Did you know that the cup of coffee you reach for first thing in the morning is 99% water?
It’s hard to imagine life without it, not to mention the occasional beer you enjoy that’s at least 95% water as well.
That’s the exact point askHRgreen.org wanted to convey last month by inviting local coffee shops and breweries to participate in its annual “Imagine a Day Without Water” awareness campaign.
Twenty-six local businesses — from Gloucester to Virginia Beach and west to Smithfield — helped to spread our message by passing out coffee sleeves and coasters that encouraged patrons to imagine a day without their morning macchiato or favorite craft brew. It was a fun way to get across a serious message that we shouldn’t take water for granted.
In Hampton Roads, collecting, storing, treating and bringing water to and from homes and commercial enterprises is the job of the region’s municipal utilities and HRSD.
Our public water systems are supported by 12 drinking water treatment plants with over 100 wells and 23 reservoirs storing over 34 billion gallons of water. Once all this water is used, more than 1,500 pump stations carry sewage to the 13 wastewater treatment plants across the region.
These water and wastewater systems keep the region’s 17 cities and counties humming, from hotels to hospitals, factories to power plants, and car washes to aquariums.
If the water system breaks, however, it can be devastating. Maintaining these systems means we are also safeguarding our region’s public health, safety and economic vitality.
So how can we protect this most precious resource? At home, we can take shorter showers, wash only full loads, fix leak
s, pick up after our pets and keep leaves from entering storm drains.
Businesses can make a difference, too, by conducting a water audit to improve efficiency, outfitting restrooms and break areas with low-flow fixtures, and reducing landscape water use by planting drought-tolerant native plants.
While our region’s water and wastewater systems may be out of sight, they should not be out of mind. So, the next time you grab a coffee for your morning commute or have a beer after work with a friend, just imagine what life would be like without it.
Katie Cullipher and Rebekah Eastep lead the region-wide askHRgreen.org public awareness and education campaign for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
