1. Water your lawn only when it
needs it. Step on your grass. If it springs back, when you lift your foot,
it doesn't need water. So set your sprinklers for more days in between
watering. Saves 750-1,500 gallons per month.
Better yet, especially in times of drought, water with a hose. And best of
all, convert your lawn to native plants.
2. Fix leaky faucets and plumbing joints. Saves 20 gallons per
day for every leak stopped. 3. Don't run the hose while washing your car. Use a bucket of
water and a quick hose rinse at the end. Saves 150 gallons
each time. For a two-car family that's up to 1,200 gallons a month. 4. Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors. Saves 500 to 800 gallons per month. 5. Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher.
Saves 300 to 800 gallons per month. 6. Shorten your showers. Even a one or two minute reduction
can save up to 700 gallons per month. 7. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways and
sidewalks. Saves 150 gallons or more each time. At once a
week, that's more than 600 gallons a month.
8. Don't use your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket. Saves
400 to 600 gallons per month. 9. Capture tap water. While you wait for hot water to come
down the pipes, catch the flow in a watering can to use later on house
plants or your garden. Saves 200 to 300 gallons per month. 10. Don't water the sidewalks, driveway or gutter. Adjust your
sprinklers so that water lands on your lawn or garden where it belongs -
and only there. Saves 500 gallons per month.
Saving Water in the Bathroom:
1. Put a plastic bottle or a
plastic bag weighted with pebbles and filled with water in your toilet
tank. Displacing water in this manner allows you to use less water with
each flush. Saves 5 to 10 gallons a day. That's up
to 300 gallons a month, even more for large families. Better yet, for even
greater savings, replace your water-guzzling five to seven gallon a flush
toilet with a one and a half gallon, ultra-low flush model.
2. If you're taking a shower, don't waste cold water while waiting for hot
water to reach the shower head. Catch that water in a container to use on
your outside plants or to flush your toilet. Saves 200 to 300
gallons a month. 3. Check toilet for leaks. Put dye tablets or food coloring
into the tank. If color appears in the bowl without flushing, there's a
leak that should be repaired. Saves 400 gallons a month. 4. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.
Saves three gallons each day. 5. Turn off the water while shaving. Fill the bottom of the
sink with a few inches of water to rinse your razor. Saves
three gallons each day.
Saving Water in the Kitchen:
1. If you wash dishes by hand -
and that's the best way - don't leave the water running for rinsing. If
you have two sinks, fill one with rinse water. If you only have one sink,
use a spray device or short blasts instead of letting the water run. Saves 200 to 500 gallons a month. 2. When washing dishes by hand, use the least amount of
detergent possible. This minimizes rinse water needed. Saves
50 to 150 gallons a month.
3. Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. This beats the
wasteful habit of running tap water to cool it for drinking.
Saves 200 to 300 gallons a month. 4. Don't defrost frozen foods with running water. Either plan
ahead by placing frozen items in the refrigerator overnight or defrost
them in the microwave. Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month. 5. Don't let the faucet run while you clean vegetables. Rinse
them in a filled sink or pan. Saves 150 to 250 gallons a
month.
6. Use the garbage disposal less and the garbage more (even better -
compost!). Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.
Saving Water Outside:
1. Put a layer of mulch around
trees and plants. Chunks of bark, peat moss or gravel slows down
evaporation. Saves 750 to 1,500 gallons a month. 2. If you have a pool, use a pool cover to cut down on
evaporation. It will also keep your pool cleaner and reduce the need to
add chemicals. Saves 1,000 gallons a month. 3. Water during the cool parts of the day. Early morning is
better than dusk since it helps prevent the growth of fungus.
Saves 300 gallons. 4. Don't water the lawn on windy days. There's too much
evaporation. Can waste up to 300 gallons in one watering. 5. Cut down watering on cool and overcast days and don't water
in the rain. Adjust or deactivate automatic sprinklers. Can
save up to 300 gallons each time. 6. Set lawn mower blades one notch higher. Longer grass means
less evaporation. Saves 500 to 1,500 gallons each month. 7. Have an evaporative air conditioner? Direct the water drain
line to a flower bed, tree base, or lawn.
8. Drive your car onto a lawn to wash it. Rinse water can help water the
grass.
9. Tell your children not to play with the garden hose. Saves
10 gallons a minute. 10. If you allow your children to play in the sprinklers, make
sure it's only when you're watering the yard - if it's not too cool at
that time of day.
11. Xeriscape - replace your lawn and high-water-using trees and plants
with less thirsty ones. But do this only in wet years. Even drought
resistant plantings take extra water to get them going.
That'll save 750 to 1,500 gallons a month. 12. When taking your car to a car wash--a good idea for saving
water - be sure it's one of the many that recycles its wash water.
13. Dispose of hazardous materials properly! One quart of oil can
contaminate 250,000 gallons of water, effectively eliminating that much
water from our water supply. Contact your city, county or provincial
government for proper waste disposal options. And don't flush prescription
medications!
Consider Water Conservation While Shopping
(Information below from Last
Oasis, by Sandra Postel, and California Water Facts, by the Water
Education Foundation)
While shopping, consider the water used in manufacturing the following
goods:
-Producing a typical U.S. car requires more than 50 times its weight in
water (39,090 gallons). Choosing a fuel-efficient model will help as it
takes 44 gallons of water to refine one gallon of crude oil and up to
1,700 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol.
-A kilogram (2.2 lbs) of hamburger or steak produced by a typical beef
cattle operation, uses some 20,500 liters (5,400 gal.) of water.
-Producing 1 lb of bread requires 500 gallons of water.
-Producing 1 serving (8 oz.) of chicken requires 330 gallons of water.
-Growing cotton for one T-shirt requires 256 gallons of water (source: The
King of California, by Arax and Wartzman)
-Producing 1 egg requires over 100 gallons of water.
-Producing 1 serving (8 fl. oz.) of milk requires 48 gallons of water.
-Producing 1 serving (2 oz.) of pasta requires 36 gallons of water.
-Producing 1 serving (4.6 oz.) of oranges requires 14 gallons of water.
-Producing 1 serving (4.3 oz.) of tomatoes requires 8 gallons of water.
-A typical Thanksgiving dinner for six people requires over 30,000 gallons
of water.
Content from: The Mono Lake Committee.
