Attention Citizens of the Bay Area!
We’re really in trouble now, Northern California! A drought has swept across California, threatening our precious water supply! But wait! There are heroes among us– Champions with water saving powers far beyond mere mortals. They turn off the water when they’re brushing their teeth! They fix leaky faucets! They wash full loads of laundry!
We need more heroes to fight this threat to our precious water supply. So tell us, Bay Area– How do you fight the drought?
October 21st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I keep a plastic lettuce container in my sink to hold water from washing fruits, vegetables or rinsing plates or washing hands. When it’s full I take it out and use the water in the garden. I also keep a small bucket in my shower that will fit under the spout in my bathroom sink. In the morning I fill the bucket in order to get enough warm water to wash my face. Then the cold water that’s in the bucket is used to flush the toilet. I do the same thing to get the shower water warm and use the cold for flushing. Very little water is wasted in this house.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:01 am
When taking a shower, I save water by not waiting for the water to get warm before going in. I endure the cold water shock, but its fun.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
When I was growing up, my parents taught me to take Navy style showers(get wet, turn off the water, soap up, rinse). I take Navy style showers to this day - it saves a LOT of water. Not fun during the winter, but it conserves. I’ve always turned off the water when brushing my teeth, and I only use the dishwasher when I have a full load(a dishwasher actually uses less water than handwashing, if you do a full load), and I use a phosphate free liquid. I also save the water after cooking pasta, and I use it to water my plants(they love it!) I also keep a PUR water pitcher in my refridgerator, so that when I want cold water, I have it on hand instead of running the water until it comes out cold.
My apartment complex(Crossbrook) set a good example for the rest of us by installing water saving showers, toilets, and washers, and that was BEFORE the drought hit us. That’s a message for us all -save water now before a water crisis comes along, and there will be more water to go around when a crisis does hit.
PS: Check out the old ‘Farley’ strips. Once in a while, the character ‘Frugal Faucet’ makes an appearance.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
In washing dishes, please use basin in order to save water.
In washing car, please use pail instead of water hose to save water.
Water your plants once a week to save water.
Report water leaks immediately to conserve water.
September 13th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
We always use our dishwasher instead of hand washing, because it saves water as long as you wash a full load of dishes.We don’t use the “prewash” setting, instead we scrape our plates into the compost pail provided by the city. We use an environmentally friendly phosphate-free cleanser, so we protect our environment as well!
September 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
When my four-year old daughter and I both have to go to the restroom, I ask her not to flush, but I do it after we both have used it-saves us half the water used for flushing (we do it only when we dont go for the big job). Our 8-year old son also flushes only once now when earlier he used to do it twice-he says ‘I dont like to waste so much water’. I use the used water in water bottles which I would throw earlier to water my indoor plants. We also try not to keep the water running while brushing & washing dishes.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I filled up used bottles with water and put them in the toilet tank. The water inside makes them sink, so that when the toilet refills, it saves the amount of water that is in the bottles. This is good if you have a wasteful toilet, not really necessary with low-flow toilets (may actually keep it from working without enough water).
September 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
From a family of 11 kids, short showers were required, lawns were only watered at night, regardless of time of year, etc. Now I live in a house (2 occupants) and am on a well system; but when late summer comes, we end up running out of water. Have to buy a 1 or 2 truckloads of potable water to fill the storage tank. This year, probably we will probably need double that before the well starts to produce water again. We dont water the lawn (its dead, comes back after rains start.), and our filter system, which backwashes nightly for 15 minutes has been fitted with multiple hoses to the garden bed sprinklers: Water that was wasted during the nightly filter cycle, is now used to water the garden! (and whatever trees/bushes i move the hoses to). So I DO believe that even people on well systems should conserve water, as the surrounding neighbors may very well be pulling water from the same underground stream. It bothers me when I see other people in the neighborhood, watering their plush green lawns for 2 hours a day at high NOON! (the same people that complain about casinos being built nearby, with the concern that they too will be using our water supply.) thanks.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Growing up during WWII in the Netherlands, being bombarded by “Tommies, Yankees or Germans” the utilities often would be closed down after the warning sirens had sounded. We quickly learned we could do without warmth, gas and electricity,but food and more so, WATER, NO. Water was the most precious of all and I often had to run upstairs and fill the bathtub.
We always shared the bathtub or took turns, and, if really dirty, would do a pre-wash, Japanese style, in the sink. We do so again.
My grandmother used to carry her pail of dish water out to her flourishing garden. No bugs there, they do not like soap. I have an Atrium with about 50 plants. They only get grey water, as do many of my outside plants. I lug a lot of buckets and am horrified how much water goes down the drain just to wash the apples, other fruit and vegetables.
I do not use the disposal which slurps up gallons of water to grind food scraps that now go in a compost heap. These are just a few of many.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:33 am
I nominate my father, John Logan, ground water
hydrologist. One thing he did, before the drip
irrigation systems were widely used: he got
plastic container–5 gallons–punched a nail
hole at the bottom, placed it at the bottom of
the plant, or tree, filled it up to the appro-
priate capacity, and the water would slowly
go to the root system. This was usually done
in the late afternoon. Those buckets are
still here, still used and still work. (can
a drip irrigation system last 30 years?)
August 27th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I wash dishes in my sink and rinse dishes in two pans filled with water. The first rinse gets off the soap and the second rinse gets all else. This saves water by not using the dishwasher which uses more water then hand washing. This saves water and power.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
[...] big contributions to this year’s campaign are a new community blog where people can share their own water-saving tips (look closely and you might see some familiar [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I stopped my cousin from washing one blueberry at a time.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I am saving water by only watering my plants when it is cool so the water does not evaporate.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Also, immediately notify facility managers/owners of any leaks/waste, esp. public facilities
August 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
For over 5 years, have been saving bath/shower water to use to flush toilet, rinse sidewalk, wash car, and/or water lawn/outdoor plants; turn faucet to minimal flow when clean water rinsing necessary; do not leave water running when soaping dishes & wipe off food particles before washing dishes; use deep water watering technique for outdoor plants and trees rather than surface watering which evaporates.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Have a bucket of water handy, instead of the open spigot, when sweeping out the garage- concrete floor and drive way. Dip into the bucket with your broom or pour a little onto the open surface, then sweep. Doing this eliminates the need to perform excess sweeping as the moisture keeps the dust down.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I purchased two large plastic spouted watering cans (2-3 gallons). When I first come home after a long day, water has not been flowing through the plumbing for a day or so. I usually want to let the water run a little to flush out the plumbing. Now, I let the water run into these plastic watering cans. It takes several minutes to fill up one can. The water can then be used to water places that are hard to reach with the garden hose, or to supplement watering with the hose. The cans hold more water than you would think and can be used for any reason you might want to let the water run.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Lot’s of great ideas! Here are two more things I do at home. First, I rinse all produce into a bucket, then use the water on houseplants and garden plants. Also - start a compost bin outdoors for all your produce scraps instead of using water to wash them down your garbage disposal. The added bonus of healthy compost adds incredible nutrients to your soils - especially the vegetable garden.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
My recommendation is to watch your water bill closely. When the usage started creeping up we used our water meter to detect a leak. After shutting off all the taps in the home we looked at the meter dial and it was still moving. A plumber detected a leak in the water main leading up to the house. After fixing it our bill was cut in half.
Another good trick is to put dye in your toilet tanks. If the water in the bowl changes color you have a tank leak and could be wasting thousands of gallons. Changing out the worn flapper is an easy fix. Check with your local water utility. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission provides replacement flappers for FREE.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I have two water-saving practices that I want to share with you. This is in additon to installing “stingy” shower head and other things that you are all familiar. First practice: When you turn on the shower head, you usually let the water run for ten seconds or so because it’s cold. How about using a bucket and hold the water. Then use this bucket of water to irrigate your plants, indoor or outdoor and other purposes. Second practice: Don’t flush the toilet unless it’s solid waste. If you don’t feel comfortable about this, flush it only after three or four uses. You will get used to it.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:38 pm
At the Front Porch Restaurant here in San Francisco we do a few things to save drops. We have installed a heavy duty commercial water heater which has an almost immediate recovery time so guests and employees don’t need to run their hands under the faucet waiting for the hot water. It also gets the water so hot that our dishwashing machine can handle tough loads in one wash. Our staff washes pots and pans by hand more efficiently too.
Instead of refilling guest’s water glasses when they get low, we put jugs of cold tap water on their table which they can use or not. This has cut down on the amount of water we throw out when we bus the tables. If there is left over water in the jugs at the end of the night we use them to water our plants.
We put aerators in all of the faucets in the restaurant. That was the not only the easiest thing to do, but it also keeps splash water off of the fronts of people’s clothes. That can be embarrassing as well as water wasting.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:25 pm
My family recently stepped up our water conservation a few notches. We started by contacting the City of Mountain View public services dept. at Public Services Division at 650.903.6329 (press 6, they are between 8:00am and 4:00pm). They e-mailed me a .PDF file containing our water records since 2002. The 2004 year is the baseline to compare against current usage to determine savings. We recorded our current usage over a 2-week period to determine our current daily usage rates (divide by 7), then started conservation efforts. We are currently averaging 25-30% less daily than our 2004 usage.
One step we took was to measure the before/after water meter values while doing normal activities: toilet flush, laundry load, shower, and dishwasher, irrigation cycles. We realized showers used 2 gallons/minute, so a 15 minute shower was 30 gallons! It’s shocking. We started taking shorter showers, and doing the rinse, then lather with water off, then rinse clean. My wife holds our record, with a 0.88 gallon shower. We realized out mature plants need less water than when they were new and rooting, so we reduced our overall irrigation durations 30%. We started washing dishes by hand, instead of in the dishwasher. We also began keeping buckets under the shower and bath faucets, to catch 8 gallons/day of water wasted while we await hot water for the shower. This catch water we store in a 15-gallon cistern with a tap, and use it for our birdbath, water feature, and outdoor potted plants for daily watering.
Finally, to make it all easier, the city upgraded our older Neptune T10 water meter with a newer Badger 35 meter with remote reader unit. This remote reader is like a TV remote, which can be kept in the house, and allows you to read the current water meter register, accurate to 0.75 gallons, or read one of 2 comparison/refresh registers you can red or clear to easily compare before/after levels to determine how much water-use activity events use in your house. We keep a daily log of our water meter register values, to monitor our conservation progress. An added benefit of the mew meter and remote reader is the leak detection feature: It alerts you if there’s ever a 24-hr period where the water was always on. Very helpful in detecting a water main leak which might otherwise leak $$ right out of your pocket!
We’re very eager to shar our experience and hope it inspires others to conserve. We may be reached at scutcomb AT gmail.com for any followup questions.
July 30th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I moved to California last year, and have been shocked at how even in the Bay Area, where environmentally-conscious drivers make hybrids the most popular cars on the road, people still waste so much water keeping their cars sparkling clean.
I’ve started making bumper-stickers to encourage people to conserve water by washing their cars less often:
Dirty Car
Clean Conscience
Save Water
Drive Dirty
And several others. If you’re interested in purchasing one or more of these, please e-mail me at: fredwerner AT hotmail.com (replacing “@” instead of ” AT “).
July 29th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I do several things. For one thing, at the insistence of my super water saving hero husband, we save dish water and shower warming water and use it on the very few thirsty bushes we have in the garden.
Speaking of garden, mine is planted with drought resistant native Californians. Some of them — like the fremontodendron (Mexican flannel bush) and California fuschia (epilobium canum) and St. Catherine’s lace require no water at all.
I don’t have drip irrigation, but I do water the garden pretty much by hand, using over head sprinklers every four days during the hot season and watering the veggies like lettuce which need more water by hand. I mulch and use a lot of compost, which keeps water needs low. Watering by hand keeps me very much in touch with the water needs of the garden, which really should dry out between waterings. In September and October I will be watering less frequently. And I have had luck with dry farming tomatoes, which taste very, very good (The ones that don’t develop the calcium deficiency do.) If the drought continues, I will drastically cut back my vegetable patch.
When I shower or wash my hair, I wet down, turn the shower off, soap up, and turn the shower on just long enough to rinse off. I think this is what they do in the Navy. And yes, I catch the water used to warm up the shower.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
My daughter helped me install a low flow shower head and aerators on my sinks. My water bill was cut in 1/2 the first month!!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’ve written about this on my blog before. One thing most of us can do, is to put a bucket under your shower faucet. If you catch the warm up water and the last gush that comes after you turn the shower off, you’ll capture anywhere from half to 1.5 gallons. If you’re the kind of person who turns off the shower to soap up, you might capture up to 2 gallons.
So what can you use this water for? Anything really! That’s drinking quality water pouring out of your shower tap most likely. In summer we use our shower “run-off” for the garden. We never need to turn on the hose for our veggies and fruits. In winter we fill the toilet tank or use the water for dishes. We don’t have a washing machine, but you could easily use this water to contribute to a clothes washer. It’s already in a bucket, maybe you can clean with that water. I dunno, but now that you have it, use it well.