California imposes stringent new water standards

The California Energy Commission (CEC) recently took measures aimed at saving the drought-stricken state billions of gallons of water.

The CEC approved new standards on toilets, urinals, and faucets that are sold in California. The new standards will be the most water-efficient in the country. Once the current stock of products is turned over, the CEC says the measure will save more than 100 billion gallons of water annually.

California is the first state to adopt standards that are more efficient than those set by EPA's WaterSense program. Next year, all urinals sold in California will use only 1 pint of water or less for each flush (the old standard was 1.0 gallons per flush, WaterSense is 0.5 gpf) and bathroom faucets will use no more than 1.2 gallons of water per minute (the old standard was 2.2 gpm, WaterSense is 1.5 gpm).

These standards go into effect on Jan. 1, 2016. The new standards do not require homes and businesses to replace plumbing fixtures. The CEC is working on a rebate program to make the purchase of more efficient appliances more affordable.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.