Comments on conserving water

[Michael W. Smith]

Living here in North-Western Pennsylvania, we are "behind" in the average quantity of rainfall we have received. It's pretty much been all summer and fall, but I know alot of places are worse off than we are. In the summer, just as the grass was starting to turn brown, we got a few days of rainfall that greened it back up.
The farmer's crops seemed to do fairly well even with the lower rainfall we usually get.
But here's what I'm questioning. Even though we are not "officially" in a drought, we were put in a drought county right AFTER we got 3 days of rain , we were then taken off. And even though we haven't been put back on, I know several people who have run out of water and are having it hauled.
We've been conserving for some time now. Quick showers (no more standing under the shower and letting it wake you up in the morning), get wet, turn the water off, get lathered up, water back on for a quick rinse, and then turned back off and you are done. We've even been taking the clothes into the laundromat every week. (Our well is an old hand dug well that is 18 feet deep.) The last time we checked, we had about 8' of water in it (which is the usual) but we aren't taken any chances.
Last weekend we went down to my wife's relatives. I'm not sure if their county is in an "official" drought or not, but I know the town's water reservoir was way down. And I mean way down. At the opposite end of the main reservoir, instead of water, there was just a small stream in the middle of the bed. You didn't really see standing water until you got about half way and instead of being by the road (where it usually is), it was down as well.
So they have been told to conserve water - no watering the lawn, no washing cars, etc. But when their 3 year old son went to wash his hands, he turned on the water full blast and "washed" his hands for about 5 minutes. The parents mumbled something about "Oh yeah, there he goes taking his time and running the water." Not that they really cared. With them being on city water, you go turn the faucet on and water is always there. I'm thinking they really don't conserve.
Our family always gets together during the holidays with us siblings taking turns for each holiday - we go to someone's house for Easter, another siblings for Thanksgiving, and yet another's on Christmas. Having 3 other siblings, one sibling always gets a year "off". But it's our turn to have Christmas, so due to a conflict with WHEN exactly Thanksgiving will be at my sister's and trying to decide when we will have Christmas, we have decided to combine the two. We will have a late Thanksgiving/ early Christmas in at my sister's and instead of her cooking the main meal, my wife will and take it there. When we told the one sister about the combined meal (due in part to us conserving water), she said "What do you mean conserving water?"! It's obvious she is on the town water supply and not a well!
Which just gets me to wondering - when town people are used to always having water and not ever run out - how many people in drought striken towns are actually conserving water?
Do you actually think the people in Georgia actually think about how much water they are going to use when they take a bath or shower, or brush their teeth, or wash their clothes, or when cooking, cleaning, etc?
With the majority of America into the "me" act, I'm sure everybody thinks "I'm not going to conserve water, everyone else can." But of course, if they all think like that, nobody is conserving water.
What do you think?

[omnicat]

I suspect that most town-supply folks don't give it a lot of thought.

I'm on city supplied water, and I do think about it, and have started installing rain barrels, and often use DD's used bath water for plant watering and stuff...but I get the feeling I'm in the minority. I don't water my lawn in a drought...but then again, I never water my lawn, ever.

I suspect that most of my neighbors only think about it when there are watering restrictions, but they probably don't think past the large issues, and don't even think about handwashing and other brief-use times that could be managed better.

[chickenista]

I am amazed that people are still going to the carwashes here. And that the carwashes are still open. I see no obvious conservation other than our house. I fear I am going insane.. I am so concerned now about being frugal with everything..
money..barely making ends meet these days. I am really stretching and I was already stretching our food and spending.. we just don't spend anything other than bills or food.
I am concerned about conserving water. I haven't gone over the top, but I am conscious about the water I use. I just hate to wash clothes.. I feel so bad, but I have to..though we wear em long and hard first.
We are dry. I mean D R Y. I cannot believe that there are no restrictions. There should be restrictions. I just wonder how long before we are cut off like the town in Tenn. and how people are going to be enraged..like they had no idea.. and they pay taxes and a water bill...and a host of other whinings.

[highlands]

I read about people complaining about drought yet they use 130 or 160 gallons of water per day per person in a household - that's not including commercial or agricultural according to a recent article I read which was talking about Nevada.

Our family uses about 7 gallons per person per day, possibly less - so no, I don't feel like conserving. I do have a hard time understanding how people could ever use 160 gallons a day.

[Kmac15]

I have a neighbor who, when I mentioned that we are trying to conserve water, informed me that people like her and us do not need to conserve.....
the reason
We have our own wells that tap into an underground river that will never go dry...???
Oh yah, and she is still watering her large lawn with a sprinkler system and her inground pool has a leak but she does not have the money to have it fixed but has no problem adding water to it each day.
sorry for the rant.

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by highlands

I read about people complaining about drought yet they use 130 or 160 gallons of water per day per person in a household - that's not including commercial or agricultural according to a recent article I read which was talking about Nevada.

Our family uses about 7 gallons per person per day, possibly less - so no, I don't feel like conserving. I do have a hard time understanding how people could ever use 160 gallons a day.

In Missouri we had record rainfall in 2007 (so far), but that doesn't mean that I don't conserve. I sawdust toilet probably saves 3 gallons per flush so that has got to be close to 60 gallons per day just on the toilet alone! Since it is just the two of us, we don't have a lot of clothes to wash and we re-wear our clothing until it "really" needs to be washed (not just after we wear it once). Generally, we wash our dishes just once a day after supper. I believe that it is wrong to waste such a precious resource even if it IS plentiful. And shame on those people who do!

donsgal

[auctioneer]

The only water I've ever wasted is on the garden with a sprinkler. I don't do that but maybe 3-4 times a year even without drought. There are times when you don't have time to hand water, or are not feeling so good.

We've always conserved in the house because of the septic tank.

[Michael W. Smith]

I guess when you are on a well (and a shallow one at that) you do conserve. We've been without water before as anytime the electricity goes off, the only water we can use is what's in the line and under pressure.

We have only actually run out a believe a total of twice. Once, about 10 years ago, we went to use water and I heard our water pump in the basement running and running and running. It was a very dry year (and we hadn't conserved) so I figured we were out. Looking down the well confirmed it. But by the next day, we had some water, so started conserving and we were fine.

My wife, son, & I are the only ones here. So between conserving where we can - quick showers, washing clothes at the laundromat once a week (we try to wear shirts and pants at least twice before washing them now), not running water when brushing our teeth or washing our hands, only flushing the toilet after a bowel movement.

Between working full time, son being in school, and wife working part time, our water use at home is minimal. And while when we aren't in drought conditions we don't conserve like we do now, we also don't just waste it either.

I guess I"m just ranting on the city and town people who I figure think everyone else will conserve, but they won't. Even in drought conditions, they continue to use as much water as usual not giving it a second thought, but I'll bet if the water did run out on their public supply, they would be the first one whining about the injustice of it!

[OkieDavid]

"Hi, I'm David and I am a water waster"...I must confess that until the wife and I bought this place I had never lived anywhere that the water wasn't supplied. As a result- drought, conservation, appreciation for water never clicked in my head...You turned on the tap and the water came. If it didn't, you called City Hall and complained. We bought this place in 1999 (drought year), water made it until August before we burned up our first pump.....Figured it was just old anyway. Hauled water for a couple of weeks until I could afford to replace it. Same thing happened in 2000 and the light finally went on.....We have adjusted to ending our gardening in July and really watching how we use water. Haven't had a problem since we began paying attention. Until this, I always ran the water while brushing my teeth. While we certainly aren't as frugal as some on here we have a MUCH greater appreciation for that precious resource.

David

[Anita in NC]

Wells are running dry here in NC. We had recent troubles with our well/water supply for various reasons and now we're conserving water because the drought is meant to last several more months.

We only flush after someone poops. We use grey water to flush. We do dishes by hand and save the water for flushing. When we shower we take a real quick one and stand in a big tub so that we can save the grey water. When we wash hands we have a bowl in the sink and also save the water from this for flushing.

We do our laundry and the laundry mat that has front loading washers.

Our family of 5 uses about 20 gallons per day, so about 4 gallons per person.

I too do not want to have visitors until the drought is over - I don't think they would understand our conservation efforts. I'd just cringe at guests keep flushing.

[Wildwood Flower]

I don't know, I grew up with my mother teaching us to conserve water and it just comes naturally to me.

I can't stand it when my granddaughters are over here and helping with the dishes. The entire time they are cleaning up, they are letting the water run full blast.

Then they loosely stack the dishwasher any old way. And usually have dishes left over--so it must be run again.

I put water in the sink to pre-wash the dishes. And I stack the dishwasher tight and only run it when it's plum full. (For DH & me that's about twice a week.)

I also take a bath instead of a shower. Those girls also let the water run and run in the shower.

I hate to be such a NAG, but I always have to mention these things to them. Funny thing, their mother is the worst culprit!

But they're wasteful about EVERYTHING! They take too much on their plates and then throw half of it away. We NEVER did this when I was growing up. We could have all that we wanted, but we learned not to take too much either.

Well, I'm getting off on a tangent.

I don't know, it seems that Mother Nature is going to force us to learn to conserve water...and a whole lot of other things.

[Pouncer]

In my state, no drought, thank heavens. But water use is considered to be about 50 gallons a day a person....that's cooking, laundry, cleaning, showers/baths, etc. I know this because this is how septic systems are sized, based on bedrooms in the home.

There are plenty of days when we don't use the 50 gallons, and others when we blow right through that, like when we are canning or processing large quantities of fish. I have a fairly deep well (Over 200 ft) and it produces 20+ gpm. I also have horses and a garden to tend. This next year I will be using plastic mulch with soaker hoses in the soil, just because.

In most newer houses, low flow toilets are the norm (1.5 gallons a flush) and most shower heads are restricted as well. I really feel for folks in the drought areas, I can't imagine what will happen in Atlanta when the water runs out......

[Phantomfyre]

Honestly, no, I don't think most people think about it. People feel entitled to everything these days - water is a given! When I lived in town on city water, I did, but only because I was well trained (pardon the pun) by my dad when I was growing up in the country on well water. I'm still trying to correct former city-boy DH's bad water habits, and he grew up in the Soviet Union with rationing!

[LynninTX]

We are on city water here and a septic...

I think before we moved here I conserved more than some... always reused bath water and timed son's showers (I'd turn the water off at the curb if he ran over)

but we have gotten more conservation minded here...

I bought plastic basins to use in the kitchen sink so we can toss the water outside.

We do NOT NOT run water here and guests are informed of that.

We have a front loader washer.

Bath water is usually recycled. Only dh showers every day.

Our water is NASTY so my dh works part time for a water store and we get free drinking & cooking water.

[Jenn]

"Hi I'm Jenny and I'm a water waster too" I take it for granted in a way I wouldn't if I knew I'd be hauling water soon... And while raising the price of water might help it wouldn't really: I would say to myself we can afford it, time to realise everything costs three times as much as I think it ought. (another downside to living so long) It's laziness and principle that makes me water so seldom and try to avoid having to do so.

That said we have only black water to our septic and don't flush every pee, and our septic along with the springs in our hill slowly trickle out the hillside into neighbor's fishpond where he is very grateful for it (and we presume it is safe- no algae bloom on his ponds etc). Our greywater runs off edge property into woods and eventually joins a drainage ditch and slowly- other neighbor's stock pond etc- a local river a few miles off. When the drainage ditch went dry first time for decades this summer I felt like taking a shower was helping keep our wood alive.

Makes me ill to think the Lanier reservoir is being held back- from mussels is enough let alone other uses for man or nature for that waterflow- if it's true that Atlantans really haven't been curtailing their lawnwatering or carwashing or taking any of the measures most towns do in such a time.

[canadiangirl]

Water conservation...hmmm do I have a story for you. Last month I get a call from the Town Water Commission. I am told there must be a leak somewhere in our rental duplex. They have flagged the house, water consumption tripled and they use some sort of "noise" meter and it is using water in the middle of the night. I am informed it is most likely a toilet running or a leak and should see to it immedietly. We tear through the house and cannot find anything. The tenants have not noticed a toilet sticking or tap dripping. Hubby thinks someone had a sticky toilet but won't admit to letting it run. We check the meter several times in the next 2 weeks and no water running. I go to the house last week as one of the tenants is moving out, they are doing last minute cleaning and I ask where the baby ( 9 months old cute as a button) is. She calmly points at the bathroom. I panic..the water is running, did you leave him in the tub to answer the door. No, he is sleeping and leads me to where said baby is sleeping beside a full running shower because he sleeps better to running water. "Oh do you think that is what the water leak was?" I am glad to see the end of her, how stupid can you be. They (just a young couple) are moving in with her father and I explained as nicely as I could that her dad won't want the extra water bills either.

[Shepherd]

We've run out of water several times until we finally realized we had a hydrant leaking underground. It happened twice (2 yrs in a row) around Christmas when we had company over (but I don't believe it was because of them). Each time it happened we had to haul water. We employed the same techniques as the others have mentioned above: catching water in basins to use for other things. Hand washing clothes then recycling the water for another load, then utilizing the water for scrubbing floors, then finally using the water for flushing with 5 gal buckets kept in the bathrooms. Laundry rinse water was recycled in the same fashion. Toilets were not flushed unless absolutely necessary and toilet paper was not flushed unless it was brown.

Watering the garden did not happen when we were having to conserve due to drought, and houseplants had to survive from rain water I'd catch into buckets - or the cycled water mentioned above, if I didn't have enough rainwater. I have a huge garbage barrel sitting under the barn to catch rainwater to use to water the chickens.

My cousin and his girlfriend have come out to join us for dinner before and I've caught her at the sink just letting the faucet run while peeling potatoes or washing up the counters. I've rushed over and shut it off and CLEARLY explained that when you're on a well, you cannot do that. Not only is it terribly wasteful but that it could run the well dry. I told her "You'd be surprised what a horrible feeling it is to turn a faucet on and nothing comes out. Water is something we all take for granted, but when you're out of it, it's a real crisis!"

[Kim_NC]

Originally Posted by Kmac15

I have a neighbor who, when I mentioned that we are trying to conserve water, informed me that people like her and us do not need to conserve.....
the reason
We have our own wells that tap into an underground river that will never go dry...???
Oh yah, and she is still watering her large lawn with a sprinkler system and her inground pool has a leak but she does not have the money to have it fixed but has no problem adding water to it each day.
sorry for the rant.

Please let us know when her well goes dry. I dislike waste.

[Kim_NC]

Originally Posted by OkieDavid

"Hi, I'm David and I am a water waster"...I must confess that until the wife and I bought this place I had never lived anywhere that the water wasn't supplied. As a result- drought, conservation, appreciation for water never clicked in my head...You turned on the tap and the water came. If it didn't, you called City Hall and complained. We bought this place in 1999 (drought year), water made it until August before we burned up our first pump.....Figured it was just old anyway. Hauled water for a couple of weeks until I could afford to replace it. Same thing happened in 2000 and the light finally went on.....We have adjusted to ending our gardening in July and really watching how we use water. Haven't had a problem since we began paying attention. Until this, I always ran the water while brushing my teeth. While we certainly aren't as frugal as some on here we have a MUCH greater appreciation for that precious resource.

David

LOL...is this a "WWW" meeting? I admire your honesty and enjoyed your humor. So glad you've learned to conserve.

[HOTW]

[QUOTE=canadiangirl] She calmly points at the bathroom. I panic..the water is running, did you leave him in the tub to answer the door. No, he is sleeping and leads me to where said baby is sleeping beside a full running shower because he sleeps better to running water. "Oh do you think that is what the water leak was?" QUOTE]

Gee think they haven't heard of little decorative fountains? People tuly think water is free.....