This Is A Turn Off

Thanks for all of this. I think I already use even less water than the Europeans, but most of it just stems from the fact that I don’t live in a conventional home. But it would be nice to see water conservation ads again.I’m only missing tips on dishwater reduction, all I can really do there is wash everything in a bin of water, then rinse it off with low water pressure. Got anything? TIA.

I live in a small apartment, and could be pretty smug about the water I use if I wanted to be.I can’t remember where I saw the infographic, but I’m sure the information could be dug up to show how much water goes into producing food – which would probably eclipse the amount of water that comes out of your faucet.I think dishwashers are probably a really efficient way to wash dishes, i’m surprised it only uses ~5 gallons. If it washes all that with the same 5 gallons of water, it’s doing a better than I could do. Re-using towels and jeans instead of throwing them into every wash probably saves a good deal of water, too.

How much water is REALLY “saved” by using a LVPF toilet, when it has to be flushed 2 or sometimes 3 times to get a clean bowl?However, lets see….water conservation…I flush the toilet only when really necessary;  “yellow, let it mellow, brown, flush it down”  Both toilets are LVPF.I run the dishwasher only when it is full.  If that works out to once every two or three days, so be it.I am on a septic tank, not a city sewer, so all the waste water is earth filtered, and winds up in my neighbor’s well.  Perhaps in my own well, I don’t know which way the aquifer flows.I rarely use water for cooking.  Mostly I use the gas grill and the microwave.  Yes, I even brush the snow off the grill and use it in the winter!I don’t shave.  I don’t HAVE to, so I simply DON’T!I shower once, perhaps twice per week.  NOBODY really NEEDS to shower or bathe every day, and certainly NOT multiple times per day!I do a load of laundry perhaps once every week or week and a half, on average.  One load.  That’s all.I water the lawn just enough to keep it green.  Again, any “over-watering” sinks into the ground and ends up in the neighborhood wells, or evaporates and returns as rain.Remember, you can’t really “waste” water.  Every drop of water that was on the earth when the planet formed is still here.  Sure, some of it is “non-potable” by the current standards of us spoiled people, and yes, it would be a very good thing to reduce the useage of potable water wherever practical.  For instance, I would really like to install a pump so I could take the lawn water from the (non-potable) irrigation ditch that flows by our place (instead of from the potable well), but such a project would be quite expensive, and have very little payback, so it just isn’t practical at this time.Actually, it is quite easy to learn to conserve water.  Just spend a weekend, or better yet, a week, in a Recreational Vehicle (motorhome, travel trailer, truck camper), in a “no hookup” campground (known as “boondocking”).  When you only have 40 or 50 gallons of water, and limited space for waste water, you quickly learn to conserve!  No, you can NOT run your waste water out onto the ground.  In this state, that is against the law!  Did you know you can take a perfectly adequate “bath” in a gallon of water?  That’s right, ONE GALLON!It is truly amazing how little water yhou can get by with when you absolutely HAVE TO!

This article sounds just like my mother when she used that guilt trip to get us children to eat everything on our plate…because of “all the starving kids in India.” Like my eating my peas was somehow going to make sure the  poor kids got some  too!!! Makes no sense. How does my conserving my water in my home insure the drought stricken areas of the world will get water?  Even though I was brought up by the original recycler my dad…he even took the toilet paper off the tree in the front yard when kids teepeed the tree..he   lay it out to dry rolled it up and used it! Not that I am flying in the face of conservation as I do try to conserve where I can but only because it helps my pocket book.  Remember the big whigs in DC live in  mansions that use tons more resources of water and electricity then we would in a lifetime but they will not give up those mansions to live in homes like ours even though they are pushing conservation of resources.  

How can I recyle/reuse water when the law states I cannot run the water from my aerobic septic system through a hose so i can put it on the lawn in places   where it is needed.. That water which is 95% clean can only come from the sprinker heads which of course are set in one spot and only sprinkle so far. These conservationsist have got to work together!!!!

I am on board 100% for conservation!! However when I spent a whole year saving water every way I could think of my water department raised my prices!!! Not just a little either. The jerks explained to me that people took the messages seriously so their revenue was way down and they had to raise the prices because they were losing money!!!!!! You have to ask yourselve do these people really want to help? Now I use less water but pay more then I used to. That makes me very angry. The problem is this, is not about getting people to do whats right. It is about getting you to live with less and charging you more. Cap and tax will not reduce carbon. Just tax you silly and make you live with less. I am a conservationist from way back but the people claiming to be for saving the planet are actually working against people trying to do better by charging them to death. Here, where I live they want to start charging for trash by the pound. Oh yeah thats a great idea! People will drive down the street at night and dump trash on the highway. Pay per flush I have heard coming from my lovely govenor. Ok take a dump in a 5 gallon bucket and throw it down the sewer. You may think people won’t do it but your wrong!! We need common sense solutions that don’t penalize people for actually doing the right thing. Also instead of scare tactics every five minutes appeal to people to do whats right. You would be surprised. In my area people listen and try to help and then got hit with larger bills. Does not make you want to help in the future. If you truly spend the time doing the research which political party is against the Earth you would be surprised. One party is trying to use fake science and scare tactics to ram down bills that will alter your day to day life in ways you can’t even imagine. If the truly had any interest in helping keep our earth clean and making changes why not ask Americans to do their part first? Classic power play of shifting wealth from one group of people to another and the new group wants to steal your hard earned money and give it to people they choose. And no I am not a republican stooge! I believe both parties are selling us down the river!! Only difference is the speed of destructive movement. Also just so you know the Earth has droughts in one place while another floods. The Earth is alive. If temperatures did not go up and down that would mean the Earth is dead. How stupid do you people think we are. The Earth has heated and cooled who knows how many times before we came along.

We have more water here than many countries.  We use it.  We have less disease.  All of what is said might be well and good, but someone in the family better not have hepatitis (and you may not know this early on).  Regarding the toilet, I’ve known those who styrofoam line the toilet tank.  We live in an area with tons of water, the water from the river that ours drains into is treated and used by several towns down the line.  The stupid things are to move into the dessert and expect water, move to some trendy spot and expect water to be moved in for you, have every house have a swimming pool when one or two city pools do just as well.  Hollywood always bashes ‘trailer trash’, they should be applauding those who take up small spaces and share life in a communal setting.  That is external space of 14 x 70. We downsized quite a bit and later there will be less people, but for now it is just fine and fun, but we have a big yard so eventually we’ll have our deck and greenhouse shed on the patio.  My bathroom has a huge tub.  One thing I found is that my long hot soaky baths made my pain almost completely disappear-it is worth it.  What we do do though is share, the grandkids either bathe first or hop in with me or my daughter (a family tradition passed down from the ancients).  it’s a great place to talk privately or sit and read books and just relax. My husband has his shower that is better for him to get in and out of and my daughter has a smaller bath at the other end of the home.  Laundry is done in appropriate load, our washer has like a bagillion settings, still I do wish they would bring back the ond Easy, since wringers caused too many accidents, the Easy had a wash tub and you transferred over to the spin basin to spin out the stuff.  You spent more time with your laundry ritual but it made the clothes much cleaner  because you could adjust just how long something needed to be washed, or rewashed and much less water was used.  Peeing in the shower is absolutely gross.  I volunteered at a rec center and the plumbing by afternoon stunk horribly because every kid on the planet pees in the shower-again you better hope they don’t have disease that you’re standing in.  Word of warning, something I learned in nursing school….URINE CRYSTALIZES in HOT WATER.  That is why ya never wash out a bedpan or commode first with hot water,   So unless you want problems and major rules or only use cold showers DON’T PEE IN THE SHOWER.  Believe me, I wouldn’t recycle my own excrement to eat later.  There are reasons why we don’t do things.  People die by being stupid.  Sure it can be done, but does it mean that it is safe to do it?  If you do not know what you are doing, it could cost you and your family millions in medical bills later on. 

When we first moved in, some idiot contractor hit the water main  a few miles down the road and with a drastic water drop they were worried about E.coli (another thing planting untreated excriment is a no no  because it gets in the ground water),,,,,end result-boiled water or bottled water.  Since we moved here for convenience we walk to the stores and carried bottled water gallons because they had better filters at the store.  We know  how much it takes for 6 people to manage for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth.  About 2 gallons a day. We kept 7 gallons on hand and replenished.  We carried water for a month besides the regular groceries.  That 15 minute walk is a lesson carrying a backpack full and bags as well.  Sure we could have driven, but it made all 6 of us respect the necessities. 

This site has a good title,because it is GOOD to be the king.This is the U.S.of A for God sakes!!!We are the last super(for now anyway)so more power to us for using all the resources we can.That is why the rest of the world tries to come here,to get a piece of our pie.So keep that water,oil,natural gas flowing and damn the rest of the world.

Very important topic for discussion.Does anyone know whether or not flood waters are being saved, filtered, stored, and or directed to drought areas.  We have oil pipelines, why not water pipelines?

The gas company told me I’m using an average of 70 gallons a day.  I pictured fourteen 5 gallon jugs of water, and wondered how could I be using 70 gallons a day?  That’s a lot of water to use for one person in a day.  No wonder we’re running short now.  Emergency preparedness guidelines call for one gallon per person per day, so that means drinking water and a little for bare minimum body washing – that’s it.  In the movies, those stranded in the desert, somehow got by on one small canteen of water a day (I’m sure that’s unrealistic.)  With intelligent engineering, we could do way better than we arenow, and with the world’s population growing so much and so fast, we will be demanding it soon.

The bath (or the shower), for most of you, is the big water waste.  Any Navy man knows this for sure.  And let me tell you that even your idea discussed above in this article is silly and goes way over the boundary.  I use from 1 to 4 gallons of water a day to totally clean my body.  I am around many people every day (often very close) and no one ever tells me that they notice any difference.  [Want some help figuring out how that is done?  Well, for one thing I've had a surgery performed on me called an illeostomy and I can't go swimming any longer nor can I get under floods of water!] But I wash TOTALLY in a basin of water; sometime 1 2/3 basins.The flusher (toilet) is of course the next big waster.  First of all most toilets in homes have really cheap shut off valves and those things do not ever totally shut off!  It is true!  So get used to turning off the valve at the wall when the toilet tank fills; otherwise the water is constantly running day and night just a little trickle, but adds up to a lot of water over the long run.  Second, do not turn on the fill valve at the wall when you flush the toilet.  Let the water in the tank do the job.  If you discover that it does not quite flush the toilet completely (because you have poor plumbing or clogged plumbing) then fill a cup – I mean only an 8 oz. cup (not one of your giant 64 ouncers!) and pour it right down the drain just as the toilet is almost flushed.  AFTER you have flushed the toilet then turn on the valve at the wall and fill up the tank and shut the valve off again.  Can anybody tell me why you would do this?  It is simple; the time that the toilet is pouring the most water through it is when it is flushing and if the water is running into the toilet at the same time it is trying to fill and of course can not; all that water is just being wasted!Even with commercial toilets with high pressure breaker valves they become wasteful.  After even a year of use the multiple rubber flaps in those valves become hardened with calcium and iron deposits and quit sealing and turning loose correctly.  So much for that!And OjisanRuss; that is water canals.  Yes, there are finally some limited projects in place in some areas, but not near enough.  Some of us have tried to push past government roadblocks (not laws, just dumb unthinking people for the most part) to do much more in this respect.  With all the flooding problems in Louisiana and Mississippi and in the northwest (like North Dakota for the last three years) and in Washington and Oregon for instance some of us have recognized for many years that time controllable canal systems could go a l-o-n-g way in solving water shortage problems and saving peoples lives and property.  Do you want to join the push for such projects and make a contribution of money and/or time too?And my answer to Shanlee55: don’t you know, there is not a government anywhere in the world, at any level (federal, state county or city, or whatever) that their primary job is anything less than creating problems just so that they can claim they have a problem to fix!   There have been men throughout human history who have recognized that major aspect of all governments formed by men.  You are right; it is really stupid!