Do you have a blog, website, wiki, social media profile, or other form of a web page? EPA has something that you might be interested in to jazz up your site! They’re called widgets (sometimes referred to as gadgets), and they are an easy way to keep your viewers interactive and entertained on your page.

“What’s a widget?”, you might be wondering.  A widget is small piece of Web programming code that makes something interesting appear on your blog or Web page. Widgets can feature updated information (like a clock, countdown, or news ticker) or let the reader perform an action (like use a search box). EPA’s widgets allow users to see or search for environmental concepts.

Some cool water widgets offered by EPA are:

• WaterSense Tip – Get a new tip on water efficiency each month and get more information from the WaterSense Web site.
• Natural Lakeshores – This widget provides a series of ten tips for improved lakeshore stewardship, focusing on natural lakeshores – lakeshores with plenty of native trees, shrubs, and overhanging vegetation. Native vegetation along lakeshores provides food, shelter, habitat and shade for fish and protects the lake from the damaging effects of erosion and polluted stormwater runoff. This contributes to improved water quality, which can in turn help increase the value of lakefront property.
• Find Your Watershed – Enter your ZIP code to get information about the watershed(s) in that area.

If you’re interested in EPA’s widgets, check out the widget page containing more fun environmental widgets for everyone!

Do you have any environmental widgets on your blog or page that are not from EPA?  What other kinds of widgets have you seen around the web that you’d like to see EPA create?  Let us know about your experience with them!

There’s a new look to EPA’s Chesapeake Bay “pollution diet” website.

The pollution diet, or Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), was established by EPA in December 2010, based largely on action plans provided by the watershed’s six states and the District of Columbia.

The website now has a greater focus on activities at the local level happening around the 64,000-square-mile Bay watershed to reduce pollution impacting the Bay and its vast network of connecting rivers and streams.

One of the new additions is a brochure produced by the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Local Government Advisory Committee featuring examples of local actions to cut nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution.

Check out those case studies and the other new items on the site, and let us know what you think.

Here in the U.S., the U.S. General Accounting Office estimates that by 2013 over 36 states will face water shortages.  So, WaterSense, a voluntary partnership program led by the  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to improve water efficiency in new as well as existing homes.

In 2008, WaterSense launched the new homes program to reduce residential water use (a large portion of the total water use in the United States) both indoors and outdoors in new homes when they are built. With the WaterSense certification, houses can start off on the right foot and conserve water from the get-go, rather than going through more expensive retrofits later.

Compared with conventional design, WaterSense homes can save more than 10,000 gallons of household water use per year.  And these are relatively minor changes, like WaterSense toilets and faucets, and Energy Star appliances… nothing as extreme as being without indoor plumbing.  Find out more about what constitutes a WaterSense-certified home by checking out the specs here.  Saving water does not have to be a painful process.  Simply choosing WaterSense labeled products instead of conventional models, fixing leaks, and avoiding peak water use periods helps a great deal.

If your family is thinking of investing in a new home, consider WaterSense in your plans!  Use this search tool to find builders that are WaterSense partners in your state.  Not planning on building a new house at the moment?  Learn how to make your existing home more water efficient.  Wherever you live, share the steps you are taking to be more water efficient in your home in the comments section!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the WaterSense program in preparation for the future to address the issue of water conservation. WaterSense is a partnership program by the EPA to protect the future of the nation’s water supply, by promoting water efficiency and showing people simple ways to use less water with water efficient products, new homes, and services. WaterSense labeled products cover a variety of brands and models of bathroom sinks, kitchen faucets, toilets, flushing urinals, and showerheads that use much less water than conventional models.  And they’re available at stores near you, in the Mid-Atlantic Region and beyond! 

Services like professional landscape irrigation can also bear the WaterSense label, if the individual performing them has been verified as proficient in water efficient irrigation design, installation, and maintenance.  What other water-based services can you think of that could be WaterSense labeled?

The WaterSense program has had great successes in water, energy, and dollar savings so far.  EPA estimates that if the approximately 587,600 new homes that were built in the U.S. last year had met WaterSense criteria, five billion gallons of water and more than $50 million in utility bills would have been saved annually.  Do you have any WaterSense labeled products in your house?  You can calculate how much you would save if you did. Hopefully in a brighter future, programs like WaterSense can be implemented in areas and homes all around the world.

The WaterSense program is working hard to make sure that our future includes clean water, but something this complex can not be done alone.  Please tell us something you’re doing to save water.  Got a good idea?  We’d love to know about it.

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.”  

- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1746.

There are approximately seven billion people in the world and I am just one of those people. Born in one of the poorest countries in the world, Albania, I know what it feels like to have no direct access to clean drinking water.  My family had to climb mountains for hours every weekend in order to fill up huge buckets, barrels and bottles with clean, fresh water in order to meet our basic needs. The Earth’s surface is covered with over 70% of water; however something many may not be aware of is that less than 1% percent of that water is clean enough to be used for human needs.  

How much water do think you use each day?  Estimates vary, but the average U.S citizen uses 158 gallons (600 liters) of water every day.  To think of it another way, multiply that 158 gallons per day of use by the 311,763,576 million people living in the U.S., and then consider the rest of the world…

Plus, 10 percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more each day (for example, a showerhead leaking 10 drips per minute wastes enough water in a year to run a dishwasher 60 times). The amount of water leaked from U.S. homes could exceed more than one trillion gallons per year. That’s equivalent to the annual water use of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami combined!  

Closer to home, retrofitting just 20% of households in the Mid-Atlantic with water-efficient fixtures could save more than 65 billion gallons of water and more than 215 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually—that’s enough water to supply Philadelphia residents for more than seven months and enough electricity to power 243,000 households for one month. 

That comes to my main point of thought:  there is a limited amount of clean water to go around, and a constantly increasing population that demands it. 

What is EPA doing to help us conserve this crucial resource? Tune in next week to find out!

Fix a Leak Week March 14-20, 2011

March 14-20, 2011 is the 3rd annual Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program’s “Fix a Leak Week,” a time to remind Americans to check their household plumbing for leaks.  This is a chance to be Green and save some Green!

Beat the leak!  Check.  Twist.  Replace. 

That’s all it takes to start saving water around the house. Check your home for leaks.  If your water meter changes at all during a two hour period when no water is being used, you probably have a leak.  Twist and tighten your fixture connections.  Tighten fixtures with a wrench or apply pipe tape to ensure that fixture connections are sealed tight. If you can’t stop the drip, it may be time to replace your fixture.  Look for WaterSense-labeled products at a home improvement store near you. 

Did you know???

A showerhead leaking at 10 drips per minute wastes more than 500 gallons per year.  That’s enough water to wash 60 loads of dishes in your dishwasher!  Leaks can account for, on average, 10,000 gallons of water wasted in the home every year.  That’s enough to fill a backyard swimming pool!  The average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water and sewer bill. 

Be sure to look for WaterSense labeled new homes that are designed to reduce residential water use both indoors and out. WaterSense homes allow you and your family to enjoy all the comforts of home while using less water and energy and spending less money on utility bills! 

What Can YOU do???

By making just a few small changes to your daily routine, you can save water, save money, and conserve water supplies for future generations.  Be sure to look for the WaterSense symbol on toilets, showerheads and faucets.  The symbol will soon be on water softeners, pre-rinse valves, and landscape irrigation controllers.

The WaterSense symbol identifies products that not only save water and the environment without sacrificing performance.  You can not only save water, but save Money too!  Look for WaterSense-labeled products at a home improvement store near you. 

We’re For Water!

Join us and thousands of your friends and neighbors in taking simple actions to save water.  Take the “I’m for Water” pledge, and make a resolution this year to save this precious resource.   Take the pledge at:  www.epa.gov/watersense/pledge.  For more information on Fix a Leak Week and the WaterSense program, go to www.epa.gov/watersense.  You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter!  Make 2011 about water and take the pledge today!