Waterworld Could Normally Carry from a Water Source
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ed in southern Africa by Pump Aid. The pumps are simple, ing industry and made our water eventy percent of our planet’s surface is covered by cheap, and are based on a two-thousand-year-old Chinese supplies a priority. water. Of that, less than one percent is fit to drink. While design. Another simple innovation is the use of rolling water pale blue cliffs of coastal glaciers calve into the sea, the barrels designed to carry up to twenty times what one person As plumbers, we’ve always delicate balance of life on our world is changing faster than we Waterworld could normally carry from a water source. The barrels have a fought against leaking pipes and “Water, water, everywhere, ever imagined. S handle and are designed to roll over rough-type terrain and wasted resources. It’s time the com - nor any drop to drink.” Eight of the hottest years in recorded history have can be reused for years. In Peru farmers have worked with mon sense of the working man be occurred in the last ten years. Since the turn of the century the local anthropologists to revitalize a thousand-year-old irriga - put to the forefront of this battle. – Coleridge average global temperature has risen by 1.3 degrees tion network that would alleviate drought problems and Our experts need to step up to the Fahrenheit. It may not sound like much, but it has been enable the local populace to farm in dry seasons. plate, modify our codes, stop the By Doug Fredericksen enough to spur the likes of Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina, foolish waste of resources, and save While simple designs and procedures have worked inundate most of Europe in a flood of near Biblical proportions, the world through better plumbing wonders to save lives around the globe, it is amazing that we and create a drought across Africa that has spurned the first practices. We have the technology, haven’t turned our own technological prowess upon the prob - genocidal conflict of the new millennium in Darfur. the skills, and the manpower. Let’s get lems of waste and overuse. The technology exists to preserve on with it. Water is the key to life. We can go without food for and protect the resources we have, and it is our duty as weeks, but for less than three days without water. Our bodies plumbers and mechanical contractors to push the envelope are composed of 65 percent water. Yet throughout the world, with implementation of this technology. we seem to take it for granted and refuse to conserve this pre - Many jurisdictions in the western half of the cious resource. nation have adopted municipal codes that require small, Most of the people in Africa and Asia live on about two solar-powered rain gauges on residences that measure rain - and a half gallons of water a day. Here in America, we each use fall and shut down the irrigation system during rainy times. on an average, more than 200 gallons of water a day. More Nothing is more infuriating than seeing a sprinkler system than 50 percent of all the water we use is for irrigation and operating at full bore during a rainstorm. Dual flush toi - landscaping. lets are now on the market and could save huge quanti - ties of water. Along with the huge amount of water we waste with over-irrigation, municipalities seem to “lose” an immense Many cities have their own desalter facilities amount of fresh water. New York City’s oldest operating water which can supply clean (but non-potable) water to major main, the Croton system, was built in 1893, partially out of industrial users such as golf courses, parks, and stadiums. wood. The three major water mains that feed the city of New There is no reason why we couldn’t extend this use of non- York bring billions of gallons of potable water a day to a thirsty potable water to flush toilets and urinals as well. city. Of that, there are estimates that as much as 30 percent Private gray water systems have been addressed in of the water in some mains is lost through leakage. One small Chapter 16 of the 2006 Uniform Plumbing Code . Innovative section of the New York system, the Rondout-West Basin alone use of these systems could save and reuse large amounts leaks up to 35 million gallons of fresh water a day according to of water. Flow-restricting aerators on faucets and show - the New York State Comptroller’s office. ers could also help in conservation. There are so The California Aqueduct has been called a wonder of many things we could, and should, do to play the modern world. It snakes across the state for more than 444 our part in this stressed environment. miles, moving water at a gradual pace through carefully engi - neered canals. At strategic points, such as the Edmonston After all, the answers aren’t that diffi - Pumping Plant near Los Angeles, some of the largest pumps on cult. Common sense dictates that we should be the planet pump billions of gallons of water up more than 2,000 at least as efficient as people were two thousand feet to the crest of mountains and hills that block the water - years ago. Before the time of Christ, Greek and way’s path. Yet most of the aqueduct flows through the desert. Roman architects designed their aqueducts so The concrete canal is open to the sky and loses massive that 95 percent of the system was covered or amounts of the water that flows through it due to evaporation. underground. Some of the Greek aqueducts are as much as 65 feet beneath the ground. From all existing While our engineers and water suppliers work long and records, their leakage rates for municipal water mains were hard to provide a seemingly unending quantity of water to less than those of municipal systems today, with much of that thirsty American cities that are growing dramatically in dry being water “stolen” by illegal taps into the ancient water areas like Las Vegas and Phoenix, many people in the world mains. are forced to walk miles to obtain the most minimal and possibly contaminated supplies of water to sustain life. There is no reason we can’t provide better ser - vices than engineers two thousand years ago. Huge There have been simple and effective solutions losses in our municipal water systems through evapo - applied to the problems of providing water in third world sit - ration or leakage are both unreasonable and unforgiv - uations. One such solution is the foot powered pumps provid - able. It’s time our elected officials got involved in the plumb - 18 Official November/December 2007 19 Ten Questions to Test Your Green I.Q. Courtesy of Nehlsen Communications When it comes to LEED ® credentials, buildings and projects are certified ow much do you know about green building? Take 8 and people are ______. the following quiz and find out. The answers to this a. graduated quiz came from the Mechanical Contractors b. honored Association of Chicago’s green building Webinar, “LEED ® c. accredited and Sustainable Design.” d. approved H Equipment in a green building cannot Lighting consumes a negligible amount use CFC-based ______. of energy in most buildings. 9 a. refrigerants 1 True or false? b. lubricants c. fuels Unchecked consumption of the finite ______ d. illumination reserve drives more exploration and extraction 2 at a higher economic cost, and displaces more Rainwater can be harvested and used for which natural resources at a higher environmental cost. 10 of the following purposes? a. solar energy a. Watering lawns b. fossil fuel b. Eye-wash stations c. nuclear power c. Flushing toilets d. grain ethanol d. A and C e. All of the above Energy-recovery ventilators can recover If you scored seven or more correct answers, consider your - ______ percent of the energy that would self green-friendly. 3 be lost in conditioning air. a. 40 To find out more about MCA Chicago, visit www.mca.org. b. 60 c. 80 l i C c n d. 100 d u n o a C A g Green roofs reduce run-off and the need for . n d i ) d l greater sewage capacity. i 0 u 1 ( B 4 True or false? s n t e n e a r r e G What does USGBC g i s r e f stand for? t e a r t . 5 S a a. United States Green Beautification Committee d ) e 9 b. Uniform Standards for Green Buildings t ( i n d and Commissioning U e t . i c c. United States Green Building Council d ) e r 5 c d. United Society of Green Builders ( c e a and Craftspeople u . r c T ) ) 8 4 ( ( Underfloor ventilation can have advantages over 0 m 8 overhead air-flow systems because u n . i t c 6 warm air rises. a ) l 3 P ( , True or false? l d e l u o f G l i , s The four certification levels in Leadership r s e v o l f in Energy and Environmental Design i . S ® b , 7 (LEED ) are: ) d e 2 i ( f a. Certified, Yellow, Blue, Green i t r e e s b. Silver, Gold, Platinum, Green l C a . F c. Approved, Enhanced, Upgraded, Certified d ) ) 1 ( d. Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum 7 ( : s e r u e r T w s ) n 6 A 20 Official ( n the tradition of the 77 conferences that have come before it, this year’s Annual Education and Business Conference proved to be a week to remember.