Apr 22, 2009 4:22 pm US/Eastern
Plumbing Changes Help New Yorkers Conserve Water
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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The San Diego Padres take on the New York Mets during opening day at Citi Field on April 13, 2009 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
From small apartments to massive stadiums, plumbing fixtures are helping people conserve water and save money.
Citi Field, the $800 million is the new home of the New York Mets, features a host of water saving devices.
Many of these are found in the bathrooms, which boast motion-activated faucets, 600 low-flow toilets and 270 waterless urinals where chemicals replace water.
"It is a vital, natural resource and a stadium especially there can be a very high demand for water and it could even effect the local community," said Dave Howard of the New York Mets.
According to New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, the city as a whole has seen a 20 percent decrease in water consumption over the past 20 years. Commissioner Steven Lawitts says its largely due to plumbing changes.
"Renovations and new construction have all included low-consumption fixtures like toilets and shower heads, and newer appliances like washing machines and dish washers consume much less water than they did 20 years ago," Lawitts said.
Older toilets, for example, require as much as seven gallons of water for a single flush. Newer models use about a gallon and a half.
High-usage locations like a ballpark, airport or large office building can literally flush away millions of gallons of water every year, but some homeowners are also letting a lot of water and their hard-earned money go down the drain.
"You don't realize in a day what it adds up to, you really don't," said homeowner Lynda Weingast.
A water audit revealed her leaking kitchen sink and two toilets were wasting more than 75 gallons of water per day.
"The biggest area of water loss is in a toilet," said Joseph Ferriolo, Honeywell Water Auditor.
He said to make sure your toilet doesn't leak or continue to run. He suggests aerators to slow the flow of faucets and low flow shower heads to save nearly four gallons of water per minute, every time you shower.
"Being able to refill our reservoirs each year may become more uncertain in the future with climate change, and so to hedge against that we need to keep encouraging conservation," Lawitts said.
At CitiField, Mets fans will use 50,000 fewer gallons of water per game than they did last year at Shea Stadium. By the end of the season that will put more than 4 million gallons of water back in our reservoirs.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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