from Water World:

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash., Feb. 16, 2012 — The City of Madison, WI, Water Utility will implement Itron’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system for Project H20, the city’s program to automate the collection and analysis of water meter reads. The new system will help Madison manage conservation initiatives, improve metering accuracy and operate more efficiently.

Installation using services from Wisconsin-based Corix Utilities Inc. and Madison Laborers Union Local 464 is expected to be complete by early 2013.

Itron’s AMI solution will enable Madison Water Utility’s 235,000 residents to switch from biannual meter reads to monthly meter reads and measure consumption in gallons instead of cubic feet, making bills easier to understand. Additionally, customers will be able to view their hourly water usage information online using web presentment tools.

Governments and charitable groups install water pumps, wells and other village water systems around the world, but pay insufficient attention to keeping them running.  Check this NYTimes article by Tina Rosenberg

Water4, an Oklahoma-based group, makes a drilling kit in a duffel bag.  The bag has everything needed for hand-drilling down to 150 feet and installing a low-tech pump, no power tools needed.  (Cement and PVC are bought locally.)

Happy World Toilet Day!   November 19, 2011

Today we give thanks for:  The Can, the Oval Office, the Loo, the Throne, the Potty, the Library, the Long Drop, the John, the Latrine, the Smart Phone Game Lounge…

Speaking of holidays, did you know that plumbers get 60% more calls the day after Thanksgiving than any other day?

Let’s raise a lid for the almighty toilet! Don’t forget to send an E-card today and share World Toilet Day with Everyone!

World Toilet Day is one of our favorite holidays.  With 2.6 Billion people in the world lacking a toilet, World Toilet Day helps to raise awareness and also gets us all thinking about innovative ways to tackle the problem.

Consider donating to Water For People this year.

Hey Mr. Green,

My dad is an environmental scold and refuses to let my mother have a halogen lamp in her study because he claims it would waste energy and thereby contribute to climate change. Is he right, or just light years from the truth, as is often the case?

—Anna, in Berkeley, California

Ask Mr. Green:

If you have problems with high heating bills, ice dams or rooms that are too hot or too cold, a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR®  evaluation would be a good investment for you.

• Check out a new program from the City of Madison for homes to help offset the cost of making energy improvements. (GREEN MADISON) 

• Get an evaluation, testing and written recommendations from Focus on Energy’s trained professionals. (Cost $400. Get $100 back from Green Madison for completing the process.)

How to QUALIFY?

Homeowners:
All City of Madison single family, duplex, and triplex owner-occupied residences and condominiums are eligible.

Business Owners:
Most City of Madison businesses are eligible.

For more information and to sign up

Call Green Madison at 877-399-1204, or visit www.cityofmadison.com/greenmadison

Call Focus on Energy at 1-800-762-7077 or visit www.focusonenergy.com.

If your bathroom fixtures come in retro colors like “Pepto^®” pink and avocado green—or were installed before 1994, after plumbing standards became more efficient—they could be sending money and water down the drain. Advances in plumbing technology and design have led to faucets, showers, and toilets that use significantly less water than standard models while still delivering the rinse, spray, and flushing power you need.

Upgrading your main bathroom with WaterSense labeled fixtures can save enough water annually to wash six months’ worth of laundry, reduce your energy use enough to run your refrigerator for two months, and decrease a household’s utility bills by $80 per year, allowing the fixtures to pay for themselves in as little as two years.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has begun a“Reinvent the Toilet” competition and awarded $3 million to researchers at eight universities, challenging them to use recent technology to create models that needn’t be connected to sewers, or to water and electricity lines, and that cost less than pennies per person a day to use.

The University of Wisconsin devised an ingenious calculator for WI residents to examine water usage. If you click on this you will also find great tips for water conservation that are applicable everywhere, such as, “Installing a more efficient showerhead could save your family hundreds of dollars per year in water and energy costs!”

The project, called the East Water Supply Project, is an 18-month study focused on meeting the east side’s future water demands with an ample, quality supply of water that uses an efficient system of clean and safe wells.