Water
by Chris Tilley
6. Turn Off the Taps
North Americans use more water per person than anywhere else on earth, and its risen by more than 20% in the last 25 years. Yet water use habits are easy to change: waiting to run full loads in our dishwashers and washing machines can save 1,000 gallons a month. And by upgrading to newer low-flow toilets, faucets and shower heads they’ll do the water saving for you!
Less than 1% of the water on earth is fresh water that we can actually use.(source) Water is and incredibly precious resource, all life on earth needs water to survive. Are you under watering restrictions? Is your community concerned about its water supply? In 2006 Tofino, BC came very close to running completely out of water to the point of trucking water in (source) This in a rain forest. Tucson, AZ has just completed a project to allow them to store 47 billion gallons of Colorado River water for future use. This will allow them to ‘bank’ their allotment of the water rather than letting it flow on by.(source) The Colorado river Is so heavily used for water supply that it no longer consistently reaches the ocean.(source) Lake Mead which is created by the Hoover Dam and is part of the Colorado river has been drastically effect by drought.(source) The picture at the start of this article is of Lake Mead taken from the Hoover dam and graphically show the ‘Bathtub ring cause by the low water level. A study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego has stated that Lake Mead has a 50% chance of being dry in 2021 and that there is also a 50% chance that it will drop below the level needed to produce power by 2017.(source) To understand the drought that is currently affecting the southern US have a look at the US Drought Monitor. NASA has an excellent pair of images that demonstrate the lowering of water level. Conservation and protection of water source are already vital and will become a mater of life and death.
The treatment and movement of water takes energy and this energy has a carbon dioxide price tag on it. According to the EPA in the US running the tap for 5 minutes is equivalent to running a 60 watt bulb for 14 hours.(source) That works out to 0.84 KWh and using the number for carbon dioxide per KWh that’s 1.1 lbs of carbon dioxide. There is a lot of variation in the amount of water that comes out of the tap in five minutes. The important thing to know is that there is a carbon dioxide cost to our water.
There are lots of ways to save water, below are some easy ways to get started.
- Storter showers. Cutting your shower from 10 minutes to 5 saves up to 40 litres(source)
- Turning off the taps while washing hands, dishes brushing teeth shaving etcetera.
- Irrigate only as much as necessary (check with you local government for what is recommended)
- Install aerators on faucets
- Keep a jug of water in the fridge to avoid running the tap until it is cold
- Install low flow shower heads and toilets, save up to 80,000 litres of water a year
- Sweep your driveway rather than hosing it off
These really depend on what is in your house. Like with electricity the more you conserve the more you will research and the more you will want to do. My Favorite tip that I found is:
“Take advantage of recreation opportunities on local lakes and rivers, and learn about the wildlife they support. It will help you understand what we could lose if we don’t manage our water wisely.” (The Nature Conservancy)
Concluding points:
- Running the Tap for 5 minutes equals 1.1 lbs of carbon
- Fresh water is an incredibly precious and limited resource that we all need to live.
HI there,
Thanks for doing the run, and thanks for all the info. I will be directing my two kids to this site!
Meanwhile, I wanted to ask a question / pose a difficulty…I live in Charlottetown, PEI, and many if not MOST of the houses in the city are hooked up to lead pipes. When we had our water tested, the results showed lead, AND the tester indicated that we needed to “flush the system” by letting the water run for five minutes every morning!! WOW i thought, what a waste of water if every household in Charlottetown is doing this, but there is no way the City is replacing the pipes that our pipes hook up to, and we can’t afford the significant price tag to replace all the pipes in our house anyway.
What i do is make sure that the bathroom is used first in the morning, so water running for hands and face washing, and toilets flushed, (i figure that gets the system flushed out because the water has to run upstairs) then i run the water downstairs to rinse veggies and fruit for the kids lunch etc. a short bit, and we always use a Brita for drinking water.
what do you make of this situation? are there any other solutions?
I also wanted to add that as a mother of two pre-teens, despite a low flow shower head, young people like to take LONG showers, 30-40 minutes. I grew up with 5 siblings and a normal sized hot water heater, so we had short showers or someone had no hot water to shower with. I have started setting a timer, and rushing them along (which causes friction) – any tips on how to shorten the time spent that is less stressful?
thanks
Yvette
Comment by Yvette Doucette — Wednesday, September 17, 2008 @ 1:49 pm