Bowled Over

Mayors of 29 Great Lakes cities vow to cut water consumption

What's a Friday without some toilet talk? The mayors of 29 Canadian and U.S. cities in the Great Lakes region have agreed to cut water consumption 15 percent from 2000 levels by 2015, and one of their solutions is banning inefficient potties. "We need provincial legislation about low-flow toilets," said Toronto Mayor David Miller yesterday at a meeting of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. "They need to be mandatory in home renovations." The cities -- including other big guns like Montreal, Chicago, Hamilton, Ont., and Buffalo, N.Y. -- also passed a resolution calling for a revolving loan fund to help fix leaky public water systems, and compared notes on conservation plans that 11 of them already have in place. "We are all under pressure to reduce greenhouse gases generated by [water treatment and distribution]," said Miller, whose city has exceeded its water-conservation goals. "And the silver lining is that municipalities save money through water conservation." Imagine that.