LOCATED AT: 143 COUNTY ROAD, IPSWICH MA MAIL: P.O. BOX 576, IPSWICH, MA 01938 PHONE: 978-412-8200 FAX: 978-412-9100

Save Water, Save Money Inside

Are you planning to remodel your kitchen or bathroom? Or replace that broken dishwasher or washing machine? Look for EPA’s WaterSense label and you’ll enjoy the good feeling of knowing you’re doing your part to help the Ipswich River and the fish, birds, and other animals that live there. Even better, your new purchase will save you money in the years to come! IRWA is a WaterSense™ Partner, joining with the US Environmental Protection Agency to promote water efficiency. For more information about this program, see EPA’s WaterSense website.

You’ve seen EPA’s energy star logos on all kinds of appliances. The WaterSense program works much the same way — and here are a few surprising facts about the connection between saving energy and saving water.

Look the WaterSense lable when you're in the market for one of these.

#1) Saving Water Saves Energy
Every time you turn on your faucet, you’re using energy — energy to pump the water out of the Ipswich River, to treat it to make it safe to drink, to pump it to your house, and to treat the wastewater again before releasing it back to the river.

In fact, according to the River Network, we use about 13% of our energy — and produce 13% of our air pollution — to pump, transport, and treat water. In practical terms, that means that letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours!

So every time you you make a little difference for Ipswich River by using a little less water, you are also making a little difference for clean air by using a little less energy, too. Here are even more fun facts about water and energy:

  • If just 1% of American homes updated to WaterSense appliances, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year—avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s like taking 15,000 cars off the road each year.If just 1% American homes upgraded just one toilet, it would save more than 38 million kWh of electricity—enough to supply more than 43,000 households electricity for one month.
  • If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year!
  • American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year.

#2) Saving Energy Saves Water

That's not smoke -- it's steam! When you use less power, power plants use less river water.

Power plants use more river water than almost any other part of our economy. Where do you think the water comes from for those steam turbines? That’s right! It comes from the nearest river.

So when you do your part to waste less energy, you are also doing your part to ensure there is more water in the Ipswich and other rivers for the fish, birds, and other animals that live there.

In a 2006 report, the Department of Energy estimated that “in calendar year 2000, thermoelectric power generation accounted for 39% of all freshwater withdrawals in the U.S., roughly equivalent to water withdrawals for irrigated agriculture.” The report also states that consumption of water for electrical energy production could more than double by 2030 if current trends persist, equaling the United States’ entire domestic water consumption in 1995!”