A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 25, 2008
2. Supply –
Feds catching up with us on saving water — finally: National standards for homes would jibe with those of Southern Nevada authority's 5-year-old program
Las Vegas
Climate change to threaten
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Feds catching up with us on saving water — finally: National standards for homes would jibe with those of Southern Nevada authority's 5-year-old program
Las Vegas
Five years ago, the Southern Nevada Water Authority quit pushing the federal government to create standards for water-efficient homes — and came up with its own instead.
Since then, more than 7,000
This year the feds are finally catching up, crafting a set of regulations to create a national stamp of approval, similar to the Energy Star label, for new homes that use about 20 percent less water than the average home. The program is expected to be rolled out early next year.
Better late than never, the Water Authority says.
In many Southwestern cities that don't already have strict conservation guidelines for new homes — cities that, like Las Vegas, rely on the Colorado River for water — a national "WaterSense" rating could really improve water savings, according to Doug Bennett, the authority's conservation manager.
Federal laws enacted in the early '90s require new plumbing fixtures and water-using appliances to be more efficient, so new homes across the
In a study of nine large American cities, most of them in the Southwest, only new homes in
The Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense standards are aimed at helping more cities catch up to us.
The program already is empowering consumers to build water saving into their shopping choices, by labeling efficient appliances and fixtures with the WaterSense seal of approval, something Carl Pope, executive director of the national Sierra Club, said is "an important first step."
"Consumers should be able to get good (products), and you have to become a research librarian to find out what ... you're buying" without the labels, Pope said.
But he also noted: "it's a very modest first step."
With climate change exacerbating drought on the
"I do not see much leadership," he added.
Although the Water Authority has been vilified by conservationists and rural farmers for a plan to pump billions of gallons of water a year from eastern
Still, the valley can — and many say must — do even better. The average person living in a single-family home served by the Las Vegas Valley Water District uses 165 gallons of water per day. Nationally, the average is closer to 70 gallons per person daily.
The Water Authority helped shape the EPA's new WaterSense regulations — in part to help the EPA learn from five years of experience — so the features of homes certified under the EPA's WaterSense program will look a lot like those in a Water Smart home.
Another incentive to line up EPA's specs for WaterSense homes with the Water Authority's own standards was that
Bennett and EPA officials said one of the most important parts of designing their efficiency regulations was making sure the builders and buyers would get onboard with programs that require more efficient appliances, plumbing fixtures and landscaping than required by any local or national code alone.
Virginia Lee, one of the EPA's team leaders for the WaterSense program, said the shower heads, toilets and other efficient features also had to work just as well as less-efficient counterparts on the market.
"Doing water conservation for an agency since 1995, I had seen agencies build model homes with Jetsons-type water features. And 10 years later there was only one," Bennett said. The market just wasn't ready for those high-end, futuristic homes.
"Instead of having one of these wonder homes that we could take people through on tours, we have 7,000 of these homes that
Walter Cuculic, director of strategic marketing for Pulte Homes, which will build about 1,500 houses in the valley this year, said his company thinks of the Water Smart designation as another amenity — like marble countertops or bamboo floors — it can offer in a soft housing market. The latest three developments his company completed in the valley were Water Smart, Cuculic said.
He thinks every new home should come with water and energy ratings on the front door.
Lee said national builders are already onboard with WaterSense and next week, as part of a pilot program, the agency expects to release a list of builders constructing homes based on the draft regulations.
In fact, she said builders and water agencies had come to the EPA over the past few years saying water conservation deserved to be taken as seriously as energy conservation. She said a national program would create higher visibility and raise awareness among consumers.
The EPA's draft rules mandate how many gallons of water toilets can use per flush, how quickly water flows out of taps, how much of a lot can be covered by grass or pools. The proposed WaterSense program, like the Water Authority's, deducts the surface area of pools from the total allowed for turf.
Lee said the agency has extended the public comment period on the regulations through Sept. 4 and expects to release final specifications by February
One of the more contentious aspects deals with landscaping and the amount of turf that will be allowed. In wetter climates large lawns may account for only a small fraction of water use. The limits could be customized for various regions, Bennett said.
Bennett also said that if the program is to succeed, the EPA needs to make it easy for builders to get their homes certified by reputable inspectors. In the
The inspections are also critical because the homes must live up to the certification.
"When you have a brand like WaterSense or Energy Star or Water Smart, you have to make sure you have the consumers' confidence in that brand," Bennett said. "You can't afford any oversights."#
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/25/feds-catching-us-saving-water-nally/
Climate change to threaten
By Jeff Delong
Climate change could come with profound risk to
The report released this week by the National Conference of State Legislatures and Center for Integrative Environmental Research concluded that rising temperatures associated with a warming climate could create "profound drought conditions" in
"Some of these impacts are already noticeable and it's certainly not going to get better as climate change progresses," said Daria Karetnikov, a researcher at the
By 2100, climate change brought about by greenhouse gas emissions could cause the average temperature in
The result will be changes in precipitation and evaporation patterns and decreased water availability statewide, the report contends.
Costs could be high. Citing a 2004 study by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the report said scaling back development to manage diminishing water resources could translate into a loss of $18.6 billion in tax revenue and $4.7 billion per year in lost wages. Water-based recreation bringing in more than $1 billion annually could also be damaged.
Some of the most dire impacts cited by the report would occur in the
In Northern Nevada, the Sierra snowpack that
It's an issue that definitely deserves attention, agreed Kelly Redmond of the
"It's not the amount, it's the form it falls in,"
That could prove a challenge for water managers who could be forced to keep reservoirs at lower levels to prevent flooding caused by winter rains,
Rapid melting of the snowpack rather than the slow and measured melting that occurred historically over the spring could make it difficult to capture runoff for storage in the summer when water is needed most.
And rising summer temperatures could heighten water demand at the same time,
"If the demand goes up and the supply stays roughly constant, in the end you have a net loss,"
Lori Williams, general manager of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, agreed that climate change is an important consideration when planning for long-time management of water supplies.
"This is of key concern to us," Williams said.
One problem Williams sees is a lack of modeling showing what can be expected on a regional, rather than global, basis. That makes it hard to determine what a changing climate could mean locally, she said.
"The bottom line is you're going to expect more severe weather -- more severe droughts, more severe floods," Williams said. "You can really expect more variability in weather patterns."
The
The new study is important because it drives home the message that climate change has direct impacts at home, said Dan Cronin, spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, which helped fund the report.
Many people still associate the issue of global warming with images of melting icebergs and polar bears, Cronin said.
"The most important take away is that climate change is something that is happening here," Cronin said. "If we don't take action now, climate change is going to be felt by people in
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/NEWS10/807250484/1321/NEWS
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