Posts Tagged ‘Water’
The Story of Bottled Water
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 20th, 2010
The Story of Bottled Water ( and manufacturing demand…)
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Green Power Systems: Community Renewal
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on April 26th, 2010
Source: The Ecologist
From Communities using hydro power to fund green renewal by Paul Miles.
A pioneering community-based hydroelectric energy project in the Brecon Beacons (Wales) is a blueprint for how green energy can provide more than just low-carbon power…
Howell and Llinos Williams are Welsh farmers who have kept sheep on the hills at Abercraf, in the Brecon Beacons National Park, for over 40 years. For at least three generations, Howell’s family has been farming. ‘Back then, they also did some mining – for coal,’ says Howell. Today, the Williams extract another kind of energy source from the land – hydroelectric power. ‘The best thing is that, unlike coal mining, there’s not much work to do,’ says Howell. The Williams family is now earning more from selling energy than from their 200 sheep.
The Brecon Beacons National Park, covering over 500 square miles and home to some 32,000 people who live surrounded by flat-topped hills and green valleys, is an ideal landscape for hydroelectricity: abundant rainfall rushes in steep streams to the valley floors. ‘High head’ micro hydro schemes have been providing power for half a dozen or so enterprising hill farms for nearly a decade. ‘The farmers are growing electricity,’ says Gareth Ellis, biodiversity officer in the Brecon Beacons National Park.
As part of a new project initiated by Ellis and his colleague, Grenville Ham, the Williams’ farm’s carbon footprint is being monitored. The results show that the green electricity generated by the water turbine means that the farm is ‘carbon negative’ four times over.
Of course, harnessing the power of water is nothing new. The valleys are full of the remains of old water mills, all of which became redundant once the area was connected to the national grid. It was the potential to return to those days of green power for everyone in the park that led Ellis and Ham to help set up a Community Interest Company (a legal structure for social enterprises developed by the government in 2005) called The Green Valleys with the twin aims of reducing carbon emissions and improving the environment.
The Green Valleys is helping communities to develop community-owned micro hydro schemes by bringing together landowners and local residents and providing access to expertise, grants and loans. Sixty-three schemes are in the pipeline. ‘In three years’ time we’re aiming for 20 per cent of the region’s electricity to be from hydro and within 15 years we want all of Brecon Beacons to be carbon negative,’ says Ham.
Read the full article by Paul Miles.
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Traditional Techniques, Modern Issues: Water Purification
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 8th, 2010
Source: The Ecologist
From “Ancient tradition of water purification could save lives”
Indian tree seeds that purify water could dramatically reduce disease in the less-industrialised world, say researchers. The technique of crushing seeds from the Moringa Oleifera tree and adding them to water has been used in its native India for thousands of years. Now researchers from Canada say it is time to publicise the technique more widely in order to reduce water born diseases across the world.
One billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America rely on untreated surface water to survive. The NGO Water Aid estimates that 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. The researchers at Clearinghouse, an organisation that promotes low-cost water treatment technologies, are pointing to the ancient method of water purification as a possible solution. As well as reducing bacteria by over 90 per cent, the use of Moringa Oleifera seeds reduces ‘turbidity’, making water less cloudy. Furthermore, say the researchers, the Moringa tree is suited to growing in areas afflicted by drought and has other benefits besides water purification. ‘Not only is it drought resistant, it also yields cooking and lighting oil, soil fertiliser, as well as highly nutritious food in the form of its pods, leaves, seeds and flowers,’ said Michael Lea of Clearinghouse.
Despite its life-saving potential, the benefits of the tree are little known, even in areas where it is cultivated. Lea hopes that by making his report freely available will allow communities most at need to benefit from it. ‘This technique does not represent a total solution to the threat of waterborne disease [...] But given the cultivation and use of the Moringa tree can bring benefits in the shape of nutrition and income as well as of far purer water, there is the possibility that thousands of 21st century families could find themselves liberated from what should now be universally seen as 19th century causes of death and disease,’ he said.
From “Ancient tradition of water purification could save lives” on the Ecologist.
Water Treatment Facility As Parkland
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on March 30th, 2010
From “Hume: New waterfront park does double duty” by Christopher Hume
When is a park not just a park? When it’s also a water treatment facility.
The best example in this city is taking shape at Sherbourne and Queens Quay. These days, the site doesn’t look especially park-like; in fact, it’s a sea of mud as work crews pour concrete on the enormous channel that will run the full length of the site carrying clean water to Lake Ontario.
The as-yet-unnamed park is one of 14 public spaces already constructed under the aegis of Waterfront Toronto, the agency created in 2001 by the three levels of government to oversee revitalization of Toronto’s old harbour lands. From the start a decade ago, the organization’s strategy has been based on the proposition that if you build the infrastructure, they will come.
But Waterfront Toronto has taken the concept an important step further. As Sherbourne Park – its temporary name – will illustrate so dramatically, in this case, infrastructure won’t just make the area inhabitable, it will itself be inhabitable. This notion of using design to transform a public utility into a public amenity has never made more sense than now. It’s not new, of course, but the idea that everything we build in a city should do double- (even triple-) duty is one whose time has come[....]
The intention was not simply to incorporate an industrial process – storm water purification – into the park, but also to reveal, even celebrate, that process. At a time when Canada’s infrastructure deficit stands at $123 billion, such exposure couldn’t be more welcome. These are the systems, usually out of sight and out of mind, that provide the basic urban functions we take for granted but can no longer afford to do so.
And so Sherbourne Park is also the Sherbourne Park UV Purification Facility. Beneath a pavilion designed by Toronto architect Stephen Teeple, water will undergo ultra-violet treatment. It then flows into the channel through three sculptures that rise nine metres above ground. The channel, which will figure prominently in the stormwater management system for the entire East Bayfront stretching from Yonge to Parliament Sts., also includes a biofiltration bed for further cleansing.
“The days of the singular perspective are over,” argues Vancouver landscape architect Greg Smallenberg. [....] “We are in a new world of collaboration. Today the feeling is that if we have to build something anyhow, why not build something worthwhile. Waterfront Toronto really gets that. The politicians are also getting it, which from my perspective is probably the biggest advancement of the last few years.”
Read the full article by Christopher Hume.
Reactive Glass: Pollutant ‘Sponge’ for Site Remediation
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on January 12th, 2010
Source: CleanTechnica via CleanEdge
Image: diego cupolo via flickr CC
From ““Swelling Glass” Cleans Polluted Water Like a Sponge“, by Tina Casey
This is the discovery that could put the College of Wooster on the map: glass that swells like a sponge. Put together like a nano-matrix, the new glass can unfold to hold up to eight times its weight. The glass binds with gasoline and other pollutants containing volatile organic compounds but it does not bind with water, so it acts like a “smart” sponge, capable of picking and choosing from contaminated groundwater.
The new material was developed by Dr. Paul Edmiston of the College of Wooster, who formed a new company, Absorbent Materials, to market the new glass under the trademark Obsorb. A number of pilot sites are being tested in the United States, and industrialized countries are not the only ones that stand to gain. Obsorb’s unique properties make it ideal for low tech, low-budget cleanups in developing areas as well.
Obsorb is a reactive glass. Unlike conventional glass, it can bond with the chemicals it encounters. However, it is also hydrophobic, meaning that it does not bond with water. At a recent pilot demonstration in Ohio, Obsorb was used in the form of a white powder to suck up a plume of TCE (a volatile organic compound). TCE is particularly difficult and expensive to clean up using conventional means, which is the reason why some contaminated sites are simply shut down, allowing the vapors to dissipate naturally. The process takes decades, so Obsorb could provide a low-cost means of recovering sites more quickly. The venture development group JumpStart Inc. saw the potential and has just committed a $250,000 investment to Absorbent Materials.
Once full, Obsorb floats to the surface, where it can be skimmed off with something as simple as a coffee filter. After that the pollutants can be retrieved and the glass can be reused hundreds of time. Nanoparticles of iron can also be added to convert TCE or PCE (another volatile organic compound) into harmless substances. As a low cost form of cleanup, swelling glass could provide site remediators with yet another in the growing list of non-conventional cleanup tools along with lactate, vitamin B-12, and even cattails.
From ““Swelling Glass” Cleans Polluted Water Like a Sponge“, by Tina Casey
From Industrial Hub To Sustainable Neighbourhood
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on December 18th, 2009
Source: Daily Commercial News
From “Vancouver industrial hub transformed into sustainable neighbourhood” by Jean Sorensen
Southeast False Creek (SEFC), a City of Vancouver reclamation project, is being designed to set a new urban sustainability standard in community development. The 80-acre site housing 16,000 people will become a neighbourhood of parks, market and subsidised housing, marine areas, community garden, shops, schools, and a community centre, growing out of what was once the industrial hub of the city. Sawmills, manufacturers, metal shops and marine-related shops once rimmed False Creek. Subsurface investigation was made into soil and groundwater quality at SEFC to complete human health and risk assessment as part of a remedial action plan. In areas where contamination was severe, soils were removed and in areas of lesser contamination, the material was covered over and the land designated recreational use.
“I am told that this is the largest residential development in North America,” said Robin Petri, Vancouver’s Manager of Engineering for the SEFC & Olympic Village. One of the unique features of the development, Petri points out, is that the roads are sloped so that rainwater drains into natural bioswales on each side of the village, negating the need to treat runoff water, while providing habitat for birds, animals, and marine life. Buildings also capture and use water, with approximately 50 per cent having green roofs and 50 per cent directing the water into irrigation and functions such as toilet flushing. A neighborhood energy utility is the first in North America to gather heat directly from a raw sewage line, consolidate the heat and use it in a thermal system that loops pipe to various buildings and back to the utility building.
One of the challenges of the cleanup was that False Creek had been filled in along the shoreline over the years. Much of the earlier materials used for fill were poor quality and these had to be removed and replaced. To compensate for shoreline that was removed, an island was created in an inter-tidal zone allowing children to wade to it at low tide to examine marine life that has been returning to a once-derelict area. In February a project manager noticed white frothy bubbles around the island. It turned out to be herring roe – the first time it has been seen there in 50 years.
Read the full article by Jean Sorensen.
TapIt water bottle refill network
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 25th, 2009
Source: Springwise
New York’s water-toting crowd has a convenient new way to be sustainable while staying hydrated, as a tap water refilling service officially launches in the city. TapIt is a community program that enables people to refill their water bottles at participating cafés, completely free of charge.
TapIt aims to help people stay healthy and hydrated without relying on single-use plastic bottles. Any restaurant or café with a soda dispenser or tap that gives clean drinking water can sign up as a partner. Thirsty consumers can find taps online or via TapIt’s iPhone app, and are provided with information on the type of water that’s available, telling discerning customers whether the water’s filtered or non-filtered, room temperature or chilled.
But the TapIt network is not just about going bottle-less; less bottles, less recycling, less water privatization and extraction, it’s about understanding why those things are a problem and finding new and sustainable 21st century solutions.
Think your city is ready to start a local water movement?
Water Labels on Food
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 19th, 2009
Source: Cleanfood, the Future Climate newsletter
Table from “Water labels on food – Issues and recommendations” Ruth Segal & Tom MacMillan (July 2009)
“A new label proposed in the UK will ask consumers to consider the efficiency and impact of water use on the food products they buy. But rather than detailing figures on the actual amount of water used in production, it will indicate how responsible the company has been in using water. Tom MacMillan, the executive director for UK think tank and advisory body, the Food Ethics Council, admits labels aren’t the answer to everything. “One of the reasons labels can be useful is that actually companies clean their act up before they even stick the label on,” he says. “So it’s not just about giving shoppers information. It’s also about making companies think very seriously about what their impacts are on the environment.”" ABC Rural News.
Rivers and Cities: Smart design
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on August 17th, 2009
Source: Sustainable Design blog
Image: Sasha via picasa
The Dreisam river runs straight through a large portion of Freiburg, in Germany. It is diverted throughout the town for a variety of purposes. The river, which had been artificially constructed away from its original flow in the late 1800’s, is surrounded by greenery and excellent bicycle and pedestrian pathways. The city has an unusual system of gutters (called Bächle) that run throughout its centre. These Bächle, once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock, are constantly flowing with water diverted from the Dreisam. These Bächle were never used for sewage, as such usage could lead to harsh penalties, even in the Middle Ages. During the summer, the running water provides natural cooling of the air, and offers a pleasant, gurgling sound.
The river contributes to drainage for the city helping the water flow through parts of the city easily (no flooding due to diversion). People along side the river use it for irrigating their plants, crops, and gardens. There are many areas for recreation such as swimming, biking, walking, exercise for people and their pets, and a calm place to sit. It is also a prime area for artists to perform graffiti and “rock art” giving them creative spots away from buildings and downtown.
Salisbury Aquifer Recharge and Recovery Scheme
Posted in Models, RDAG by CBiggs on August 7th, 2009
Location: Salisbury, Adelaide, Australia
The scheme started in the 90’s with progressive thinkers in the City of Salisbury authority trying to find a way to store water that could be used in summer and cut water costs. This original effort has expanded to include stormwater collection, wetland treatment and aquifer injection and retrieval.
One of triggers for the project was the prospect that a major water user (a wool processing facility) was considering relocation due to the cost of bringing over 1bn L of water per year from the river Murray which would have put hundreds of jobs at risk. In a joint project with the council, stormwater is now diverted from drains flowing to the sea and treated in nearby wetlands supplying the wool processor with an alternative local source.