Water

West Coast Green asks, “What’s the right metaphor for making waste tangible and visible?”

October 1, 2010

Because there were more than 25 break-out sessions across four time slots at West Coast Green today, it was necessary to practice a little letting go of the things I would inevitably miss out on. I was able to catch a few great panels. My absolute favorite session was the one on community-scale greywater, led by Rana Creek Restoration Ecology. Project Manager Rafael Garcia spoke about the growing use of greywater systems in the Bay Area and highlighted a few…

West Coast Green Arrives: “We need a new design assignment as a species”

October 1, 2010

“We need a new design assignment as a species.” So says innovative architect and sustainable design leader William McDonough, one of the keynote speakers on the first day of West Coast Green 2010 in San Francisco. McDonough set the tone for a conference that has earned a reputation for being the largest conference on innovative sustainable solutions for the built environment. West Coast Green is a people-buzzing, info-bursting, idea-busting experience, with more workshops, green products, demonstrations, art, books, and break-out…

How to Find a Million Acre-feet of Water

September 29, 2010

You know the bad news already: water wars are heating up globally, fresh water sources are being polluted, tons of water are wasted daily, and in various regions of the United States municipalities, industry, and agricultural sectors compete for reduced water resources. The good news is that we don’t have to find new water sources or build economically and ecologically costly projects to meet our needs. A new report released by the Pacific Institute called “California’s Next Million Acre-Feet: Saving…

Join the Global Conversation About Water on Blog Action Day 2010

September 29, 2010

What if millions of people talked about a single topic of importance on the same day? That’s the premise of Blog Action Day, an annual event hosted by Change.org held every October 15, that “unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action.” The theme of Blog Action Day’s first year was the environment. In 2008 it was poverty and last year it…

Radical Plumbers Install Greywater System to Conserve Water

September 22, 2010

Visualize for a moment your morning shower. The warm water runs gently and momentarily over you, then falls to the drain. For several minutes it goes on its merry way to…well, to a place most of us rarely think about. It simply goes “away” after our brief contact with it. Similarly, think about that last load of laundry you did. How much water did it take to complete these mundane tasks and where did it go? Now imagine, instead of…

The Horrors of Hydraulic Fracturing

September 22, 2010

A dangerous method of natural gas extraction called fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is poisoning our planet’s water supply. The chemical and gas pollution from this destructive mining process is so bad in some areas that contaminated local household tap water actually catches on fire. Why is It Called Fracking? In this irresponsible deep natural gas well drilling process (which Cheney’s Halliburton developed) millions of gallons of water, sand and unstable toxic chemicals are blasted into the ground under very…

Los Angeles May Now Require Rainwater Harvesting

February 2, 2010

Los Angeles has proposed a new water management law that would require rainwater harvesting on all new homes, large developments, as well as on some redevelopment projects. The Department of Public Works unanimously approved the new ordinance in January for the increasingly parched region. It requires various methods to capture, reuse or infiltrate all of the rainwater runoff that is generated by a 3/4 inch rainstorm.

What’s the Dish on Grease Recycling in SF?

May 14, 2009

In response to this greasy problem the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is now taking action. They have begun the SF Greasecycle program, which collects waste vegetable oil from City restaurants for FREE and recycles it into biodiesel. Nearly all of San Francisco’s city vehicles already run on biodiesel, but soon they will be able to use biofuel made from used cooking oils provided by our local restaurants.

Who Owns the Rain?

March 25, 2009

A rain barrel or two may seem like the perfect solution for watering the garden without waste and without adding to your water bill. Before you build your rainwater harvesting system, though, you might want to make sure that it’s legal to do so. There are three states that say the water that falls from the sky belongs to them, not to just anyone. Utah Homeowners who want to use rainwater in Utah have to purchase a water right…

Greywater Guerillas Make Rainwater Harvesting Easy

January 22, 2009

As another year of devastating drought stretches out before us here in California, saving our rainwater has never been more crucial. Greywater systems can take many forms, and now learning how to create your own rain barrel system has never been easier.