Solutions to the Unfolding Water Crisis
Environmental Building News Examines Water

Monday, September 17, 2008
CONTACT:
Jerelyn Wilson
802-257-7300 ext. 102

Brattleboro, VT — While much of the focus during 2008 has been on energy, Environmental Building News (EBN) has just completed an in-depth, three-part examination of an issue that may be even more challenging: water. “Never before in the 16-year history of EBN have we published a multiple-article series on a particular topic,” said executive editor Alex Wilson. “With water, we thought such an emphasis was important—so important, in fact, that we’re making the full series fully available at no cost.”

As of the beginning of September 2008, 52% of the land area of the lower-48 states was experiencing some level of drought. The State of California declared a drought emergency in June 2008, and significant portions of the southeastern U.S. were experiencing severe drought early in the year. The Colorado River system, upon which tens of millions of people in the western U.S. depend for water, is significantly overtaxed, and some scientists predict that the water level of Lake Mead, already down by half, will drop so low by 2021 that Las Vegas, which depends on it for 90% of its water, will no longer be able to draw from it. Rapid population growth in the driest parts of the U.S., including Phoenix and Las Vegas, is exacerbating concerns about water supply. More and more experts are calling the situation a water crisis.

The first article in this series, “Water: Doing More With Less,” appeared in the February 2008 issue of EBN and addresses how to use water more efficiently. “Reducing demand for water is clearly the low-hanging fruit in grappling with current and future water shortages,” said Wilson, who wrote all three articles. Along with the obvious strategies (water-conserving plumbing fixtures, clothes washers, and dishwashers, for example), the article examines commercial kitchen equipment, cooling towers, industrial process equipment, and outdoor water use.

The second article in the series, “Alternative Water Sources: Supply-Side Solutions for Green Buildings,” published in May 2008, covers less common water sources found in and around buildings or recovered from wastewater. This article examines such sources as graywater, rainwater, air-conditioner condensate, cooling-tower blowdown, treated wastewater (both building-scale and municipal), and desalination. Many of these sources are used for nonpotable applications, so dual plumbing for potable and non-potable water in and around buildings makes increasing sense.

The final article in the series, “Water Policies: Encouraging Conservation,” published in September 2008, examines how to bring about the water savings that so many experts consider necessary. The article addresses a wide range of measures including product standards, plumbing codes, water-efficiency labeling, financial incentives, and innovative regulatory programs. Among the most innovative measures are water-demand offset programs that require developers to carry out water conservation projects to offset more water than their development will use, and retrofit-on-resale programs that require plumbing fixtures in homes and commercial buildings be upgraded to water-conserving models at the time a building is sold.

“Together, these three articles identify a wide range of opportunities for solving water problems,” says Wilson, “and lay out the panoply of policies and programs that can be implemented to get us solve these water-supply problems.” To access these articles online, visit www.BuildingGreen.com/go/water.

BuildingGreen, LLC, has been providing the building industry with quality information on sustainable design and construction since its founding in 1985. BuildingGreen’s publications include Environmental Building News, the GreenSpec® Directory of green building products; and the BuildingGreen Suite of online resources. For information, visit www.BuildingGreen.com or call 802-257-7300.

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Editors: Alex Wilson is available for interviews about water conservation, alternative sources, and policies. To arrange an interview, contact Jerelyn Wilson at 802-257-7300 ext. 102 or .