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EPA WaterSense Award Presented to Local Utility

Release Date: 10/07/2010
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Joe Hubbard at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov

(DALLAS, Oct. 7, 2010) Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority in New Mexico was recently recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) WaterSense program for helping to promote water efficiency in its community.

The WaterSense program’s more than 2,000 partners help save water for future generations by promoting water efficiency and WaterSense labeled products. Yesterday, EPA named four of these partners as the 2010 WaterSense Partners of the Year, and also announced a select handful of Excellence Awards, a new expansion of the WaterSense awards program to recognize additional organizations and individuals whose WaterSense support stood out in one or more of the evaluation categories.

Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority earned an Excellence Award for its strategic collaboration to promote WaterSense. In fact, Albuquerque-Bernalillo proved so successful in rallying support for its toilet rebate program that the number of stores carrying WaterSense labeled toilets rose from only two stores in 2007 to 245 stores in 2009—a 12,000 percent increase! The water utility also reached out to the City of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Public Schools to encourage retrofits with WaterSense labeled toilets.

“Partners such as Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority contributed significantly to our efforts to make WaterSense labeled products a household fixture in 2009,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. “They also helped consumers who purchased these products save 36 billion gallons of water and more than $267 million in water and sewer bills in 2009.”

EPA gave the highest honor to the 2010 WaterSense Partners of the Year for their exceptional efforts in promoting WaterSense in 2009 in the following ways:

· Promotional Partner of the Year Cascade Water Alliance collaborated with retailers and plumbers to promote water efficiency in the Puget Sound region of Washington and rebated more than 3,000 WaterSense labeled toilets for households and local businesses.

· Manufacturer Partner of the Year Moen earned the WaterSense label for all of its 267 bathroom faucet fixtures, ensuring availability of water-saving faucets for consumers at every price point, and garnered significant national media attention for WaterSense.
· Retailer/Distributor Partner of the Year Lowe’s launched a “Build Your Savings” campaign to help customers select products that save water, energy, and money, winning the award for the second year in a row.
· Irrigation Partner of the Year Judy Benson of Clear Water Products & Services Inc., educated businesses and consumers on outdoor water efficiency and encouraged other irrigation professionals in the central Florida region to partner with WaterSense.

Along with Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, other Excellence Award winners include:

Strategic Collaboration
· Kohler Co., Kohler, Wisconsin
· Drains Plus, Inc., Durham, North Carolina

· Robert Dobson of Middletown Sprinkler Company, Port Monmouth, New Jersey

Labeled Products in the Marketplace

· Caroma

Demonstrated Results
· Bryan Condray of DLC Resources, Inc., serving Arizona and Nevada

EPA announced the winners at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, during its second annual WaterSense awards banquet, co-hosted with the Alliance for Water Efficiency on October 6, 2010. To learn more about the WaterSense awards winners, visit www.epa.gov/watersense . WaterSense, a partnership program sponsored by the EPA, seeks to protect the future of our nation's water supply by offering people a simple way to use less water with water-efficient products, new homes, and services. For more information on WaterSense, visit www.epa.gov/watersense .

More about activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov.region6

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/oct2010.html