Aquarion Water Co. in Stamford has implemented a series of measures to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide it emits into the air.
The public water supplier said the initiative, which equates to removing more than 1,000 sedans from highways in a year, will save more than 840 tons of CO2 emissions this year.
“We”™ve been operating with a formal environmental policy and that helps us to make environmental concerns an integral part of our planning and decision-making processes,” said Charles Firlotte, president and CEO of Aquarion.
“This policy also requires us to strive to prevent and reduce environmental impacts of our operations, which is exactly what these measures are accomplishing.”
Aquarion is an investor-owned public water supply company for approximately 180,000 customer accounts or more than 580,000 people in 39 cities and towns throughout Fairfield, New Haven, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex and New London counties.
Firlotte said the most significant change is the company”™s use of solar energy. Aquarion started experimenting with solar five years ago, using it to run treatment systems at several of its reservoirs. In 2009, it partnered with The Nature Conservancy and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to use solar and wind technology to help migrating eels pass safely over one of its dams to open waters.
This March, Aquarion completed another pilot project that harnesses solar energy to generate some of the power used at the company”™s operations center in Bridgeport. United Illuminating Co. is monitoring Aquarion”™s progress with this effort to determine whether a similar system would benefit any of its other commercial customers.
Aquarion has replaced older, inefficient heating systems, installed other energy-saving devices throughout its facilities, and reduced its vehicle fleet size and downsized vehicle types.
Most recently, according to Firlotte, Aquarion and an unnamed Shelton-based energy company negotiated plans to build a larger solar energy system at the water treatment plant in that city. The new system will follow the sun”™s location throughout the day for optimum collection of solar rays. Firlotte said when constructed this spring, the project should reduce energy consumption at the plant by approximately 10 percent.
