+Water | October 29, 2010

Water: New York City Wants to Make Water Fountains the Norm

By Bryan Walsh

You remember water fountains, right? If your grade school experience was anything like mine (Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Class of ’93!), you’ll recall getting your water not from a plastic Evian bottle, but straight from the ceramic fountain—usually kid-sized. The same went for parks, museums and public buildings—water fountains were common, and they were [...]

+Green Products | October 27, 2010

Water: Taking the Phosphates Out of Detergent Leaves a Cleaner Planet—But Are the Dishes Dirtier?

By Bryan Walsh

The Spokane river had a soap scum problem. Over the years the runoff of nutrients like phosphorous into the eastern Washington state waterway has encouraged the growth of algae, leading to green, icky waters in a process science teachers would call eutrophication and swimmers would call icky. As the algae proliferates and then dies, their [...]