Reduce Water Use 10%

Potable water is probably the one resource we take the most for granted. But what our recent weather patterns have shown – and just looking at our local rivers and streams – is that we are over-using. We will run out if we continue our wasteful ways, and water will be as expensive as oil. Between our industrial farming using 80% of our water and each person using about 80-100 gallons per day, we’ll need to change our ways.

This number does not include the amount of water used to produce our electricity. Returning to the electricity portion of the Fast, Americans use more than 10,000 kWh per year. That many kWh use 160,000 gallons of water to produce. This is an average – it may be more or less, depending on the source of your electricity. Nuclear uses the most while solar uses the least.

This number also excludes the water used in the energy needed to produce everything we buy. Just to make an ordinary light bulb, 4-6 gallons of water are used.

Leaks – They account for 25% of home water use. You’re leaking if you turn off all your water sources and your water meter reading changes. Find them and fix them.
Showering – Change your showerhead. Standard showerheads pump 5 gallons per minute. Reduce your use by half by changing to a low flow head.
Reduce the flow yourself. Don’t turn the flow to its highest setting. This reduces the amount by half.
Reduce the time. Most people take 10-minute showers. Reduce your time by a minute.
Toilets – We Americans use the toilet 6 times per person per day. How many of those times do you really need to flush? Reduce the water volume. Old toilets only need half the water used so put plastic bottles into the tank to reduce the amount used per flush.
Kitchen – Most dishwashers in use now can handle dishes straight from the table. Don’t rinse. Run the dishwasher only when full.
Clothes – Wash them only when they are truly dirty. You can wear something twice before washing. Try to convince a teen of that, but it’s true. Wash only full loads. If you have a suds saver option, use it! This will save 40% of the water used on clothes.
Gray Water – This includes water from the sink, dishwasher, clothes washer, shower and rain. The easiest to work with is rainwater. Either use rain barrels for outdoor watering, or divert the water from your roofs into your flowerbeds. You will save up to 30% in water use.

Our rainwater is flowing to the ocean more rapidly than ever recorded. This is due to impermeable surfaces such as rooflines, driveways, roads and parking lots. Half of all private property is covered with impermeable surfaces. Commercial land is 80% covered in this manner. This means water rushes directly into the waterways, rather than being absorbed by the land, creating artificial drought in even normal conditions. There are no steady flows anymore. Just extremes.

We can change this by reusing our gray water, even if it is only our rainwater, by diverting it to our lawns and garden beds.

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