National Water Expert Provides Case for Metro Atlanta to Pursue Water Conservation and Efficiency to Meet Water Supply Needs

Today, the Georgia Water Coalition hosted a media briefing conference call with Mary Ann Dickinson, President and CEO, Alliance for Water Efficiency.

To listen to a recording of the media briefing, click here: http://www.garivers.org/gawater/DickinsonBriefing.htm

The Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) hosted the media briefing for Ms. Dickinson to present the opportunity that Metro Atlanta has to meet much of its water needs through water conservation and efficiency and at a cost significantly less than other options. She offered examples from other metropolitan areas in the Southeast and across the nation where communities have met their water needs through conservation and efficiency and saved millions – in gallons of water and dollars.

On Monday, November 23, consultants for the Governor’s “Water Contingency Task Force” unveiled a list of water supply options for Metro Atlanta and rationale for their implementation. The Task Force’s list currently has a $2.3 billion price tag and includes many proposals that if pursued would place a strain on Georgia taxpayers, threaten the economic future of communities outside Metro Atlanta, and sacrifice the health of our rivers, lakes and streams. Though water conservation and efficiency measures were included in the Task Force options, the Task Force has the opportunity to recommend much greater savings.

Tomorrow, Dec. 11, the Task Force meets in Atlanta for its third and final time and is expected to unveil its findings. The Governor is expected to use recommendations from the Task Force to formulate legislative measures to introduce in the 2010 General Assembly session which begins Jan. 11.

For more information on the opportunities available for Georgia, you can also view the American Rivers report: “Hidden Reservoir: Why Water Efficiency is the Best Solution for the Southeast.”

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The Coca-Cola System Announces New Global Targets for Water Conservation and Climate Protection in Partnership with WWF

(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Coca-Cola Company, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), today announced ambitious new targets to improve water efficiency and reduce carbon emissions within its system-wide operations, while promoting sustainable agricultural practices and helping to conserve the world’s most important freshwater basins.

“Our sustainability as a business demands a relentless focus on efficiency in our use of natural resources. These performance targets are one way we are engaging to improve our management of water and energy,” said Muhtar Kent, president and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company.

“In this resource constrained world, successful businesses will find ways to achieve growth while using fewer resources,” said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF-US. “The Coca-Cola Company’s commitment to conservation responds to the imperative to solve the global water and climate crisis.”

The partnership, announced by WWF and The Coca-Cola Company in 2007 with $20 million in funding, has now been extended an additional two years (through 2012) with the Company providing $3.75 million in new funding.

The Coca-Cola Company also joined WWF’s Climate Savers program in which leading corporations from around the world work with WWF to dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. By 2010, Climate Savers companies will collectively cut carbon emissions by 14 million tons annually – the equivalent to taking more than 3 million cars off the road each year.

Water Efficiency -- Saving 50 billion liters in 2012

The Coca-Cola system will improve its water efficiency 20 percent by 2012, compared to a baseline year 2004. While water use is expected to increase as the business grows, this water efficiency target will eliminate approximately 50 billion liters of that increase in 2012.

To support this efficiency target, The Coca-Cola Company and WWF have developed a Water Efficiency Toolkit to help reduce water consumption within bottling plants. This software-based instruction manual has been distributed to managers and operators throughout the Coca-Cola system, providing strategies to shrink the water footprint of their operations.

Climate Protection -- Preventing 2 million tons of CO2 emissions

The Company has set two emissions reduction targets: 1) grow the business, not the carbon system-wide and 2) a 5 percent absolute reduction in Annex 1 (developed) countries. The emissions targets apply to manufacturing operations in the year 2015 compared to a baseline year of 2004.

The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers anticipate substantial volume growth globally during this period, thus growing the business without growing the carbon is a significant commitment. Without intervention, emissions would grow proportional to volume and reach 7.3 million metric tons in 2015. Thus, the global commitment will prevent the release of more than 2 million metric tons of CO2 in 2015 – the equivalent of planting 600,000 acres of trees.

Supply Chain Sustainability

The Coca-Cola Company also will work with WWF to promote more sustainable agricultural practices in an effort to reduce the impact of its supply chain on water resources. This work will initially focus on sugarcane production. The Coca-Cola Company and WWF are working with the Better Sugarcane Initiative to establish standards, evaluate suppliers and set goals for the purchase of sugar. The Coca-Cola Company will identify two additional commodities on which to work in 2009.

Freshwater Conservation

The Coca-Cola system and WWF are working together to conserve some of the world’s most important freshwater resources, including the Yangtze, Mekong, Danube, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, Lakes Niassa and Chiuta, the Mesoamerican Reef catchments, and the rivers and streams in the southeastern region of the United States. More than a dozen production plants and/or bottlers in the areas surrounding these rivers are developing and implementing water stewardship plans to serve as models throughout the Coca-Cola system.

“Water and energy conservation are areas where we can truly make a difference. Last year, we set a goal to return to communities and to nature an amount of water equal to what we use in our beverages and their production. These targets support our work to achieve that goal,” said Kent. “The expansion of our partnership with WWF demonstrates our shared dedication to achieving large-scale results, and a grounded understanding that collaboration is key if we are to help address the world’s water challenges.”

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UGA Responds to Drought with 28 Percent Reduction in Water Use

The University of Georgia has lowered its water usage by 28 percent over the past year, and the university has saved more than $250,000 through conservation and cost-cutting measures and the enthusiastic cooperation of faculty, staff and students.

Less than 12 months after a special water conservation task force called for “serious water-saving measures” to combat a severe drought, UGA has cut water usage by 90 million gallons, according to new data from the Physical Plant Division, which is primarily responsible for water conservation efforts.

Usage is down in virtually every area of campus operations but most spectacularly in research functions where consumption has dropped by one-third, or 52 million gallons.

The task force, composed of faculty, staff, students and administrators, was created in October 2007 as Athens withered under one of the worst droughts in recent history. Six weeks later the group issued a report calling on UGA—Clarke County’s largest water user with an annual consumption of 564 million gallons—to reduce short-term use by as much as 25 percent without seriously harming teaching and research. The report also recommended developing strategies for long-range conservation and steps to increase UGA’s water supply now and in the future.

Since last November, water usage for instructional purposes is down from 72 million gallons to 57 million gallons and usage in residence halls is down from 64 million gallons to about 56 million gallons, according to the physical plant data.

Usage for irrigation purposes fell from 13 million gallons to zero as physical plant stopped almost all outdoor irrigation and researchers in greenhouses ceased automated watering, lowering greenhouse water usage by 6.7 million gallons.

But the greatest savings are in research functions, which consumed 31 percent of campus water, highest at the university. Research usage plummeted from more than 160 million gallons to about 110 million gallons.

UGA’s total 28 percent reduction far exceeds Gov. Sonny Perdue’s order last October that state-owned facilities cut water use by 10-15 percent, and also surpasses Clarke County’s 20 percent reduction goal.

Physical plant officials attribute the success mainly to aggressive implementation of water-saving measures throughout campus and widespread support for the “Every Drop Counts” public awareness campaign.

“The work (of the task force) created tremendous public awareness of the critical drought situation and served as an impetus for personal water conservation activities on the campus,” said Ralph Johnson, associate vice president for the physical plant. “The savings were achieved through the collective efforts of faculty, staff and students taking personal responsibility for campus water use as well as by equipment upgrades and retrofits accomplished by the physical plant.”

Johnson said that even before the task force report was finalized, physical plant moved several water-saving projects that had been on the “back burner” to the top of the priority list. One project involved changing the way tap water is used to cool refrigeration compressors and other equipment in research labs in the Miller Plant Sciences Building and the biological sciences building.

The change, which reconfigured the use of inexpensive but inefficient devices called “once-through” cooling units, led to an average savings of 1.25 million gallons of water a month in the plant sciences building alone.

Physical plant also replaced 1,500 toilets, 500 urinals and 2,000 faucet aerators in instructional building rest rooms with water-saving fixtures. Those retrofits are projected to save 30 million gallons of water annually.

And, 63 water meters were installed on cooling towers in campus buildings to enable physical plant to better measure water usage and detect and immediately repair control malfunctions—steps that potentially could avert the loss of hundreds of gallons of water per hour.

Other water-saving measures include replacing shower heads and toilets in residence halls with low-flow devices, repairing leaking pipes and fixtures in campus buildings and using captured rainwater and better mulching for high-priority planted areas.

The other major key to reduced water consumption, Johnson said, was the enthusiastic buy-in by faculty, staff and students for the “Every Drop Counts” campaign, which not only educated people about the necessity of saving water but also got them actively involved.

A Web site that provided daily water-saving tips and invited additional suggestions and ideas brought in more than 115 responses. A hotline for reporting water leaks and wasteful practices brought in so many complaints about toilets with overly sensitive automatic flushing mechanisms that physical plant deactivated the mechanisms on 150 commodes.

The campus was plastered with posters, stickers, buttons and magnets encouraging such action as turning off water while washing hands. The Residence Hall Association encouraged students to take shorter showers and turn off water while brushing teeth. The Ramsey Student Center provided hand sanitizer as an alternative to washing. The Georgia Center for Continuing Education stopped daily washing of linens, and the center’s restaurant stopped serving water except on request.

Even athletics got involved. Athletic programs cut their water use by 39 percent for the year. Several head coaches made public service announcements about water conservation and at a football game, a row of male fans spelled out “CONSERVE WATER” in red and black paint across their backs.

Johnson said that although drought conditions have eased a bit over the last year, water conservation is still essential.

“The key issue going forward is to continue making water efficiency improvements even during times of abundant water supply, which we hope will return soon,” he said. “In this way, UGA will be much better when—not if—the next drought occurs.”

By Larry B Dendy
University of Georgia

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Georgia Water Coalition Urges Governor Perdue to Embrace Cost-Effective Water Solutions in Tight Fiscal Times

Members of the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) today (September 18, 2008) urge Governor Sonny Perdue, after he delivered his annual State of the Environment speech, to continue to recognize the importance of water conservation by embracing water efficiency as the cheapest, most timely solution to addressing our water shortage.

“The Governor can show real leadership by investing in water assessments and water efficiency to get the fastest and cheapest water savings,” said Joe Cook, Upper Coosa Riverkeeper. “It’s been shown that water conservation and efficiency are the most cost-effective ways of extending our water supplies. Because of the fiscal crunch, our state may not be able to afford new reservoirs, but investing in water conservation is very economical.”

According to the Georgia EPD, water efficiency measures cost a mere $.50 to $1.40 per 1,000 gallons of water saved while reservoirs cost $4,000.00 per 1,000 gallons.

In October 2008, Governor Perdue mandated water utilities and permit holders in 61 North Georgia counties to reduce their water use by 10 percent. Later, the Governor and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) reported that November water use in those counties was reduced by 350 million gallons a day – an amount above and beyond the 10 percent goal and December water use was down 13 percent compared to the previous year.

“We applaud Governor Perdue for his past efforts to require water conservation and urge him to support the most cost-effective, most timely solutions to address our ongoing water shortage,” said Jim Stokes, President of the Georgia Conservancy.

The Georgia Water Coalition today urged the Governor to look at more fiscally sound approaches during these tight times, such as conservation pricing, retrofits of old-fashioned indoor plumbing, drought-tolerant landscaping, fixing leaks in municipal water lines and requiring sewer hook-up for homes instead of septic tanks in urbanized areas.

For example, according to the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (Metro District), the Metro Atlanta area could reduce its demand for water by 91 million gallons per day (mgd) by 2035 if these top 12 top water efficiency measures are implemented (in mgd):

Conservation pricing: 24.0

Replace older, inefficient plumbing fixtures: 9.2

Pre-rinse spray valve retrofit education program: 0.0

Rain sensor shut off devices on irrigation controllers: 2.5

Multi-family sub-metering requirement: 4.8

Water loss reduction: 36.7

Residential water audits: 0.2

Low flow showerhead & aerator distribution: 1.9

Commercial water audits: 8.7

Public education program: 1.3

HETs & high efficiency urinals in government buildings: 0.9

Require car washes to recycle water: 0.6

The Metro District projected a 152.3 mgd reduction in water supply if these conservation measures are implemented and combined with water savings that will automatically occur over time as people upgrade appliances and fixtures. That’s enough water to quench the thirst of each one of DeKalb County’s 700,000-plus residents (or fill up the Georgia Aquarium more than 12 times every day.)

“We can create new economic opportunities across the state by requiring all sectors of water users to get more out of a gallon of water,” said April Ingle, Director of the Georgia River Network. “History shows that incredible innovations are made in the toughest of economic times if the political will exists.”

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