falconuser, Author at Falcon Water Free

What is SMURRF?

As a company, founded on the principle of ecological conservation, we love to learn more from other-like minded parties and their pioneering water saving solutions to comply with California’s strict conservation measures. Thanks to Joel Cesare, Sustainable Building Adviser for the Office of Sustainability and Environment in the City of Santa Monica, we learned about Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, also known as SMURRF.

This project is the first one in the nation and perhaps the world that was designed to treat the water that originates from the streets of Santa Monica.

In Southern California, most runoff water comes from excessive irrigation (leaks and overspray), spills, construction sites, pool draining and car washing. All these wasteful activities discharge polluted water into the storm drain system. The water then flows directly to the ocean without any treatment, becoming one of the largest sources of marine pollution.

The treatment process includes 5 steps:

1. Screening trash and debris: The incoming water goes through a rotating drum screen that removes trash and debris.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R6gHwFLutY]

2. Grit Removal: The spinning action in the chamber forces small particles of rock, sediment and sand to sink down.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpU3ylUvEWk]

3.Oil and Grease Removal: The Dissolved Air Flotation or DAF Unit injects dissolved air and a coagulant to the pressurized water to remove oil and grease particles.

4. Micro filtration: In this process, the water goes through a plastic microscopic membrane that blocks all the remaining sediment impurities.

5. Disinfection: Until there are more restrictive water quality standards, this is the final treatment process. Water is exposed to ultraviolet radiation, and the completed recycled water cascades into the 250 000 gallon sub level storage.

6. Reverse Osmosis: In the future, water would be pushed through a semi-permeable Reverse Osmosis Membrane to make it drinkable.

Once treated, the water is delivered to a number of city and private customers such as the Santa Monica Freeway, City of Santa Monica parks, the Woodlawn Cemetery, RAND Corporation and public school grounds. Dual-plumbed customers include the City of Santa Monica’s Public Safety Facility and the Water Garden located at Olympic and Cloverfield.

SMURRF would not be complete without its artistic and educational components. Visitors have a complete view of all the equipment and processes to treat the urban runoff water, and in several locations, the water is exposed to the open air to allow visitors to see the water treatment process.

Santa Monica is building a more sustainable long term infrastructure plan to protect its water resources by combining revolutionary technologies with water efficient ones, such as the Hybrid and Waterfree Urinals.

Click here for more information about SMURRF

*Special thanks to Neal Shapiro, Watershed Management Program Coordinator.

Green Sports Alliance Covers Waterfree Technology in Dodger Stadium

The Green Sports Alliance covers recent upgrades to Dodger Stadium have been achieved with an eye toward sustainability in their latest Greener Cleaning Playbook. These efforts include instituting many measures toward being energy efficient, installation of new water valves, low-flush fixtures, waterless urinals, touch-free timed faucets with aerators to minimize water usage and new power and lighting energy-efficient systems.

BabyLisa Project: UPDATE

Here at Falcon Waterfree Technologies, we believe in harnessing our power of our business to tackle complex social problems. We align our sustainability initiatives with goals for a broader audience, and by using business as a force for good we are helping our society move towards a future with clean running water for every child and family. On World Water Day (March 22nd), we announced our partnership with DigDeep on the BabyLisa Project, and as part of our Earth Week’ celebrations, we want to give you an update to this campaign.

In America, Baby Lisa is one of the hundreds of thousands of children living in water poverty. She was born with microvillus inclusion disease, a life-threatening condition that prevents the absorption of nutrients from food during digestion, resulting in malnutrition and dehydration. Since her family’s home does not meet sanitation requirements and does not have access to running water, she is forced to live in a medical facility three hours away from her home, located in the remote Arizona desert.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaNi6i7v74U&feature=youtu.be]

Today, Falcon Waterfree Technologies is proud to announce our donation of all the plumbing fixtures – a gift worth over $4000 to the family of Baby Lisa. We have also committed to purchase only the most water-friendly models on the market that will save Baby Lisa’s family hundreds of dollars in water bills. In addition, our employees have gotten together to fundraise – giving up their paid lunches at work and putting that money toward Baby Lisa’ campaign. Simon Davis, our CEO, has also agreed to match all employee contributions to the Baby Lisa campaign.

As a B Corp, we combined innovation with collaboration because powerful changes can create sustainable markets and societies.

So far, the Baby Lisa campaign has collected almost $32,000 dollars. We still need $18,000 to renovate Baby Lisa’s home to meet the standards needed for her return. You can support the project by donating at http://www.babylisa.org/

No matter your budget, your gift will change the life of this American family. Together, we can reunite Baby Lisa and her mother LaTanya in time for Mother’s Day!

AirDelights.com : an interview with Steve Bronson

We, at Falcon Waterfree Technologies, believe in giving our customer 100% satisfaction. Our client feedback has led our continuous efforts to design the most revolutionary, technology-driven restroom products. However, partnering with key distributors is essential to our sales strategy. Today, we are really excited to share this interview with Steve Bronson from AirDelights.com to discuss the past, the present and the future of water-saving technologies.

What is the history of Air Delights?

Air Delights was created in 1991 in Oregon. Because it took some time to accumulate local sales, I continued to operate a full-time janitorial business. When it seemed like Air Delights was not moving forward with local sales, I created a website, www.airdelights.com. After getting the website up and running and still focusing on the air freshener business, the sales started coming in. In 1993, Air Delights became a full time business so I shut down my janitorial business and focused full-time on Air Delights.

It was about that time that I began adding sensor hygiene products to my product line. The pivotal moment for me that my idea of operating a mail order business for restroom products occurred in 1993 when I received a purchase order from the United States Post Office in Washington DC for $40,000.00 worth of restroom products. At the time, I was in shock. This sale gave me the drive and ambition to continue expanding my business. That same week, I relocated my business to a location that I could get the product delivered to me in semi trucks.

I also added Sloan Valve products to our website. I noticed that some of our commercial customers were raising concerns about water conservation. Water conservation was becoming a major selling point for large and small customers. We soon added the Falcon Waterfree products, and it didn’t take long for these products to become our top selling products. The Sloan/Falcon Waterfree urinal is the ultimate water saving fixture for any public restroom. The cartridge refills became one of our top selling products.

2. When did you begin working with Waterfree urinal technologies, and how have you seen the technology change over the years?

As soon as Falcon partnered with Sloan, I started selling the Waterfree Urinal products. At first, our customer’s biggest concern was the buildup of struvite, a water-soluble substance from urine; however, Falcon quickly redesigned their products, and there haven’t been any concerns since the redesign.

I believe that Falcon is responsible for creating this water saving movement. Throughout the years, many manufacturers have started to design more water efficient restroom products, such as the 1.28 gpf toilets, automatic faucets and dual flush automatic flushers. However, Falcon Waterfree Technologies is still the champion when it comes to a true Waterfree product. Other manufacturers have attempted to venture into the waterfree urinal line, but none has come close to creating a product like Falcon has. We have had customers advise us that we’re removing another manufacturer’s line, only to replace it with the Sloan/Falcon product line.

3. What has been the customer’s reaction to the Velocity Cartridge?

To this day, none of our customers have contacted us about the Velocity Cartridge, which in our business means the customers have not had any problems with the new Velocity Cartridge. In fact, our sales have continued to increase on this product.

4. In the last year Sloan has launched both the Hybrid and Retrofit Hybrid urinal technologies. What do you think of these products?

AirDelights.com has already sold several Hybrid urinals. I think Hybrids have solved the buildup issue from scratch; however, for National Parks, where the cost of moving water is a critical decision making factor, hybrids are counterproductive. All three urinal types have their specific applications —remote, retrofit, and new construction. If NASA ever colonizes Mars, Falcon would have to design a fourth option, an anti-gravity Urinal.

5. With the drought hitting the Western half of the United States, what are the changes that have we could be doing to mitigate water shortages?

I believe that any water conservation initiatives take an effort and commitment of the government to raise awareness. California seems to be leading the nation in its effort to conserve water. Because of water shortages, many of the cartridges we sell are being shipped to states in the western region of the country. However, we also sell cartridges to many major US corporations around the country with large industrial facilities that seem to be focused on water conservation.

Regulatory Rundown: Emergency Regulations Update

In follow up to our last Regulatory Rundown post, the State Water Resource Control Board (SWRCB) has now issued adjustments in the mandatory water reductions targets. Based on climate, population increase and investment in water sources, the State Water Resource Control Board considered all water supplier petitions and has made several adjustments. The new conservation standards, released last week, awards reductions between 1 and 8% with one water supplier receiving a reduction of over 15%.

For the past year, California has been able to reduce its water usage by roughly 23.9% (compared to 2013). While this is a great accomplishment it remains 1% shy of the Governor’s original 25% target. With the state entering its 5^th year of drought, reductions in water supplier’s conservation standards seem to be lessening despite pressure and urgency of an extreme climate condition on the State, that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Even though water suppliers are being heard and reductions are granted in order to create a fair reduction goal, this should not overshadow the fact that this dry weather is California’s new reality. We should draw our attention and efforts to solutions and ways to build a sustainable water infrastructure, where conservation mandates are no longer necessary and conservation is a Californian way of life. Despite regional differences in water supply and conservation targets, it is important that we work together for long term solutions so that we all feel the need to conserve. Even though El Nino favored Northern California this time around, Southern California was missed and reservoirs remain dry.

As a California native, I would like to see our elective officials respond by prioritizing policies that enact long term resilience and reform to our State’s outdated way of governing the world’s most precious resource, water. While sports teams in California don’t always get along, especially when the Giants and Dodgers are lined up to play this weekend, I hope that we can come together to develop innovative conservation solutions. Our approach to regional challenges will differ, however, it is important that we continue to push forward and put pressure on ourselves to conserve.

What Australia can Teach California About Drought Resilience

Despite some of the relief that El Niño has brought to southern California the last couple of weeks, California is still in it’s 5th year of drought and must prepare for an inevitably drier future. This means the parched Golden State must find fresh water sources and more efficient ways to use what little water can be found. In order to do so, California has been turning to Australia for solutions.

Australia suffered from one of the worst droughts in the country’s recorded history, spanning a horrendous 12 years from 1997 to 2009. During the “Millennium Drought”, the water levels from the southeast portion of the continent dropped to an all-time capacity of 25.6 percent before the drought finally ceased. The implementation of policies and programs along with water conservation technologies proved to be the perfect combination of solutions to keep the continent afloat. Incredibly, through these programs the country was able to reduce water demand per capita by almost 50 percent.

However, California cannot simply copy Australia’s list of technologies and apply them. The state has to analyze the applied lessons, and address them accordingly to each city and town. Californians have the potential to demonstrate the viable suitable alternatives to optimize efficiency and sustainable behaviors to lead the nation’s water transformation toward a more resilient future. Here are three of Australia’s most successful water conservation methods that can help the Golden State:

Water Management Policies and Rebates

In the late 1980’s, the city of Melbourne passed legislation for an integrated government response in case of drought. As a result, a unified response from government agencies created a mixture of efforts focused on water restrictions, water pricing, public education, target setting and rebates that transformed the behavior of Adelaide and Melbourne residents. Based on gamification, the government also created incentives to get consumers conserve as much water as possible and increase awareness. Prior to the drought, the government also invested millions in infrastructure, including a pipeline that would deliver water over the mountains and a recycled water treatment plant.

Recycled Water and Water Reuse

Wastewater treatment plants in Western Australia originally started recycling water to remove solids and contaminents before it was released into rivers or the ocean. Today, this recycled water is used to flush toilets, irrigate golf courses and crops fields, and is used in industrial processes. Citizens also carried the burden, and started investing in diversion devices and treatment systems that filter and disinfect greywater. By 2010, businesses and residents cut their water use to half of what it was in 1997 when the drought began.

Green Technology

Once the drought escalated, The Green Building Council of Australia encouraged through rebates the use of waterless urinals such as Falcon’s Waterfree Technologies, dual-flush toilets, water-saving shower heads and rainwater tanks for new developments. Nowadays, developers are also required to provide specific services, such as cleaning water, in their green space. Rebates for these water conservation devices are also available to most of Southern California, Falcon is committed to providing free turn-key rebate processing to commercial customers interested in upgrading to our Hybrid and Waterfree Urinal Technologies. If interested in receiving a free restroom audit, please contact Liam Dow at LDow@falconwaterfree.com.

In order to make a more substantial transformation, California needs to change how they relate to water and their declining water supplies. What is remarkable about Australia’s conservation efforts is that even though the drought is over, Australians now consume significantly less water. Their lessons can provide direction for how California can move towards a more sustainable and drought resilient future despite the unpredictability of the weather.

The Truth About Flushing

Despite the common belief that water improves hygiene, all living things, including bacteria, depend on water for survival. What most people do not know is that bacteria are sprayed as a fine mist when urinals are flushed and can thrive far outside the urinal bowl.

The “aerosol effect” was first discovered in 1975 by Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist from the University of Arizona, who found that bacteria and viruses spraying out after flushing a toilet remain airborne long enough to settle on surfaces throughout the bathroom, and can remarkably travel as far as eight feet. In order to measure his results, Dr. Gerba placed pieces of gauze in different locations around the bathroom and measured the bacterial and viral levels present after flushing.

You can actually verify it yourself by putting a dye in the toilet/urinal, flushing, and holding a piece of paper over it. “Droplets are going all over the place – it’s like the Fourth of July,” Gerba affirms.

But Dr. Gerba is not the only one studying the “aerosol effect”. A recently published research paper has found that lid-less toilets in hospitals are a potential risk for infections, and they might be the reason why C. difficile infections are on the rise.

Since Falcon Waterfree Technologies urinals use no water for flushing, our technology actually not only creates a less fertile breeding ground for bacteria, they also eliminate the cloud of tiny droplets that travels outside the urinal with each flushed. In fact, research has demonstrated that Falcon’s urinal has five times less bacteria than the average flush or low flush urinal and as they do not spray dirty water across the restroom, our urinals also reduce the opportunity for mold and mildew to thrive.

[CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR REVOLUTIONARY, SANITARY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS]

Santa Monica’s Water Self Sufficiency Efforts: an Interview with Joel Cesare

As a B Corp, founded on the principle of ecological conservation, we at Falcon Waterfree Technologies love uniting with other like-minded parties who share our same ethical vision to improve the world we live in. With that being said, we were very excited when Joel Cesare, who is leading Santa Monica towards complete water self-sufficiency, granted us an interview to discuss his current work and his plan for the future of the city.

When did you start working as a Sustainable Building Adviser for the Office of Sustainability and Environment in the City of Santa Monica?

After getting my Masters in Environmental Science & Management from the Bren School at U.C. Santa Barbara, I worked in the Bay Area as a Sustainability Coordinator. The focus of my degree was towards energy efficiency, and the City of Santa Monica is well known as a leader in sustainability and achieving aggressive environmental goals. So, I deeply appreciated the fact that I have been able to expand my understanding of green building as a whole since I started working 2 years ago. I regulate and ensure the City of Santa Monica continues to demonstrate and improve its energy, water and carbon footprints.

Santa Monica has been investing in a sustainable city plan since 1994. What are the City’s strategies for water conservation in 2016?

For Residential, Santa Monica has created rebates, which cover three components: yard, parkway and harvesting rain water, which people can apply through our website http://water.smgov.net/

For Commercial and Multi-family, the City encourages the use of high-efficiency toilets, urinals (such as the Falcon Waterfree Technologies), plumbing fixtures and equipment rebates through SoCal Water Smart. We also offer free water audits. To request one, you can send us an email at savewater@smgov.net.

Two of the City’s largest sources of water usage are laundry facilities and hotels. What has been the City’s approach to reduce their water use?

We have been promoting the use of recirculating systems and water reuse. LOEWS Santa Monica Beach Hotel is one of our success stories. The hotel recently retrofitted its laundry system to use recycled water. The system also keeps the water temperature steady resulting in additional water and energy savings.

What about Stormwater and Urban Runoff solutions?

Storm water / urban runoff is considered Santa Monica’s main source of pollution in the bay. Santa Monica’s Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, known as “SMURRF”, is one of our best examples of dealing with polluted storm water/urban runoff to protect our coastal waters. The facility provides high quality water for reuse in toilet flushing and landscape irrigation. We consider moving pristine alpine water thousands of miles to flush a toilet indicative of an urban city disconnection with nature, and we want to change that.

Does Santa Monica have other initiatives in place to achieve water self-sufficiency?

Brackish & Seawater Reverse Osmosis is a customizable reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration systems that pull semi-salty water from the sand and turn it into fresh water.

Another initiative is sewage mining, which extracts suspended solids from wastewater before they become sludge, and reduces sludge formation, introducing a model for sustainable and environmentally friendly wastewater management.

Have there been any setbacks threatening the 2020 deadline?

No. In fact, we are more confident than ever. The drought regulation simply accelerated and stimulated our response to be water efficient. In fact, the city, has achieved self sufficiency several times in the past months. In December 2015, the city was self sufficient for 13 days, and was able to shut off water imports back again for 19 days in January.

Launch of Hybrid Retrofit Urinal Will Help California Save Substantial Water

Falcon Waterfree Technologies launches the Retrofit Hybrid Urinal, through partner Sloan Valve Company, which will help California businesses saves thousands of gallons of water annually and mitigate current drought conditions in the region.

Los Angeles, March 23, 2016 As a company committed to changing the world by developing revolutionary, technology-driven restroom products that conserve our Earth’s precious fresh water supply and to using the power of our business and products to help solve local social and environmental problems, Falcon Waterfree Technologies is proud to announce the launch of the new Hybrid Retrofit Urinal with US partner Sloan, the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems.

The new model, HYB-1000-RET, offers all the features of the revolutionary original new construction Hybrid Urinal, launched in 2015, including: maximum LEED credits, minimal water and sewage costs and automatic drain line rinsing.

“We are proud to launch such a revolutionary water conserving product, especially at a time where water conservation is so crucial in the many drought stricken parts of the country. Installation of this high-performance water conservation technology, along with our waterfree urinal technology, will help realize immediate and substantial water savings,” stated Simon A. Davis, President & CEO of Falcon.

Like the original Hybrid Urinal, the Hybrid Retrofit Urinal uses Falcon’s proprietary and market leading Velocity cartridge technology and flushing system, called Jetrinse Solution Technology, which uses a carefully directed high volume flow of water to rinse the drain line every 72 hours to prevent clogs, odor-causing build up and minimize maintenance requirements. With this timed flush, all Hybrid Urinals use only about 100 gallons of water per year, regardless of the number of users.

“Sloan Hybrid Retrofit Urinals consume zero water for flushing and ensure proper maintenance with minimal water usage,” says Patrick Boyle, director of corporate sustainability at Sloan. “This green-building, retrofit version offers reduced natural resource consumption, enhanced user hygiene and cost savings on water, sewage and maintenance—improving the bottom line and return on investment.”

About Sloan

Sloan is the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems and has been in operation since 1906. Headquartered in Franklin Park, Illinois, USA, the company is at the forefront of the green building movement and provides smart sustainable restroom solutions by manufacturing water-efficient products such as flush valves, electronic faucets, sink systems, soap dispensing systems, and vitreous china fixtures for commercial, industrial and institutional markets worldwide.

About Falcon

Founded in 2000, Los Angeles-based Falcon Waterfree Technologies is the sustainability and technology leader in the development of water conservation solutions for the commercial restroom.

Technology Spotlight: Century Park’s Groundwater Reclamation Project

Last month, Bill McDonnell from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) awarded Century Park (our customer of many years) the Water Efficiency Project of the Year for their revolutionary groundwater reclamation project. Century Park’s new water reclamation project will enable the facility to supply 100% of it is own water for irrigation, without buying a drop from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)- even during current extreme drought conditions.

In 1928, William Fox built a personal cowboy ranch for movie legend Tom Mix in the once grand and sprawling 20th Century Fox Studios. Thirty years later, the 176 acre site became Century Park, a historical landmark with two gleaming aluminum skyscrapers and a bustling metropolitan center stands where western stars – such as Tom Mix and John Wayne – once galloped into the sunset. Today, nearly a century later, one of American cinema’s golden age studios now plays a starring role in the water conservation initiatives of Los Angeles.

With California facing one of the most severe droughts on record, Century Park has resolved to find pioneering water-saving solutions to comply with strict conservation measures.

One of these solutions is the Century Park’s use of water-efficient technologies such as Falcon’s water free urinals and cartridges, leak detection and repairs which came as a direct response to the mandate to conserve water in Southern California. Although, the results have exceeded their expectations, Century Park decided that it is crucial to invest in more drought resilient initiatives.

Century Park sits on top of an aquifer containing non-potable water. The location, covered by a 14 acre combination of drought-tolerant and non-tolerant landscape, highlighted the importance of implementing an irrigation project that could help minimize their irrigation needs, which averages an astounding 6,000 to 10,000 gallons per day.

In order to become self-sustaining, Century Park will construct three, subterranean 10,000-gallon storage tanks for water reclamation. The project will utilize eight large pumps to continuously discharge ground water from the lowest level of the underground parking garage. Then, the water will be discharged into the storm drain system after being analyzed for more than 20 chemical constituents by a third party laboratory.

The groundwater reclamation project will be utilized for landscape irrigation, reducing combustion of DWP-purchase water by 100% and saving 2.9 million gallons of water a year. The recover water will lead the sustainability initatives of the area and offset expenses for project implementation.

Congratulations Century Park, we couldn’t be prouder of what you have accomplished. Your conservation efforts are greatly appreciated!

CLICK HERE to find out where to find out more about Falcon Waterfree Technologies, and conserve water TODAY!