YOU, H2O AND YOUR $’s

With summer finally upon us, one bill that you get in the mail that will undoubtedly be increasing is your water bill. For many of us this irritating situation occurs due to our summer ritual of watering whatever landscaping we have planted in our yards to keep the foliage alive and healthy. Although water from most of the local water utility providers has been relatively inexpensive up to this point in time, the cost of water has been creeping up over the past few years, and it is poised for a large increase in the near future. Those of us on a financial budget are most likely going to have to rethink how we use water in and around our homes, but especially for watering our yards. Lawns may well become a luxury we just can no longer afford. This thinking may give way to re-evaluating our entire yard and the landscaping/foliage in it as the new water rates will most likely be based on a rather aggressive tiered rate system that is predicated on how much water you use, a lot like the way electrical rates/bills are set up. If this is indeed the way we will have to pay for our water use, many of us will have to look at ways of ‘sculpting’ our yards to hold water on our property in and around the vegetation, installing drip watering systems that are controlled and metered (and sensitive to weather conditions) to provide just ‘enough’ water to plants at the appropriate areas, and possibly even trying to figure out how to capture and utilize rain water run-off from our roofs and paved areas. The days of ‘flood’ hand watering and/or placing a broadcast sprinkler out and just letting it go is probably a thing of the past.

We will have to re-evaluate our water use in our homes also in order to get a grip on the rising water bill. The very first thing we need to look at, and, should have done so long ago, is that our water system is intact and not leaking. Because plumbing pipes are run in many areas that can be hard to access or are completely hidden, finding leaks can be difficult. One easy method to determine if there even is a leak is to make sure every water faucet, hose bib and water using appliance is turned off and then go look at the water utilities water meter. The meter is located in a ground box usually near the street at the front of your property. Check and record where the needle is pointing and then compare that reading with another reading 15 or more minutes later. If the meter needle has moved, you have a leak and now you need to locate it to fix it. The next thing that probably should be done is to look at and assess all the water using fixtures and appliances in our home and determine what condition they are in and how much water they use. Some things like installing low flow shower heads will be pretty easy and won’t cost very much, while changing out a standard toilet or clothes washing machine for ‘water miser’ type units may involve a lot more work and money, which may also not really pencil out money wise.

One area of excessive water use that surprised me was that needed for dishwashing. I’ve always believed you could do a better job of cleaning the dishes by hand and save water at the same time over using a dishwashing machine. However, according to Green Plumbers, which is the name/trademark of Green Invest Limited of Australia that has an office in Sacramento, California, a new Energy Star qualified dishwasher will not only save energy, but will save nearly 5,000 gallons of water in a year over hand washing dishes. Contact me if you would like other water saving ideas.