New tools could save 28B gallons of water annually

August 27, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Not only do buildings consume 40 percent of the country's energy, but they use vast amounts of another precious resource -- water. Buildings with cooling towers typically use 28 percent of their daily water for cooling. As drought conditions persist across many parts of the country, a new suite of tools could help utilities save U.S. commercial facilities save up to 28 billion gallons of water annually and reduce water demand by 14 to 40 percent.

The tools come from the Environmental Defense Fund -- the result of data produced from pilot projects at AT&T facilities across the United States.

AT&T identified water savings opportunities of 14 to 40 percent per pilot facility. One cooling tower filtration system upgrade costs less than $100,000 to install but promises more than $60,000 in annual water and sewer savings, paying for itself in less than two years, and a minor $4,000 equipment upgrade to expand free air cooling promises nearly $40,000 in annual savings. Through free air cooling and optimized cooling towers, AT&T aims to reduce its approximately 1 billion gallon annual cooling tower water use by 150 million gallons per year by 2015. Cooling tower water use accounts for approximately 30 percent of AT&T's 3.3 billion gallons of annual water use.

"Thirty-one of our top water consuming facilities are in water stressed regions," explained John Schinter, AT&T executive director of energy. "We couldn't wait until a drought put a strain on our operations. We needed to manage risk from water scarcity and increasing water costs today."

For more:
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