities should reduce water and energy costs by 40 percent.

our most important resource

Earlier this month Grist interviewed author Stephen Solomon to talk about how water will once again be the planet’s most important natural resource. Solomon just published a new book Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization (adding to our reading list now). The interview covers how water scarcity and climate change are inextricably linked. Even if you don’t plan on reading the book, read the interview, you’ll have a better understanding the problem and opportunities.

can australia teach us how to deal with drought?

In the opinion pages of the Sidney Morning Herald earlier this week, they suggest that the Yanks can learn from Australia’s years of drought. You may not know, but the Colorado River is drying up. They’ve already been though that when the Murray Darling ran dry. While the piece has a number of good points, what we thought was interesting were the comments. Some folks don’t think there are any worthy lessons from Down Under, while others seem to think we just can’t learn. What do you think?

It may not occur to you as you pour that glass of Chardonnay, but it took a lot of water to create that six ounces of deliciousness. For example, in California, it can take 75 gallons of water to grow the grapes for one gallon of wine in the North Coast region and as much as 430 gallons for a vineyard in the Central Valley. And that’s not the end of the water use. Once the grapes are harvested, barrel and tank washing at the winery consume another six gallons of water for every one gallon of wine.

Fortunately, there are forward-thinking wineries already looking for ways to recycle the water. Last week, Jackson Family Wines (you may know their Kendall-Jackson brand) announced they have a new water recycling program that is delivering substantial savings. They found that by recycling, they reduced water consumption 70 percent and saved money on energy too. According to the press release, they expect to save six million gallons of water, 133,000 KWh of electricity, and 73,000 terms of natural gas each year just at their Kendall-Jackson winery.

Jackson Family Wines believes that if just 35 percent of the California wineries adopt these practices, California would save “as much as one billion gallons of water annually.” That’s over 11,000,000 person days of water.

We know we don’t want to see wine prices skyrocket as water scarcity increases; this is just the kind of innovation that can give us wine and water.

photo credit: Jackson Family Wines

Our Friends over at DMD Green have created a new sustainability program called SocialCycling. The goal is to bring transparency and verification to the recycling process. The program is designed to encourage businesses to partner with organizations to reuse items that are not usually, or easily recycled.

One example, sited in this interview with Jason Warnock and Stacy Richter of DMD Green, is of an American company sending PVC scrap to Africa. Instead of ending up in a dump, the PVC is made into back pack linings. As Warnock says:

What we have done is solve a business problem for a US manufacturer, an African producer and hopefully, even helped some actual people along the way. To me that is the truly exciting part of environmental sustainability.

Just imagine what could happen if more organizations started to look at their waste as a resource; and if manufacturers looked at waste as a raw material. Seems to us that this is the ultimate in environmental sustainability: never drawing from “virgin” materials to create the products we need and want.

Here’s the question, what waste products does your company create that need to be SocialCycled? Perhaps we can spark a new partnership right here on Good for Water!

While we spend a lot of time discussing water conservation as a whole, we thought it would also be helpful to begin defining some of the pertinent terms and concepts.

In simple terms, gray water is defined as used water from your sink, shower, or washing machine. It doesn’t include water from your toilet (known as black water), or water from kitchen sinks or dishwashers (which contain food particles and other pollutants).

Gray water is contaminated and can’t be used for drinking. However, it’s a great way to water your lawn. Americans’ lawns account for about 30 percent of residential water consumption—or 2 billion gallons a day. Worse yet, most Americans water their yards with the same water they drink. Gray water not only has the potential to save a tremendous amount of fresh water, some studies have shown that the cleaning solvents in gray water may also be an effective fertilizer.

how to collect gray water

Sold yet? If so, there are some simple, elbow-grease solutions for collecting gray water—like plugging the sink and scooping out the used water in buckets. You can take those buckets of water and dump them directly into plant soil.

If the thought of scooping your own bath water doesn’t exactly appeal to you (it doesn’t really appeal to us either), there are cheap DIY-systems that involve simply rerouting washing machine water to your garden through a hose. One thing to keep in mind: Be sure to use a filter to catch food, dirt, or hair. Visit the World Wild Fund for Nature for step-by-step instructions.

Are you recycling your gray water? Which method do you like the best? Share your tips with our readers.

photo credit: rubenerd