Water Wasters Caught Wet-Handed

You may have seen their mug shots in newspapers or on the big screen at Pasadena’s Laemmle Theaters. Or maybe you’ve seen their guilty faces posted on Pasadena ARTS buses, at bus shelters or online.

“Lawn Soaker Lana,” “Long Shower Larry” and “Driveway Hoser Dave” are just three of the suspects PWP wants you to look out for in its new community education campaign to combat water waste.

With a projected water shortage, the need to conserve has reached a critical point in Pasadena. That’s why Pasadena Water and Power wants to grab your attention by depicting typical water wasters in a criminal line-up. While PWP surely won’t be arresting anyone, these tongue-in-cheek images and the slogan “wasting water is a serious offense” are designed to instill a new ethic for conserving water in Pasadena.

From turning sprinklers off before and after it rains to washing only full loads of dishes and clothes, we can all be model citizens by protecting Pasadena’s precious water resources. Learn how to save hundreds of gallons (or more!) at www.PasadenaSavesWater.com.

Celebrate World Water Day

You already know that at the turn of a tap every home in Pasadena has clean, drinkable water. But did you know that more than one billion people on the planet still walk up to six miles to reach a water source? The United Nations calls this a “highly treatable crisis”: Access to drinkable water can transform a community’s health and economy.

World Water Day is an international event that raises awareness about world water supply challenges and promotes conservation. Learn more about these important issues at Pasadena Water and Power’s World Water Day event Saturday, March 22, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Paseo Colorado’s Garfield Promenade. The National Theatre for Children will perform “The Water Pirates of Neverland,” which teaches families that water is a treasure to be protected, at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., and 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. School-aged children will receive free water-conservation activity books and PWP experts will be ready to answer your questions about Pasadena’s water supply and rebates on water-saving fixtures.

It’s Environmental: Choose Tap Over Bottled Water

Bottled water has been touted for years as the champagne of drinking water. But before spending money on your next bottle, consider drinking Pasadena tap water instead. It’s completely safe, good for you and much more friendly to the environment.

Plastic bottles are made with petroleum, a non-renewable resource. Although disposable water bottles are designed to be recycled, most often they aren’t. These bottles take up landfill space and potentially emit harmful gases as they slowly disintegrate. The plastic wrap and cardboard they’re packaged in add even more to the waste, and the polluting fossil fuels used to transport millions of tons of these bottles annually are harmful to the environment.

Instead, fill up a reusable water bottle with Pasadena tap water. If you don’t like the taste (most likely due to harmless particulates from old pipes in your home), a filtered water pitcher or an on-tap filter will usually solve the problem. Cheers!

Go Green and Support a Bright Future

Looking for a meaningful way to help the environment? Join Pasadena’s Green Power Program and help the city’s effort to invest in renewable energy and a clean, green future.

Residential subscribers to the Green Power Program can go “all green” for a small premium of just 2.5¢ per kilowatt hour (kWh) of monthly use. A typical household that uses 500 kWh per month would spend an extra $12.50 monthly. You can also choose to buy blocks of green power for set fees of $5 or $10 per month.

One hundred percent of PWP’s green power comes from windmills in Solano County.

In addition to reducing your impact on the environment, your support of renewable energy helps Pasadena meet its Green City goals, encourages energy independence and creates new high-tech jobs. There’s no equipment to buy, and enrollment is easy and completely reversible.

Go green today!

Trees Cool and Clean

The combination of shade trees planted in parks and along city streets plus those planted by residents has increased Pasadena’s urban forest inventory steadily for years.

Shade trees provide welcome relief on our hottest days and have a direct cooling effect on high temperatures. Their shade and the water vapor released by their foliage cool our urban heat islands – microclimates of hot air produced by dark surfaces such as streets, playgrounds, roofs and cars. Trees also reduce air pollution like smog and greenhouse gases in cities.

With spring upon us and the summer heat not far behind, now is a great time to plant a shade tree and get a rebate from PWP’s Cool Trees Program. All you have to do is purchase a qualifying species of shade tree (37 to choose from), follow some simple planting guidelines and complete the application.

You’ll continue to save money when your shade trees mature. Well-placed trees can reduce indoor cooling costs by as much as 20 percent!