home water conservation tips

Other relatively simple things you can do in your home to further reduce water use are

• Repair leaks in your faucets & toilets. A leaky faucet can waste 20 gallons or more per day. Leaky toilets, even though they are usually silent, can waste hundreds of gallons per day. To find out if your toilet has leaks, put a little food coloring in the tank. If, w/out flushing, color appears in the bowl, you have a leak that should be repaired. Repairing a faucet is usually as simple as changing an inexpensive washer. Leaky toilets can often be repaired by adjusting the float arm or plunger ball.
  
  
• Use your dishwasher & clothes washer only when you have a full load. If you are purchasing a new clothes washer, choose one w/ variable load or suds saver options. Many dishwashers are also now available w/ water saving options. If you already have these options, use them whenever possible.
  
  
• If you are building a new home or remodeling an old one, consider installing "low flush" toilets. These toilets use 1-2 gallons per flush instead of the 3-5 gallons used by conventional ones. They are readily available & although they cost more, they can save you a lot of money in the long run through decreased water & energy use.

Outdoor uses of water are often high volume. Nevertheless, there are ways you can save water. Try these:

• Attach a pistol type sprayer to the end of your garden hose. In addition to enabling you to adjust the rate of flow, this device keeps water from continuing to run out during those short periods when you put down the hose w/out turning it off (while you are washing your car, for example).
  
  
• Water your lawn only when necessary. lt takes 660 gallons of water to supply 1,000 square feet of lawn w/ 1" of water. This is nearly the same amount of water as you use inside the house in an entire week! Water your lawn when it begins to show signs of wilting---when the grass does not spring back when you step on it---rather than on a regular schedule.
  

Saving Water in Special Situations

Sometimes it is necessary to use extra measures to reduce even further the amount of water you are using in your house. Although useful in any situation, these techniques may be especially helpful, or even necessary in some cases, when water levels are high around your house, your septic system shows signs of failing or your community water system temporarily loses capacity to supply adequate amounts of water.

Indoors, you should consider these changes:

• Take short showers instead of baths. A four minute shower can use as little as 8 gallons of water, while a bath needs 50-60 gallons.
  
  
• Avoid unnecessarily flushing your toilet. Never use it as a wastepaper basket to dispose of cigarette butts or tissue paper.
  
  
• Turn off the faucet while you are shaving or brushing your teeth or hand washing dishes.
  
  
• Avoid running water in the shower while you are shampooing or soaping. Most people step away from the water to do this anyway. Many water, saving shower heads come w/ a button to shut off the flow w/out changing the mix of hot & cold water.
  

Outdoors, try these

• Use mulch around trees & shrubs & in garden beds. This greatly reduces the amount of water lost through evaporation & so reduces the need for watering.
  
  
• Consider using a drip irrigation system in your garden. This system supplies water only to the root zones of plants. In addition to saving water, it reduces weeding because it doesn't water the areas between rows & hills of crops.
  
  
• Use only plant varieties that are well adapted to your locality & soil conditions. Poorly chosen varieties often need greater amounts of fertilizer & water just to stay alive.
  
  
• Avoid watering the lawn. Your lawn may turn brown in the middle of the summer, but this doesn't mean that it's dead. Rather, the grass is dormant & will regrow when rain & cooler weather returns.
  
  
• Use the water from your roof downspouts for watering your garden & flower beds.
  

GETTING HELP

If you need help in locating water, saving devices or other advice about water conservation, contact your local health department.