The Denver Water Board is raising the rate you pay for water by 13%.  Additionally, water users should expect to see increases continually for next couple of years.  This information is noted in the Denver Post’s editorial page on November 15th , 2009.  www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_13776994?source=pophome

Water Legacy asks:  Should we be concerned?

Our mission is conservation through reusing greywater to flush your toilets. Reusing greywater causes less water (up to 30%) therefore reducing your consumption of fresh residential water.  In Denver, the water rates have already gone up 81% since 2001.  The biggest challenge facing water conservation is that people expect the price of water to be cheap and the supply abundant.  As prices increase, one will look at reduction of cost and that is through conservation. 

We ask that Denverites and citizens of the west become more fully aware of methods of water consumption reduction and take time to evaluate the use of greywater to flush your toilets.

The Colorado Sustainable Design Awards sets a high standard for new construction in both commercial and residential green building.  The most recent awards,  judged on standards set by the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Urban Land Institute Colorado and the U.S. Green Building Council Colorado in partnership with ColoradoBiz magazine, gave the first and second place residential award to homes with the Water Legacy WL55 Greywater Recycling System.

This statewide program seeks to recognize the builders who construct both commercial and residential units that meet a set of established guidelines for saving energy and reducing your carbon footprint. Our greywater reuse system was cited prominently in both homes located in Boulder county as one of the leading edge clean technology advancements that set the winners apart.  “Case in point: The winning entry in the residential category – which required lobbying the city of Boulder to allow recycling of gray water – was commissioned by a homeowner who scoffed at the city’s new “green build” guidelines. The sustainable features he had in mind for his home, he told his architect, would trump anything the city required. And he was willing to spend a lot of money to include them.” ColoradoBIZ Magazine, November 2, 2009.

The WL55 was noted by the judges as one of the features in the homes that is marked for future expansion and usage in all building.  To see more about the awards and the winners visit ColoradoBiz Magazine at http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/csda-beyond-the-call-of-green/

For Immediate Release
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Contact for Reporters:
Emily Narvaes Wilmsen
(970) 491-2336
Emily.Wilmsen@colostate.edu

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS EXPLORE GRAYWATER IRRIGATION AS POTENTIAL WATER CONSERVATION TOOL
Media Box:
CSU graywater team
Associated images
CSU graywater team
Note to Editors: A photo of the CSU graywater team is available with the news release at http://www.newsinfo.colostate.edu/.

FORT COLLINS - Graywater - nonpotable water from showers, handwash sinks and laundry - is used for residential landscape irrigation in a number of states in the Southwest; however, little is known about long-term effects of this practice, according to Colorado State University civil engineers.

Sybil Sharvelle and Larry Roesner, professors with the Urban Water Center in Colorado State’s College of Engineering, are in the first year of a three-year $370,000 graywater study awarded by the Water Environment Research Foundation to investigate the effects of using household graywater for residential landscape irrigation. They are sampling soil, plants, and water at homes with graywater systems in California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado. Four of the homes have graywater systems that have been in place for more than five years, and four additional homes will have new systems installed before spring of 2009.

Three homes with systems in place for more than 5 years - in Colorado, California and Texas - have been tested to date.

The study is one of four projects that Roesner and Sharvelle are leading on campus. The team also is working with the CSU Department of Facilities Management on several projects involving campus facilities including:

-Construction and monitoring of a wetlands treatment system for graywater at the Atmospheric Chemistry building on the Foothills campus. Students planted bull rushes and cattails last summer that, so far, are removing nearly all of the pathogen indicator organisms in sink and shower water, Sharvelle said. Researchers are also hauling shower and laundry water from a university residence hall to the Foothills campus to increase the quantity of water treated.

-Installing an anaerobic digester at the Atmospheric Chemistry building to treat toilet water or “blackwater” and test it as a source of renewable energy. Anaerobic processes generate methane, which can generate electricity.

-Plumbing one wing of the new residence hall, under construction, for complete capture of graywater from sinks, showers and laundry water; in addition, water supply lines to toilets are being plumbed to use either domestic water, or non-potable water (irrigation water or conditioned graywater) for toilet flushing. Studies by Sharvelle and Roesner will determine what level of treatment of graywater is required to make it suitable for toilet flushing. They are working with Water Legacy, a Colorado manufacturer of graywater treatment systems.

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