Finally! BC is thinking about turning down the taps.

This should be cause to celebrate! Well, maybe that’s jumping the gun a little bit, but I was happy to see a headline that British Columbia is starting to think more seriously about bringing in legislation to curb our out of control water usage. It's a common story – people laugh when you tell them that yes, even BC is starting to run out of water. Many are surprised to find that yes, even in our temperate rainforest environment on the coast, many rural homeowners’ wells are running completely dry during the summer months. And yes, even we environmentally conscious Canadians are absurd over-users of water.

The average Canadian uses nearly 400 liters of water per day! Compare that to 100-150 for many European countries, and less than a dozen for some developing nations. It is time we started to really address the issues. There are quick and easy ways to reduce this water usage right now. For instance, 30% of our residential water is literally going down the toilet. Here are a few quick and easy ways to drastically cut our water usage RIGHT NOW. All of this technology is currently on the market, and used throughout the world.

Toilets: The current systems in place in North America see us treat our toilet flushing water to the same standard as drinking water. We could cut our water usage by 1/3 right off the bat by using recycled grey water or collected rainwater to flush our toilets! All this takes is a greywater system or a rainwater harvesting system, and redirecting your water line feeding toilets from one of these systems. Just think of the savings in municipal infrastructure if your city didn't have to treat and distribute 1/3 of its water.

Low flow fixtures: Low-flow showerheads and facuets and low-flush toilets can be purchased at any home renovation store and reduce your water consumption easily. The technology has evolved to eliminate many of the concerns with early low-flow fixtures (for instance, the double flush toilet). Many municipalities even offer rebates to install these in your home!

Rainwater collection: Rainwater collection is easy to do. It can be as easy as hooking up a small cistern or plastic storage tank to your downspouts and using that to water your plants. Not only will this save on your water bills if you are metered, it is better for your plants! No more chlorinated water on your prized flowers!

Metering. This, to me, is a no brainer. Every single home in this country should have a water meter measuring our actual water consumption and charging us appropriately. Can you imagine the gas company or the electric company charging us such a low, flat fee for unlimited use? Not a chance! It is time we started treating water like the other utility companies. It costs a great deal of money to treat and distribute water through a municipality. We need to recognize this fact and act accordingly. Cities that have undertaken metering all find the same result – an immediate and significant drop in water demand.

Now remember, all of the above suggestions are readily available on the market right now! If you’re looking for a spring project or an opportunity to celebrate upcoming World Water Day, maybe consider one of the above?

Winter causes problems for drivers and fish

March has rolled in, and the end of another winter is almost upon us. While those of us on the West Coast seem to have missed winter entirely while hosting the World’s first Spring Olympics, most of North America is counting down the days to warmer weather and sunshine. What this winter brought, as it does with all winters, is an unfathomable supply of salt dumped on the roads as far as the eye can see. And then a little just a little bit further.

Even though the salt is deemed necessary for those behind the wheel, it has a devastating effect on local habitats and environmental showpieces. We all know what happens when you salt the roads – it melts the snow and ice. That runoff becomes highly contaminated with not just salt, but also oil, heavy metals, and whatever other contaminants wash into the landscape from the roads and highways.

One example, the small community of Pickering, ON along the busy 401 highway east of Toronto is well on its way to losing the ecological footprint in Frenchman’s Bay. The city commissioned a long-term study on the environmental impacts in the bay. As you might guess, the results are not encouraging. The bay itself is a soup of chemicals and contaminants, fish populations are decreasing, and wetlands are retreating. The biggest culprit - heavy salting in the winter.

This isn’t, of course, a new problem but is one that is starting to feel the cumulative effects of the last many decades of winter salting. And like any environmental damage, will it even be possible to reverse the damage once a better option is finally discovered and popularized? There are R&D efforts to find environmentally friendly salts, but to date they are limited and have only “marginally improved” on the problem rather than “eliminated” it altogether. Certain jurisdictions have outlawed the use of salts altogether opting for sand instead. It doesn’t melt the snow, but it does increase road traction.

Though living on the West Coast means I rarely need to use any salt, I’ll be keeping an eye out in my local hardware store for the environmentally friendly salt next winter, and hopefully everyone else out there will too! To see an article on Pickering’s waterfront issues, see: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/774620--road-salt-poisoning-pickering-waterfront?bn=1

Current Water Use Unsustainable

That was the headline I saw this morning. Is anyone really surprised by this type of news anymore? Especially considering the headline specifically referred to California! The article I'm referring to (here) discusses how recently released NASA satellite imagery provides even more evidence that California's current water use is quickly draining the state empty. Take into account these two facts:
1) Cali's central valley is home to 1/6th of all US irrigated crops
2) California is the US's largest grower and exporter of agriculture

What happens to that agricultural economy when the water runs out, or becomes so salty from seawater infiltration that it can no longer be used to irrigate, much less drink. While this story is by no means exclusive to California, this is a state that is stuck in a 3 year drought, is home to 37 million people, and is on the verge of a liquid (or lack thereof) catastrophe.

This also illustrates why the membrane-based market segment of the water purification industry stands to do very well in California, as well as many other drying out corners of the world. When the Southwest has to switch over to a new water source because aquifers are depleted and the Colorado River has run dry, what other source is there? Well, that big blue batch of ocean called the Pacific looms large and isn't going anywhere. It can be used today, but at tremendous expense. I can picture 37 million people are crossing their fingers that the next great evolutionary leap in desal technology happens before the state is officially out of water, or they stand to run out of money first. And, well.... hasn't that already happened?

A Few Thoughts Re: Bottled vs. Tap

It's always interesting to compare some of the "behind the scenes" numbers on things we take for granted. Here are some thoughts on the bottled vs. tap water debate. Click on the image for one researcher's take.

Summer must be over

Heat waves. Water shortages. Droughts. Signs of summer. At least in the Pacific Northwest it seems like a distant memory. We are in the middle of what feels to most like an endless supply of rainy and windy days. Yes, we are stuck right in the middle of another typical fall cycle of weather with storm system after storm system cycling in from the Pacific. We are now stuck with major flooding, power outages, heavy snowfall in the mountains (most of Vancouver is heaving a sigh of relief over this particular point), 4pm darkness and general misery all-round. How quickly we forget!

While most of BC is stuck somewhere between the memory of our record breaking summer and the upcoming Olympics, we find ourselves remembering what a heap of rain means for our water systems. Nevermind the flooding basements and streets, the reservoirs supplying the Metro Vancouver water supply are back to being susceptible to landslides and the resultant high turbidity. The Capilano reservoir has been taken out of service due to extremely high turbidity and the Seymour reservoir is currently sitting at 3.7 NTUs, well in excess of the 0.1 NTU goal. If this rain keeps up and the freezing levels creep up the mountainside in the next week as expected, the risk of even higher turbidity starts to remind us of the boil water advisory over 2 million of us went through two years ago. Could we be in for a repeat?

The downside of water conservation

So it turns out there is a potential downside to buying that low flush toilet and letting your lawns fade to brown in the summer. The CRD water supply system in Victoria, BC is undergoing a budget shortfall this year as city water users have embraced water conservation. Yes, it's true - it appears that Victoria is just saving too much water! Victoria has actually been decreasing their water usage since 1998, even in light of significant population growth. Does this mean the message is getting across and people are really starting to embrace water awareness? I, for one, can only hope so! In one of the hotter, drier summers on record the water usage was actually below average. Only in June with the city under an all-time record breaking heat wave did it exceed the average water usage by 1.7%! Only 1.7%!

Victoria has instituted a number of the steps that we generally think are the "right things to do" such as requiring low flush toilets for new construction, water restrictions in the summer, promoting other water-saving appliances and lifestyles. While on the surface this unfortunately means likely modest rate increases for water usage, I find it hard to complain on this subject. We city water users already enjoy rates that are far less than what is reflective of the true price of delivering safe, reliable water to a municipality. This will come to bear when the true extent of the infrastructure upgrades that will be required are realized - so modest increases now are only a trend in the right direction.

So go on, keep those sprinklers to a minimum and keep using those low-flow showerheads. And enjoy the signs that the message is getting out there!

Are we all a little too thirsty?

A simple post this week, via Powerpoint presentation. Check it out here: http://www.watertiger.net/about/thirst.pps (will open in Powerpoint). It holds a few facts about water use in our world. I don't know who created this presentation, but would like to give credit if anyone out there can enlighten me.