How to Save Water and Money by Upgrading Your Toilet
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A presentation at the 2015 Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference, May 13-14, 2015, Overland Park, KS
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How to Save Water and Money by Upgrading Your Toilet
- 1. Philip Walsack Manager Environmental Services
- 2. Philip Walsack Manager Environmental Services
- 3. Philip Walsack Manager Environmental Services
- 4. YOU Let’s play “What If”? What if YOU (and I mean you personally…don’t go looking at your neighbor…yeah…YOU…) had $100 to spend on an environmental improvement, that would make a “difference”….. What would YOU buy?
- 5. Dump Your Old Toilet. Keep the Kid. He’s Priceless !
- 6. The side- mount flush handle has been replaced with a push button on the lid. It is labeled #1 and #2. Do YOU know what these stand for?
- 7. Your New Toilet The toilet is the #1 water user in your household. The popular rhetoric about showers in nonsense. Toilets consume 30% of a household’s potable water usage to “flush” your wastes to the wastewater reclamation facility. Over your lifetime, you will flush about 140,000 times. Toilets older than 1992 are water guzzlers. In 1992, USEPA imposed standards of 1.6 gallons / flush (gpf…a new acroym!) New toilet designs have dual action with 0.8 gpf (for #1 usage) to 1.28 gpf (for #2 applications).
- 8. Your Toilet & Your Personal Finances Toilets consume 30% of a household’s potable water usage to “flush” your wastes to the wastewater reclamation facility. Over your lifetime, you will “flush” about 140,000 times. YOU can easily save 4,000 gallons per year. For a family of four, that’s 16,000 gallons per year. At $2.00 / thousand gallons, YOU just saved $32 on your annual potable water bill. Add to that a savings of $1.50 / thousand on your wastewater bill; or $18 on your annual wastewater bill. ROI = 23 months. After which, YOU are going out for dinner.
- 11. YOU Let’s play “What If” again? What if YOU were at a City Council meeting and had the opportunity to ask … demand… that the City make a measureable improvement in one area of the potable water utility’s operation… What would YOU demand?
- 12. YOU YOU ask the Mayor: “I am concerned about the City’s drinking water delivery system and efficiency. Could you please tell me what the percentage of water loss was this past year?” Brace yourself. In Missouri, you will not like the response to your question 66% of the time (at a minimum).
- 13. State’s Capacity Survey In 2014, 33% (550 of 1,680) of the public drinking water systems responded to the State’s biennial Technical, Managerial, and Financial (TMF) Capacity Survey.
- 14. State’s Capacity Survey 33% of State’s drinking water systems responded (550 of 1,680) 21% of State’s drinking water system respondents were public entities (cities, towns, villages, and county water districts). (358 of 1,680)
- 15. State’s Capacity Survey Of the 358 drinking water system respondents that are public entities: 136 = Public entities have water losses greater than 10%. (38% of them) 101 = Public entities have not determined their water losses. (28% of them)
- 16. State’s Capacity Survey Of the 358 drinking water system respondents that are public entities: 237 = Public entities have water losses greater than 10% or do not know the extent of their losses. That’s a whopping 66%.
- 17. State’s Capacity Survey Of the 358 public entities responding to the survey, 44 have potable water losses greater than 20%. (12% of the systems) Of the 190 small municipalities (serving less than 3,500 people) responding to the survey, 37 have potable water losses greater than 20%. (19% of the systems)
- 18. Who Will Develop the Courage to Fix These Leaks?
- 19. The Suburban Ratepayer Political History: “They say the only difference between a hockey Mom and a pit bull is lipstick”. [Governor Sara Palin 2008 Vice Presidential Candidate]
- 20. Ratepayers will eventually “demand” accountability. If you work for a public utility, choose to get ahead of this “demand” curve.
- 21. You Interested? Go to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) new website called “Cutting Our Losses” Cutting Our Losses State Policies to Track and Reduce Leakage from Public Water Systems
- 23. YOU Last time…Let’s play “What If”? What if YOU were at a City Council meeting and had the opportunity to ask … demand… that the City make a measureable improvement in one area in your City’s wastewater service… What would YOU demand?
- 24. YOU YOU ask the Mayor: “Ya’ know Mayor, I was out walking my dog I saw this (YOU hold up your phone; it has one of the following pictures on it)”. Then you say…“I am concerned about the City’s wastewater system; could you please tell me, in general, how is our system performing; and then specifically, how is it performing when it is raining?”
- 25. Quit Covering the Assets with Asphalt!
- 28. Quit Covering the Assets with Asphalt!
- 29. Quit Covering the Assets with Asphalt!
- 30. Phil Walsack Missouri Public Utility Alliance 1808 I-70 Drive SW Columbia, MO 65203 573-445-3279 pwalsack@mpua.org
Editor's Notes
- I am the son of a double PhD mother. My mother and brother are educators, but I see myself as a professional trainer. I often told them, they have a semester to change a student’s opinion, but I have 15 minutes to change someone’s actions. It is no wonder that I am the black sheep of the family.
- One of the reasons that I like Roger, Kevin, Sallie, and REGFORM is that Roger gives me a two-word title and let’s me run with it. No long abstract. No professional white paper…just two words. As many of you know, I can speak eloquently and ad nosium about water and sewer infrastructure. I love it. No, I really do. I was working hard to make this more interesting so….sorry Roger I changed the title…
- I am going to change up my usual infrastructure approach. I am putting YOU smack dab in the middle of the discussion. I will be asking for audience engagement. I want YOU to engage your passion for this subject matter.
- I really want you to think about this. You only have $100 to make an impact. Perhaps you want to make a impact locally, perhaps you want this impact to be nationally. Maybe you are a big thinker and you want this impact to a global one. Now, I see that we have some husbands in the room (including me). So I bummed a $200 bill from my daughter. This is what one looks like. OK, here’s what I would buy.
- This baby is a state of the art, hole-free rim design that offers a dual nozzle system that creates a centrifugal cyclonic cleaning action. It also features a Sana-glass coating on the chinaware and an ion-barrier glazing that keeps the bowl extra-clean. Now let’s talk about its push button control with the #1 and #2 feature.
- Recently, a municipality was trying desperately to “sell” its toilet upgrade project with little success. A few of the younger staff got the manufacturer to send out the clear glass display model. They made a Utube video in which they tried to figure out what was the largest item they could flush. You got it….the russet potato. And that was using the #1 button. Now, I looked….no one in the room is getting younger….(PKW continue). There are about 50 of the WaterSense handouts in the back of the room.
- The last bullet is particularly troubling. A good leak detection professional can assess about 6 miles of pipe a day at a cost of about $300 per mile. That’s about $2,000 a day with expenses. In many cases in Missouri, two days worth of effort covers it….$4,000 and the entire is system is surveyed. Trust me when I tell you that there would be plenty of repair work to perform by the in-house crew after those two day.
- In 2008, after Presidential Candidate Barack Obama “misquoted” Governor Palin’s joke by inserting the name “Soccer Mom” for “Hockey Mom”, a new stereotype was born. The book: Life in America – A Complete Guide to American Life for Immigrants and Americans published in 2004, states: “A ‘Soccer Mom’ is primarily concerned with her children although she is capable of juggling many responsibilities. She is generally active in her community. She can coordinate her efforts, with quasi-military precision, on a cell phone”. Soccer moms are feared by public works directors. They are: organized, articulate, passionate about their favorite subject matters, and the network and collaborate extremely well together. I personally experienced both the appreciation and chagrin of this demographic.
- There are 237,000 main breaks every year in America. This accounts for $2.8 Billion in lost revenue…or better yet, just plain waste. Leaks cause customers to pay more because the costs of losses (like energy, chemicals, personnel) are embedded in the price. Another way of looking at it: “YOU are being taxed without representation!”
- Don’t worry if you are missing the opportunity to write this down. I put some handouts in the back of the room.
- Mayor – What is this green mark all about?
- Mayor – Why are we tack-welding down the manhole covers? I though that these were supposed to be access points to our sewer collection system? What if I have a sewer back-up, how are you going to unplug my sewer?
- Mayor – Why are these grass clippings trying to get into the sewer system? How and why is this happening especially after it rains.
- Mayor – The City crew said that this is just stormwater….but, what is that white stuff…it kinda’ looks like toilet paper to me?
- Soccer Moms – I have been fighting this public policy battle for 27 years. Now, I yield this one to you. If you ever see your City covering the sewer manhole covers with asphalt, you have my blessing. Put on some red lipstick, undo your hair from your ponytail; and head to the City Council meeting. And in spirit of Presidential campaigning…this one from 1948, “Give ‘em Hell.”