DepartmentOfEnvironmentalProtection
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New York City turns to sewers for energy solutions
Listen up New Yorkers, those hot nuts you just swallowed could be used to light the signs on Broadway. Okay, so that's a stretch, but the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) just issued a plan to turn the stuff you flush, along with rest of its wastewater, into renewable energy. New York City produces about 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily, yielding 1,200 tons of biosolids that can be harvested to procure methane -- already accounting for 20 percent of the city's energy -- and butanol, a clean gasoline alternative. The plan, which also includes wind and solar projects, aims to use gas, converted by large digesters, to "power wastewater operations, meet on-site heat and electricity needs, and, where feasible, sell excess energy to the market." As the DEP points out, the plan isn't far fetched -- we've seen a couple of solutions for turning human excrement into usable energy, and a project already under way in Greenpoint is estimated to procure enough methane over the next year to heat 2,500 homes. Now, if that doesn't give you a newfound respect for the porcelain throne, we don't know what will.
Wireless water meters on the loose in New York City
On the environmental tip, Mayor Bloomberg has announced that New York City will install 826,000 wireless water meters by 2011. Under the new system, readings will be sent to a network of rooftop receivers throughout the city every six hours, enabling the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to bill property owners every month with exact water usage -- with the bill available online. Under the current system, water use is estimated and folks are billed every three months. The system will cost taxpayers $250 million, and installation (free for property owners) is already underway in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. When it is fully installed, New York will be the largest city in the world to use wireless water metering. According to the New York Times, it's estimated that a 5 to 10 percent reduction in water use could save the city up to $90 million annually.[Via Vos Iz Neias; Thanks, Yossi]
