Atlanta Water Shortage

A few of you have asked me about the Georgia Aquarium — specifically, how much water does it use?

I spoke with Dave Santucci, the Director of Communications at the Aquarium.  He didn’t have an exact figure about gallons used per day or anything, but said that it was comparable to the water usage of one of the many hotels downtown.  He also pointed out that at least half of their water usage is by humans — six million guests since opening plus a 500 person office building.

All of the Aquarium exhibits are closed systems in which the water is filtered, treated and then returned to the exhibit.  This method means that the 8.1 million gallons of water on display requires relatively little additional water to stay full.

Dave also sent me a PDF with information about what they’re trying to do to save more water — shutting off some water features, installing waterless urinals, etc.  It also includes some tips for how you can save water at home.  You can download the PDF here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Water Usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.