This article was submitted by the Textile Care division of Ecolab, which describes itself as a “global leader in water technology and services.” While portions reference laundry operations that process goods for customers in bulk, owners of other laundry-related operations may find the information presented useful in assessing their own businesses.—Bruce Beggs, Editorial Director
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Population growth, urbanization and a growing middle class have increased demand for more food, goods and services, placing unprecedented strain on the world’s limited fresh water supply.
The World Bank predicts that by 2015, water demand will exceed supply by 50%. According to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, severe water scarcity is already a problem across the United States. Forty out of 50 states have at least one region that is expected to face some form of water shortage within the next 10 years, reports its creator, the World Resources Institute.
The ongoing drought in California has led to a water reduction mandate. On April 1, 2015, California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order directing the state’s Water Resources Control Board to reduce statewide water use by 25%.
What does this mean for businesses in California?
- Water suppliers will rely on both residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial and institutional) user reductions to meet the mandate
- Water use reporting is required on a monthly basis
- Regulatory and public pressure to reduce water consumption is increasing
- Violations will be costly
- Water prices will increase
What we are seeing in California is just the beginning of regulatory actions to reduce water use throughout the United States. As water scarcity and the demand for water both increase, other states will follow suit in mandating reductions in water use, increasing water prices and calling for greater transparency into water use.
This trend is real, and it’s already hitting home for businesses based in California. Now is the time to evaluate current water usage and determine what solutions and programs can be implemented to assist in reducing water use.
RISING WATER RATES
Commercial laundry operators should stay abreast of the water trends because the rates are rising.
“Initially, a commercial laundry could see annual increases of 5-15% in water and sewer rates, but those figures could go even higher,” says John Schultz, senior manager of water, energy and waste solutions for Ecolab’s Textile Care division. Schultz works on the municipal side of the business in terms of regulations that affect the laundry industry. With the current drought conditions in parts of the U.S., he says laundry operators will begin to see annual water rate increases of 20% or more.
The elevated annual rate increases will be driven by the fact that water and wastewater utilities are having a difficult time paying for capital improvements. Most municipalities do not have the needed funding.
Because of increasing water rates and regulatory mandates to reduce water usage, it’s advantageous for commercial launderers to discuss water conservation and recycling technologies with their suppliers. Often, water conservation can be as simple as checking your laundry operation. Check to see if there are water leaks occurring not only in production areas, but in all areas of the building.
- Are washer drains leaking?
- Are fixtures in the restrooms leaking?
- Check each hose connection to ensure there are no leaks.
- Do you use water for equipment cooling, such as hydraulic pumps or air compressors? These clean cooling waters should be diverted to the tempered water tank and not down the sewer.
If you’ve done your due diligence in checking the plant for potential areas where water may be leaking, and you’re still seeing elevated water usage, it may be time to make the investment in water-saving washers. Work with your equipment and chemical providers to optimize wash formulas, and to see what additional opportunities may exist to further reduce water use.
RECYCLING OPPORTUNITIES
Another viable option for water savings is to implement a water reuse system. If you can answer, ‘yes’ to the questions below, it is a good idea to discuss water reuse with your equipment and chemical providers as well.
- Have you considered water reuse?
- Do you have a segregated washer trench?
- Can you collect the segregated waters for reuse back into the wash wheel?
- Can your wash aisle be segregated so one side processes light soil textiles and the other side processes heavy soil? It may be possible to reuse the light soil drains for wash water on the heavy side of the wash aisle.
There are a number of technologies today to help laundries recycle their drain waters back into reusable wash waters. These technologies use multimedia filters and various types of microfiltration, including ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. There are many vendors who can provide guidance as to which technology would be best for your application.
WATER QUALITY
One important issue to remember is that some contaminants (total dissolved solids [TDS], total suspended solids [TSS], iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium, hardness and elevated pH) may be elevated in areas where extreme drought conditions are occurring. As water basin and aquifer water levels are decreasing, the contaminant concentrations are increasing. This may affect your textile quality.
Some laundries are starting to install potable water pretreatment systems, in addition to water softeners to improve the incoming fresh water sources. Other laundries are installing green sand filters to reduce iron and manganese concentrations which cause yellowing or browning of textiles. Reverse osmosis filters are being installed to decrease TDS concentrations. Excessive TDS will cause graying, dinginess and textile degradation. There are municipalities that have increased chlorine residuals due to excessive algal and bacterial growths in surface water supplies. Too high of a chlorine residual may degrade textile quality or chemical activity.
It’s important to stay well-informed of how the municipality governing your laundry plant is treating the water you are using, so you can effectively alter your processes and programs to maintain the textile quality your customers expect.
WATER RISK MONETIZER
In addition to specific solutions to help reduce current water use, there are tools available to help laundries determine future impacts of water scarcity to their operations. The Water Risk Monetizer (www.waterriskmonetizer.com), developed by Ecolab and Trucost, is industry's first publicly available financial modeling tool that enables businesses to factor current and future water risks into decision making.
Available at no cost to businesses throughout the world, the Water Risk Monetizer helps water-dependent businesses better understand the full value of water to their operations and identify revenue at risk, based on current and projected water scarcity. The tool assesses the potential cost or impact of water risks in ways similar to how other risks are considered in planning and capital allocation to help businesses make informed decisions to enable growth in this new era of water scarcity.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].