Summer is officially upon us. For most of us, the word conjures up images of sandy beaches, flip-flop tans, and sweltering hot days spent splashing around in the water. For thrill seekers, sometimes the best part of summer is the feeling of plummeting down a waterslide into a chlorinated wonderland. Whether you’re a daredevil or you just like to chill, hopefully this list of 25 of the world’s wildest waterparks will help you beat the summer heat.

Chimelong Water Park (China)

This Chinese water park covers nearly 1 million square feet and counting. It includes some of the tallest and fastest water rides in the world, but the main attraction is “The Behemoth Bowl.” Read more

Wastewater averaging… ah, a favorite topic of any cocktail party! What is that… you’ve never heard of wastewater averaging? Well, sit right back and let me tell how you can hack your wastewater averaging period and save money the rest of the year.

WHAT IS WASTEWATER AVERAGING?

Wastewater averaging is the practice of estimating the amount of wastewater discharged from your home into the city’s sanitary sewer system. It is essentially a cap on the volume of wastewater you will be billed for each month for the next year. This practice goes by a variety of names including average winter consumption, wastewater winter averaging, winter averaging, winter quarterly average, or winter period average.

Check with your local utility company to see how they handle your wastewater charges. Some utilities don’t want to mess with all these calculations, so they charge a flat, monthly wastewater fee. Read more

IBM created a water infographic to highlight some alarming statistics about how much water is wasted due to leaks in our water distribution infrastructure. A third of the water infrastructure in the US is 40 to 80 years old. Therefore, replacing this old infrastructure and repairing leaks is estimated to cost $335 billion over the next 20 years. In terms of water waste, not only do the leaky faucets in our homes waste a lot of water, but there is an average of 700 water main breaks each day across the US which wastes a tremendous amount of water. These pipe leaks are also exasperated by drought conditions, currently affecting a big part of the US.

Update: The statistics in this infographic may be suspect. Michael Campana (@WaterWired) researched it a bit in this post and found that dripping faucets don’t waste 27,000 gallons per year, but only 2,700 gallons per year. Read more

While it seems like the plastic carryout bag has become synonymous with our Western “convenience” culture, I believe its days are numbered. The practice of carrying out groceries, food, and clothing purchases in plastic bags has become so second-nature for people that most people don’t even think about it or can’t even think about alternatives to plastic bags. Well, residents in Austin better become acquainted with the alternatives to single-use carryout plastic bags because the Austin Bag Ban has begun.

The single-use carryout plastic bag is certainly convenient but its use since the 1960s has definitely taken its toll on the environment. There is so much evidence out there about the affect of these single-use carryout bags on wildlife and sea life that its ban in communities across the world is certainly a welcome step to saving wildlife and sea life from premature death by ingestion of these bags or bag particles. Read more