The Cost of Water

Billing Meters Sub Meters Metrics Outdoors Landscaping O&M Irrigation

The Cost of Water is deceptively low as building owners and tenants pay for water twice - water supplied + water discharged to the sewer. Additional considerations include the cost of energy required to pump and heat water and rate increases over time from energy and water utilities. Cost control solutions and incentives range from fulfilling water requirements for building certifications, conducting water audits, inclusive of leak detection, to incorporating water efficiency into standard operating procedures and procurement policies.

Billing Issues verify your property’s rate class and meter size, read water meters regularly to verify usage - units and scale of readings should match bills and internal log books.

Water Meters Require Limited Maintenance and Annual Calibration

Bills can cover multiple meters with specific water usage for each; match all meters listed with their location and equipment covered. Record usage individually and ask utilities for credit on sewer charges for water lost to evaporation instead of being discharged to sewer, irrigation and cooling towers.

Meter and Sub meter all sources of water to help identify areas for targeted reductions: city potable, reclaimed water and well water. Most facilities have one or two master meters supplying the whole building; others have one meter for an entire campus with multiple buildings. Sub meters:

do not have to be on separate utility accounts;

can help identify leaks and equipment inefficiencies or malfunctions.

Water Metrics the sum of all sources: Potable Water from public water systems and classified for human consumption. Reclaimed Water wastewater treatment plant effluent purchased from a public water system. Well Water obtained from wells, bore wells, and other groundwater sources. Natural Freshwater sources that are not municipally supplied, including surface water sources such as lakes or streams. Other Sources rainwater or storm water harvested onsite, sump pump water harvesting, gray water, air-cooling condensate, reject water from water purification systems, water reclaimed onsite, or water from other reuse strategies.

Outdoor Water Usage the amount of water used outdoors is dictated by landscape size and design, the need for supplemental irrigation, management of pools and other facilities. Outdoor water use is a primary driver of peak use.

Landscaping a well-designed, healthy, water-efficient landscape includes healthy soils to promote water infiltration and root growth, appropriate grading with gentle slopes, mulching of landscaped beds to keep soils cool and moist, drought-tolerant, native, or climate/regionally appropriate plant species, minimal turf area.

O&M maintain existing plantings and protect your investment in plants, remove weeds so water is available for desired plants, allow turf grass to grow longer to achieve deeper root growth, make shade and apply less water to shaded areas, minimize water used for other purposes, shut off water features whenever possible, recirculate in water features, sweep, don’t water hard surfaces.

Irrigation install rain shutoff devices or sensors, soil moisture-based control technologies and sprinklers. Maintenance check the system for broken or clogged sprinkler heads, move or adjust sprinkler components to avoid watering pavement, install and monitor water submeters for irrigation systems, monitor monthly use trends, audit irrigation system every three years.

The Delaware City Historic District

The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and New Castle County Architecture

The Delaware City Historic District is significant for its architecture, for its beginnings as a planned settlement, and for its importance as a nineteenth century canal-oriented transportation center. The buildings within the district date from 1826, the year the town was laid out, displaying significant development through 1930. The town was envisioned by its backers as a place that would develop into a major shipping and trading point for traffic that passed along this trans-peninsular trade route, and so, its early plans were based on the completion of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.

Delaware City is located 14 miles south of Wilmington, the largest city in Delaware, and 40 miles south of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The built area of town is roughly bounded by the Delaware City Branch of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the east, the Delaware River on the north, Dragon Creek on the west, and Delaware Route 9 on the south.

Located within the limits of an incorporated town of approximately 1,800 people that is situated in the eastern central area of New Castle County, Delaware, the town is strategically located at the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal where it joins the Delaware River.

The 68-acre district is made up of 252 sites that include 232 major buildings

East of the canal branch, but outside the boundaries of the district, is Polktown, a small community that was settled by free Blacks in the 1830's, and the Fort duPont site, established in 1863 as an auxiliary gun battery, later used as the headquarters for the Delaware River and Bay Defenses during WWI and WWII.  

An important feature of the economy of Delaware City is the expanse of marshland bordering parts of the canal, the river, and the creek that harbored substantial game bird and muskrat populations. Much of the outlying area beyond the marsh was highly productive agricultural land during the nineteenth century and is still so used.

Three related National Register sites are located just outside the district:

1. Eastern Lock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal

2. Fort Delaware, a Civil War Prison located on an island in the Delaware River.

3. Chelsea, an 1848 brick, Greek Revival style dwelling built for Thomas Jefferson Clark, member of one of the leading families in the area.

Architecture

Delaware City's main emphasis is on buildings of the mid-to-late nineteenth century, its greatest period of growth. Several of the earliest buildings in town are brick Federal style dwellings. The accepted plan was a two-story, gable-roofed, double dwelling with a symmetrical four-bay facade and fanlights above the entrances.

The most prominent house type of the mid-nineteenth century is the Greek Revival style. Based strictly on the two or two-and-a-half story, flat-roofed, square plan, there are no temple front or cross wing versions of this style in Delaware City or in its environs. 

The Italianate style did not bring about much of a change in Delaware City's architecture since it was based on the same flat-roofed, square plan as the Greek Revival style. Because of the subtle difference between the Greek Revival and Italianate styles, features from both styles were sometimes combined, creating a transition between the two. The Queen Anne and Bungalow styles became prevalent in the twentieth century.

Financing Energy Efficiency Projects in Small Towns and Rural Communities

Energy Efficiency Projects face several financial impediments, including:

Information financial institutions often lack a full understanding of energy efficiency technologies which are almost always investments with long repayment terms;

Commercial Lenders are risk averse to this type of credit exposure while investment funds have a greater appetite for risk but focus on large volume transactions, hence

Energy Efficiency projects that would benefit small towns and rural communities require specific and unique knowledge, expertise and funding sources.

Solutions

Energy Audits provide the necessary information on current consumption patterns and establish baselines for future demand and consumption with IT-based monitoring and controlling systems whose software gathers and elaborates data coming from smart meters.

ESCos are energy and water service/savings companies that provide design, implementation and financing of energy/water saving projects via retrofits, conservation, infrastructure outsourcing, power generation and supply, as well as risk management as they share in the risk borne by the project beneficiary as the funding source buys energy savings receivables resulting from the project.

Project Tasks include: identification and evaluation of energy-saving opportunities; developing engineering designs and specifications; project management from design to installation to monitoring; energy supply at the best costs; funding; staff training and ongoing maintenance services; guarantees that savings cover project costs; understanding and applying of energy standards, laws and incentives.

Energy Performance Contracts contain risk allocation, cash flow segregation, financial instruments and controls with the appropriate management information systems.

Economies of Scale and larger volume finance transactions are achieved by linking with similar size and type projects in other small towns and rural communities. 

Culture and Travel

Cultural Tourism is Best Experienced in the Company of Local Friends and Experts

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world economy; right up there with real estate, automobiles and financial services. It is also highly segmented: business travel, conventions and meetings, cruises, family vacations, food and wine travel, responsible, sustainable, ethical, and more.

Cultural Tourism assumes uniquely local dimensions wherever you go; the activities that you, the local or global visitor, select and, irrespective of the length of your stay, are unique of the community you are visiting and rooted into the local economy, culture and traditions.

How to Travel Culturally! is a very much function of the destination you choose. Your visit to a country, region or town is personalized as a function of your interests and preferences:

When in Rome…. To engage in cultural tourism means doing and going where the locals go. Many destinations are known for the negative effects travel has on the local culture and environment, especially during certain periods of the year.

Best Planned and Managed by Those with Knowledge of the Locations You Visit

Avoid Places and activities that cater only to tourists and outdoor markets that sell souvenirs that you can find anywhere as opposed to local traditional crafts;

Experience Typical Local cuisine, wine and brews;

Go to Local Museums and other attractions that are more likely to tell you the unique history and traditions of the places you are visiting.

Cultural Districts are geographic areas that focus on the arts, individual artists and arts-based businesses. They are mixed-use developments with other facilities such as office complexes, restaurants, retail spaces, and occasionally residential areas. They are a most representative of a community’s vision, planning, and commitment and to the preservation of its heritage and social values.