In honor of the World Cup that began last night, we are re-posting a wonderful image that made quite a splash online a few years ago. EPCOR Utilities, Inc., the water utility that serves the City of Edmonton in Canada, tracked the water consumption in the city during the Canada-US Olympic gold medal hockey game in 2010, down to the minute. The large dips in the water flow rate occurred when people were watching the action on TV, and the huge spikes clearly mark what we all do immediately at the end of a game period of any major sporting event! This phenomenon has been called “The Big Flush”. We wonder how many cities around the world will witness the same water use patterns in the next four weeks during the World Cup, one of the most watched sporting events in the world.

Bottoms up!

A $napshot is an interesting graphic relating to an environmental finance subject accompanied by a short post. This $napshot was written by Shadi Eskaf. The graph was created by EPCOR Utilities, Inc. and reproduced with permission.

Reference: EPCOR Utilities, Inc. “Water Consumption in Edmonton During the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game in 2010”, February 2010.