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Financial times are tight, so if the thought of flushing hundreds of dollars down the drain scares you, listen up! If you follow some simple tips for conserving water, you can save money and help conserve a valuable (and ever-increasingly scarce) commodity. With July’s relentless heat upon us, now is a good time to start
Water your lawn, not the street.
Your first household rule should be to water only on those days authorized for your street number. This is an ordinance, not an option. If you live in an odd-numbered, single-family residence, you may water on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays. Even-numbered residential customers of Austin Water may water on Thursdays and/or Sundays, and commercial or multifamily customers are assigned to Tuesdays and/or Fridays. Outdoor watering is not permitted between the hours of 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. unless you use a handheld hose or watering can. If you have an automatic sprinkling system, you may not set it to come on during those hours. While this might sound a bit Big Brotherish, it’s all for a good cause; it costs a lot of money to capture and purify that precious liquid coming out of the end of your garden hose, and guess who pays for all that processing? That’s right – you.
Despite the American tendency to pamper our lawns and overwater anything that grows, your lawn should do just fine if you water it only one or two times a week. Austin Water has posted water-wise guidelines on its website (see end of article), recommending only one inch of water per week to maintain a healthy lawn and garden. If it rains, subtract the amount of rainfall from the amount you water each week. A good soaking once a week is preferable to watering more often, since this will allow a strong root system to develop and will help keep your lawn greener during the fierce heat of Central Texas summers. If your house is built on rocky soil, you’ll want to water twice a week to avoid run-off when the thin layer of soil becomes too saturated to take on more water.
Which gets us back to the original point here: Don’t water the street! If you see water trickling down the street into the gutter, you’ve saturated the ground and it’s time to turn the sprinklers off or coil the hose. With a rainfall deficit recorded for the first six months of this year, conserving water is even more important than ever.
Replace leaky faucets or outdated plumbing fixtures.
A few drops can add up to many dollars of lost water. If your sprinkler heads are broken, or you have a few leaky faucets, you’re not only losing money each month, you could be in violation of a City ordinance. Older model toilets use many more gallons of water per year. The City of Austin feels so strongly about conservation that it is offering up to three free toilets per residence to help you replace older models. If your toilets were installed before 1996, and if they use more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush, you may qualify for this program. The City program offers its customers, as well as qualifying households in certain MUD (Municipal Utility Districts), free, high-efficiency (HET), flapperless toilets that use only 1.28 gallons for each flush. If you prefer something other than the standard round model offered through the City’s program, you may also qualify for a rebate of up to $200 per unit if you select a model that meets City guidelines and have it installed yourself.
How much can one leaky toilet cost, or only one leaky faucet? Naturally, this depends on the volume being lost per minute or second. But some plumbing experts estimate that a dripping faucet emitting only one drop per second can waste $1,000 or more per year and a leaky toilet valve can waste 50 to 500 gallons a day. Check your plumbing fixtures and get leaks repaired, you’ll be thankful when your water bill arrives.
The City of Austin also offers rebates for other water conservation renovations or new appliances. If your clothes washer has seen better days, consider replacing it with a high-efficiency rated model and you could get up to $150 back in water and energy rebates. Other rebates are available if you install pressure-reducing valves or if you invest in rainbarrels.
Yes, Virginia, rainbarrels. Capturing rainwater sounds a bit archaic and conjures up memories of the old childhood “Playmate” song about sliding down cellar doors and shouting down rainbarrels. However, the idea of catching raindrops in a barrel and using them to water your garden or lawn is now back in vogue. The City of Austin has information on buying and using rainbarrels (which hold up to 75 gallons of that precious commodity, water), and offers rebates for purchases.
Your daily use habits can add up to many lost gallons and wasted dollars per year as well. The next time you draw a glass of water to drink, pay attention to how you do it. If you let the water run for a few minutes, rinse out the glass (even if it’s clean) and fill it up a second time before drinking, you’ve just wasted a lot of water. Do you let water run for a while before filling pans for cooking, or early in the morning when the pipes have been sitting overnight? Consider capturing those lost gallons in a pitcher and use them to water your inside plants, toss them onto the bushes outside the door, or fill up your pet’s bowls with the water you’ve been letting go down the drain. In some (older) cities, running water for a few minutes makes sense, because lead pipes might be an issue. Austin is generally not old enough to have much of a problem with lead pipes, so running water just for the sake of, well, running water, is probably more wasteful than healthful. Do you let the faucet run while brushing your teeth, or shaving your legs? You’re wasting water each time you do that.
If your kids are bored with the heat and suffering from the midsummer doldrums, you can try a little household game to help them learn about conserving water. Have them pretend they’re pioneers, or on a camping trip, and all water has to be drawn and stored in containers before it can be used for drinking, cooking, washing hands, brushing teeth, or anything else for which you normally turn on a faucet or flip a lever. Since you probably don’t have a drinkable stream nearby or an outside well, and you might be a bit skittish about drinking water from an outside faucet (although you probably don’t need to worry), you can cheat a little and use indoor faucets to fill up pitchers or pans. Try to predict how much water it will take to get through the entire day. Just one day of living this way will show you and your children how much water you normally waste doing simple, everyday activities.
Years ago, people moving to Austin were assured that our beautiful city had a guaranteed, permanent supply of good water from the Edwards Aquifer. Unfortunately, the booming growth and climate changes in Central Texas have taken their toll. Water rationing and conservation are probably here to stay.
MORE INFO
www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/default.htm