Water Awareness Month — Help Spread the Word!

/
Trends

May is water awareness month in California and the majority of people I speak with don’t know about the campaign.  The California Water Awareness Campaign is a yearlong effort by organizations in California to heighten public awareness of water.  This has been happening since 1989. This year there are over 70 cities and water agencies contributing to the program and approximately 300 water agencies, farm bureaus, and various other organizations… Read more »

The Future of Non-Potable Water Use

/
Technology

As potable water supplies dwindle and the cost per gallon rises, we have to be vigilant about how much we use and how we use it. One way to conserve potable water is to use non-potable water—rainwater, air conditioning condensate, stormwater run-off and treated wastewater—for purposes like landscape irrigation. Initiatives such as the United States Green Building Council’s LEED Program are driving the use of alternative water sources and the development of… Read more »

Ten Reasons To Love Trees

/
Trends

Trees play an important role in water management.  As the New York Times pointed out a few weeks ago, “Trees are nature’s water filters, capable of cleaning up the most toxic wastes, including explosives, solvents and organic wastes, largely through a dense community of microbes around the tree’s roots that clean water in exchange for nutrients, a process known as phytoremediation.” Trees supply us with many other excellent benefits too.… Read more »

Are we all just moral hypocrites?

/
Trends

Happy tax day!  Thanks to Emancipation Day, the tax procrastinators of the Nation were given a couple extra days to file taxes this year.  April 15th fell on a Sunday so you would expect the deadline to move to Monday.  This year Monday is Emancipation Day so the deadline was pushed to Tuesday, April 17th. Emancipation Day, you ask?  It’s a local holiday in the District of Columbia and by law, District of Columbia holidays… Read more »

Garden Up! Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces

/
Trends

What is vertical gardening? The best way to maximize outdoor spaces and create drama in your garden. In the book Garden Up! (An Amazon Best Books of 2011 selection) you’ll see many examples, such as growing edibles up a wall or learning which edibles double as ornamentals.   Have a landscape eyesore? You’ll find lots of solutions in Garden Up! You’ll get ideas on how to create focal points with arbors. You… Read more »

Who Will Get Rich from Water's Scarcity?

/
Trends

Today the commodity receiving the most interest is gold, but water is the one commodity we can’t live without.  As National Geographic put it back in 1993, “All the water that will ever be is, right now.”  Our supply of water is limited, but as long as we demand to water our lawns at noon or having lawns in sweltering climates, increased demand should amount to an increase in prices.  The only question that remains… Read more »

Who Will Get Rich from Water’s Scarcity?

/
Trends

Today the commodity receiving the most interest is gold, but water is the one commodity we can’t live without.  As National Geographic put it back in 1993, “All the water that will ever be is, right now.”  Our supply of water is limited, but as long as we demand to water our lawns at noon or having lawns in sweltering climates, increased demand should amount to an increase in prices.  The only question that remains… Read more »

WaterSmart Innovations Conference Is A Resounding Success

/
Trends

There was  a tremendous amount of activity at last week’s WaterSmart Innovations Conference .  I counted 43 exhibitors, and attendance exceeded 800 people from 33 states and 9 countries.   More importantly, I felt the  attendees were serious about managing water more efficiently and the conversations were interesting and meaningful.  This was definitely the right crowd wanting to make a difference in water management. One of the best conversation I had… Read more »

1 2