Wisconsin Leads Great Lakes States on Scorecard

Wisconsin scored the highest ranking amongst fellow Great Lakes region states in a report that evaluates water efficiency.  Wisconsin scored highest with a B-, while Minnesota received a C+, New York a C, both Illinois and Indiana a C-, and Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania all tied for the lowest score of a D.  The Water Efficiency and Conservation State Scorecard: An Assessment of Laws and Policies is published by the Alliance for Water Efficiency, a non-profit group, and the Environmental Law Institute, a legal consulting firm.

The report's introduction states, "The intention behind adding the report and assigning grades is to create concise and useful information, and to bring attention to exemplary policies that may be used as models for other states to emulate."  According to the report, "Wisconsin received top points for their broadly applicable water conservation planning requirements" and goes on to conclude that Wisconsin "represents how water conservation planning can vary by source; Wisconsin has one generally applicable planning process for public water suppliers, and another planning process only applicable to large withdrawers from the Great Lakes Basin."  Wisconsin was granted high marks for the access to technical assistance provided as well as its water conservation planning. 

Certainly Wisconsin's success is worth mentioning, but fellow Great Lakes states who share the region's water resources may be more cause for pause and redoubling of our efforts to strive together to improve our collective scores. 

Read the entire The Water Efficiency and Conservation State Scorecard here

Conserving water in dry conditions

The heat has abated a bit here in southern Wisconsin but the Badger State is still dealing with near drought conditions in southern Wisconsin. Many are thinking of ways to conserve water. The city of Madison Water Utility has some great ideas:

• Unless you have a newly sodded or seeded lawn, stop watering it. Established, healthy lawns can survive several weeks of dormancy during summer with little or no water. If your garden needs water, limit loss to evaporation by watering early in the morning or later in the evening. Make sure you are not watering your driveway or the street.

• Inside the home, operate automatic dishwashers and clothes washers only when they are fully loaded, or set the water level for the size of load you are using.

• Repair leaks in fixtures such as toilets and faucets and avoid letting the water run unnecessarily for other household uses in the kitchen and bathroom. 

The US EPA WaterSense program has some additional ideas:

• Showers use less water than baths, as long as you keep an eye on how long you've been lathering up!

• Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.

• Wash the car with water from a bucket, or consider using a commercial car wash that recycles water. 

Corporate Water Management

As water scarcity begins to affect businesses, water management strategies are becoming a necessity, and in some cases the norm. Verdantix, a sustainable business analyst firm, recently published a report called the State of Global Corporate Water Strategies to find out how corporations are approaching the issue.

Verdantix found that most firms implementing water strategy are doing so to maximize  their own cost effectiveness. Such companies include Coca-Cola and SABMiller, among others. Some, however, such as H&M, Levi's, and PepsiCo are take water management even further, endorsing water stewardship and considering ecosystem protection in their policy development.

For more information about corporate water strategy, read an article at GreenBiz about the report's findings, or check out books from the Water Library about water conservation.

Featured Books Week: Elixir

Title: Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind
Author: Brian Fagan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press, 2011

Our next Featured Book is Brian Fagan's Elixer: A History of Water and Humankind. Fagan shows that "every human society has been shaped by its relationship to the most basic necessity of life: water" (book jacket). The book spans thousands of years, from ancient Mesopotamia through America's dry southern states today.

Fagan divides this history into what he terms "the three ages of water." The first is  the water scarcity of the  first several thousand years of human existence, a scarcity which caused the resource to become sacred to most peoples. In the second age, beginning with the Industrial Revolution, water became a commodity, eventually taken for granted. The third age of water is beginning now, and we are again seeing the scarcity of the first age.  After taking the reader through these three ages, Fagan ends with a picture of the future and its impending water crisis. According to Fagan, it's time to take action and treat water with "a studied caring and reverence" (347) like our ancestors before us.

What can you do?

• Check it out!
• Visit Brian Fagan's website for reader questions and author interviews
• Learn more about water conservation with other books from Wisconsin's Water Library

Avoiding a "Mega Drought"

In the last decade, Australia experienced a period of extreme dryness. For its residents, this meant increased fires and dust storms, and thousands of farming families unable to make a living. Though this drought ended in 2010, we have not seen the end of this kind of weather. According to an article in this month's issue of Scientific American titled "The Coming Mega Drought," the southwestern United States could be headed in the same direction. Its climate changes and straining water supply issues are similar to that of Australia prior to its Millennium Drought.

While the Millenium Drought had devastating effects, it woke the country to the need for effective water conservation strategies as well as the dangers of climate change. Scientific American reports that between 2002 and 2008, per capita urban water use in Australia decreased by 37 percent, thanks to increased water research, funding, and conservation policies. With Australia as a model, the United States could potentially lessen or even avoid this kind of disaster.

For more information,

• Learn more about Australia's water policies
• Access Scientific American at the UW Madison Libraries and Wisconsin's Water Library

The Water Library is currently featuring a book display about water conservation. Check these titles out!

Ancient Water Harvesting

Water harvesting and water supply issues are pressing concerns in today's society. However, in some societies, ancient methods of collecting and transporting water are still used, and are often superior to modern structures. Anupam Mishra is an environmental activist who studies rainwater harvesting methods in the Indian desert, such as wells, filter ponds, and other systems.

In a 2009 TED Talk, "The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting," Mishra states that, "The center of life is water." He cites four steps in the process of developing successful systems: concept, planning, making, and perhaps most important, maintaining. Many societies maintain succesful harvesting methods without a dedicated government department or any funding at all. The secret, according to Anupam Mishra, is respect. In the desert communities he studies, clean water is a high priority, and everyone works to protect the water supply.

Looking for more info? Check out our drinking water resources at the Water Library, or click here to view Anupam Mishra's full TED Talk.

Drinking Water Research Challenges

What does it mean to have safe drinking water? What does water conservation really entail? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, there are three main research challenges to consider when studying drinking water. Wisconsin's Water Library holds many resources on these topics. Click the links within this post to find library reading lists and take on some research of your own!

The first challenge is to protect the source of water- either groundwater or surface water- especially as water is becoming a scarce resource in many locations. The second is to harness the flow of water- developing technologies that control runoff. The third is to treat and deliver safe water.

Scientists and researchers have been studying to meet these three challenges for nearly a century. For more information, visit "From Source to Tap" at the US EPA website.

What's Net-Zero Water?

Net-zero water is a concept that entails separating your water system from the rest of the grid. When it rains, the water you collect in your rain barrels or on your roof will be the water that allows you to wash dishes in the sink or flush your toilet. Your used water will be treated on-site which allows for re-use several times. Water is divided into three categories: rainwater, graywater, and blackwater, depending on the level of pathogens. Both rainwater and graywater (water from sinks and showers) can be treated to be used later as potable water, but blackwater (dispoal or wastewater) cannot be made potable.

One recent example of a building working toward net-zero water is the Bertschi School in Seattle. This article explains how the school is working to accomplish net-zero water including a composting toilet and a wall of plants. As water continues to be one of the most important and limited resources, net-zero water is getting more attention. While the standard may be too challenging for many, it's always helpful to think of ways to help conserve water. This list offers 100 suggestions for water conservation.

Photo credit: Bertschi School

Wisconsin-based Kohler named 2009 WaterSense partner of the year

Wisconsin-based Kohler Company continued to demonstrate its commitment to water efficiency by winning its second consecutive WaterSense Partner of the Year award as a manufacturer. EPA presented the award in October 2009 at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. EPA cited Kohler Company’s support for regional incentives and initiatives for water efficiency from Atlanta to Denver with its “mobile restrooms,” which are trailers fully equipped with Kohler toilets and faucets that have earned the WaterSense label. In addition to publicizing WaterSense on the road, in the tradeshow circuit, on reality television, and in the restrooms of New York City’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame Annex, Kohler gave WaterSense a national spotlight through its Save Water America Web site, which is dedicated to educating homeowners about water efficiency and supports Habitat for Humanity with a $1 million product donation.

To learn more about these WaterSense partners and the awards program visit: http://epa.gov/watersense/awards.htm.

Turfgrass irrigation system helps manage stormwater

MADISON - This summer, Doug Soldat is saving for a not-so-rainy day.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison soil scientist is banking rainwater, up to 8,000 gallons of it, enough to keep the lawn at UW-Madison's O.J. Noer Turfgrass Research and Education Facility lush through the driest weeks of summer.

Soldat and graduate student Brad DeBels installed two 4,000-gallon tanks, like rain barrels on steroids, that collect rainwater from the roof of the turfgrass facility's main building on Madison's far west side. Water from those tanks is used to irrigate nearby turf via subsurface drip irrigation lines.

Soldat views the setup as a prototype for a sustainable turfgrass irrigation system that does not rely on wells, water mains, storm drains or the electrical grid.

"In a three-month period we collected 19,000 gallons off the roof at the Noer Center and sent it all to the turf - 3,150 square feet of lawn," he says. "We were able to use and infiltrate all of the rain that that fell on the Noer Center's 7,000-square-foot rooftop."

To read entire article, go to UW-Madison News.

For information on another rainwater-saving technique, visit Wisconsin's Water Library's Rain Gardens reading list. Rain gardens capture water in a shallow depression planted with vegetation that filters the water as it slowly seeps into the ground. This creates cleaner groundwater and protects our lakes and streams.

Film review: Flow

Flow: For the love of water, a film by Irena Salina, takes you to every continent of the world in a quest to understand water as a resource. In Bolivia, for example, the privatization of water leaves poor citizens with dirty water. In South Africa, citizens are asked to pay per use with tokens that the poor cannot afford. Dams are built, but are costly and give off harmful greenhouse gases like methane. Water that is bottled in the United States, while a $40 billon dollar industry, creates trash and its production is unsustainable, especially in its use of petroleum products. Worldwide, multinational corporations are making water a commodity, rather than a natural resource and human right. Major players in the water industry as well as environmental activists concerned with the world water crisis are interviewed in this compelling film.

For more information, go to flowthefilm.com.

If you are a Wisconsin resident, you may check this film out from Wisconsin's Water Library by completing our book request form. If you are a UW-Madison faculty, student or staff member, please request through MadCat.

Lawn Watering

University of Wisconsin Extension and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have compiled a series of fact sheets on water quality for residential areas. Here at Wisconsin's Water Library, we recommend checking the Lawn Watering tips, especially in the coming weeks of summer when it may get drier and harder to keep your yard green.

To view the fact sheet, go to UW Extension Learning Store.

Engineering students use EPA funding to conserve water at medical school complex

A group of engineering and science students are working to drastically reduce the amount of water used on the grounds of one of the university's latest building projects, and they've received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to do it.

A team of eight students has designed a catchment system that will collect rain in canopies set on the roof of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR), a three-tower complex expected to be completed in 2015 as part of the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. The rain will then be piped into 500-gallon cisterns that then water the grounds via a drip irrigation system.

To read more visit, UW-Madison news.

Recent water-related awards

Congratulations to the Village of Trempealeau, Wisconsin and the Wisconsin-based Kohler Corporation! Both recently received accolades for their efforts in water quality and conservation:

National award honors Trempealeau’s commitment to clean water
Kohler is a EPA WaterSense 2008 Partner of the Year