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- How much water do we use?
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- William S. Hammack
Commentator Bill Hammack follows his wife, Amy, through her morning routine to show how an average American uses 1800 gallons of water a day. This includes not only water used for domestic uses (toilets, cooking, hygiene), but also water used in manufacturing. Since most of the items in our houses are imported from around the globe, this means that we tap into water supplies around the world, especially China.
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Piece Description
Commentator Bill Hammack follows his wife, Amy, through her morning routine to show how an average American uses 1800 gallons of water a day. This includes not only water used for domestic uses (toilets, cooking, hygiene), but also water used in manufacturing. Since most of the items in our houses are imported from around the globe, this means that we tap into water supplies around the world, especially China.
Broadcast History
This was broadcast on WILL-AM Urbana, IL. It was dropped in during morning edition. It is the fourth part of a four-part series, but it stands alone and make no reference to the other parts. Episodes 1 thru 3 are hyper-local in their discussion of the water supply and are not posted to PRX - although they could be made available.
Transcript
How do we use water?
Length: 3:46
Anchor Intro: This morning we broadcast the final episode in our four-part series on water. Bill Hammack traces down carefully how we use water - including in ways we never suspected.
vo-04-01: I want to see how we use water and where it really comes from. To do this I take a novel and somewhat dangerous approach.
SFX: 08041602-alarm.wav; 08041607-bird.wav
vo-04-02: It's six-thirty in the morning on a beautiful spring day. I'm going to wake my wife Amy.
Amy: "I'm sleeping ... stop it!" [amy-morning-short.wav]
vo-04-03: She's not a morning person at all, yet I'm going to risk following her today to solve a mystery: Where does 1800 gallons of water a day go? Listen carefully because its hidden through her morning routine - it even includes water from China!
SFX: 08041607-shower.wav; 08041604-amy-yawn.wav
vo-04-04: Of course there's...
Read the full transcript
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Rekha Murthy
Posted on April 01, 2009 at 11:06 AM | Permalink
Great way to describe quantities
This piece uses sound and a touch of humor (at the gentle expense of his wife) to breathe life into a bunch of numbers that would have made my eyes glaze over in print. I appreciate, too, that the producer went beyond the standard 'take shorter showers' approach to home water consumption in order to look at the water used in the manufacturing of milk and clothing and other items. Obviously, we can't control a lot of those uses, but it does help to be aware.