Ninety-seven
percent of the world’s water is salty, while only 2.5% is fresh water. Of this small
amount of freshwater on our planet, 68.9% is contained in snow and glaciers and
30.8% is groundwater. Only 0.3% is found
in readily available sources such as rivers and freshwater lakes. These rivers and lakes are the principal sources
that many communities across the globe depend on for drinking water and
everyday water use.
Water Use and Waste Disposal
Unfortunately,
most rivers, lakes and even groundwater reservoirs are now being depleted, polluted
or otherwise in danger of disappearing.
The principal threats to our water sources are population growth;
infrastructure development; land conversion (deforestation, agriculture, urban
growth); and release of pollutants (agricultural and industrial chemicals,
human waste).
Every day, 2
million tons of human waste are disposed of in water courses. Each year between
300-500 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other wastes
are dumped into water sources by various industries. In 1998, 40% of the water
bodies assessed in the United States were not deemed fit for use due to metal
and agricultural pollution. In Europe
only 5 out of 55 rivers are considered pristine, and more than 80% of the
wetlands along the Danube River have been destroyed. In Asia, all rivers running through cities
are badly polluted. By 1998, the Aral
Sea (the world’s fourth largest inland sea) had lost 75% of its total volume.
In low and middle-income countries agricultural use
accounts for 82% of water use, while only 8% goes to domestic use, and 10% to
industries. Meanwhile 70% of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters
where they pollute the useable water supply.
In upper-income countries 59% of freshwater is used by industry, 30% for
agriculture, and 11% for domestic use. More than 80% of the world’s hazardous waste
is produced in the United States and other industrialized countries.
The Price of Water
The price of water
in much of the world is minimal in comparison to its vital role in our daily
lives. In developed countries the
average price of water ranges from $1.91 per square meter (M3) in Germany to $1.18/M3
in the United Kingdom, and $0.51/M3 in the United States. Water prices around the world will likely
increase significantly in the coming years, as demand quickly outweighs
supply. Many investors have predicted that
“water is the next oil”, and some have begun calling water “blue gold” in
recognit ion of its immense increasing value.
As early as 1992, representatives from around the world
gathering in Dublin agreed that “Water has an economic value in all its competing
uses and should be recognized as an economic good… Past failure to recognize
the economic value of water has led to wasteful and environmentally damaging
uses of the resource. Managing water as
an economic good is an important way of achieving efficient and equitable use,
and of encouraging conservation and protection of water resources.” This was repeated again in the 2nd
World Water Forum in 2000, as part of a stated mandate “To manage water in a
way that reflects its economic, social, environmental and cultural values for
all its uses, and to move towards pricing water services to reflect the cost of
their provision” (Ministerial Declaration, The Hague, 2000).
Water Shortages and Rising Tension
 According to the
2006 Human Development Report (UNDP), “It is already clear that competition for
water will intensify in the decades ahead.
As national competition for water intensifies, people with the weakest
rights will see their entitlements to water eroded by more powerful
constituencies. Water is the ultimate
fugitive resource, traversing borders through rivers, lakes and aquifers—a fact
that points to the potential for cross-border tensions in water-stressed
regions.”
One example of an
existing water conflict zone is the Tibetan Plateau, an “oxygen-scarce
landscape of enormous glaciers, huge alpine lakes, and mighty waterfalls – a
storehouse of freshwater so bountiful that the region serves as the headwaters
for many of Asia’s largest rivers, including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong,
Brahmaputra, Salween, and Sutlej, among others.” Between India, China, Nepal,
Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, almost half
of the world’s population lives in the watersheds of the rivers whose sources
lie on the Tibetan Plateau. China’s occupation
of Tibet is very strategic, in light of the disappearing glaciers of the
Tibetan Plateau and the subsequent decrease in water flow to most of Asia’s
rivers that will only worsen in the next few years.
Similarly, millions of people in
four Central African countries are also in danger of losing their primary water
supply as Lake Chad continues to dry up.
Once the third-largest source of freshwater in Africa, the lake is now
one-twentieth the size it was only 40 years ago.
In East Africa, Lake Victoria (the
second-largest freshwater lake in the world) is quickly losing water. In the past four years it has sunk 6 feet,
and will likely continue to drop even more quickly. Currently about 30 million people in Kenya,
Tanzania, and Uganda depend on the lake for their daily water supply.
In
Latin America more than 75 million people lack access to safe water.
Despite an abundance of fresh water sources, access to water in Latin
America is badly skewed due to pollution and social inequality. Most of Latin America’s wastewater still flows
untreated back into its rivers, lakes and canals. In Haiti, nearly 70% of the population lacks
regular and direct access to potable water, a situation which contributes to
the highest infant mortality rates in the Americas. Mexico City now depends on aquifers for 70%
of its water and is mining these underground sources up to 80 times faster than
they are replenished. São Paulo is
threatening residents with water rationing and increasing the cost of delivery
so high that many residents can no longer afford to pay for it. Brazil is also
the region’s heaviest polluter (including massive chemical and industrial
pollution), and the country with the most freshwater in Latin America. Only parts of Eastern Europe and China exceed
Brazil’s levels of waterway. The stories of
impending water shortages repeat themselves around the world over and over
again. In North America, despite being blessed
with an abundance of freshwater sources, the situation is no different. Industrial pollution and population growth
are putting heavy strains on the water supply, and severe droughts which
further compound the situation are being declared throughout the United States.
Water in the United States
Water Use
The population of
the United States nearly quadrupled in the last century (from 76 million in
1900 to 281.4 million in 2000), while rates of U.S. water consumption increased
from around 5 to 10 gallons per person per day to between 80 to 100+ gallons
per person per day. This means that U.S.
water consumption for domestic purposes is 40 times what it was at the turn of
the century. This level of unprecedented
demand has contributed to water shortages in every region of the country, as
well as significant increases in water bills in some regions.
Despite this tremendous increase in household water
use, it still only represents 13% of all water used in the United States. Significantly more is used for other
purposes: 45% of our water is supplied to industry and 42% used for agricultural
production. Around 35 billion gallons of
fresh water are used by households each day in the United States, while power
plants alone consume 136 billion gallons of fresh water each day. Agricultural irrigation uses 142 billion
gallons per day, and other industrial facilities withdraw more than 20 billion
gallons of fresh water per day.  According to the Pacific Institute for Studies in
Development, Environment and Security in Oakland, California, the United States
ranks sixth in the world behind New Zealand, Armenia, Barbados, Cuba and the
United Arab Emirates for per capita water withdrawals. Despite a similar level
of quality of life, Europeans use significantly less water per person for
domestic purposes than do Americans. On average the Germans and French, for
instance, use 55 to 60 gallons daily.
This is about 40 percent less water than Americans use per day. This dramatic difference can be attributed to
higher prices of water, more efficient distribution systems (i.e. fewer leaks),
widespread use of water-saving fixtures and devices, and less use of water for
lawns and garden irrigation.
Most experts say that American water
reserves are changing, and in many cases, dropping. One reason is global warming which has produced
more droughts in some regions, and more flooding in others. Soil erosion,
leaking pipes, and an aversion to conservation also are mentioned as causes of
scarcity. Perhaps the most important
cause however is the country’s rapidly growing population, expected to reach
450 million by the middle of the century.
This will represent a 50% increase over the current U.S. population, and
unfortunately much of this population growth is expected to occur in
water-scare regions of the country such as California and other parts of the
West. A recent US government survey showed
that at least 36 states are anticipating local, regional, or statewide water
shortages by 2013.
Water Quality
In 2002, about 30% of U.S. waters were assessed by states for a
report to Congress. Results revealed that
about 45% of assessed stream miles, 47% of assessed lake acres, and 32% of
assessed bay and estuarine square miles were not clean enough to support uses
such as fishing and swimming. The
primary causes of contamination were excess levels of nutrients, metals
(primarily mercury), sediment and organic matter. According to the report most
of this contamination was caused by agricultural activities, hydrologic
modifications, atmospheric deposition, and industry.
Similarly, the U.S. Geological Survey recently completed a
ten-year assessment of the nation’s water resources, which found multiple
pesticides and unnaturally elevated levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in
virtually all streams and groundwater sampled outside undeveloped wilderness.
The majority of these streams contained pesticides at levels that exceeded
(often far exceeding) federal guidelines for the protection of aquatic
life. These same chemicals can also harm human health if they enter our
drinking water supply.
The
standards for water quality in the United States are established by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Because the EPA standard-setting protocol balances public health impact
with the cost of treatment or extraction of the pollutant from the water,
US water quality standards with regard to certain contaminants are lower than many
European countries. The EPA completes an
economic analysis to determine whether the health benefits of a standard
justify the costs. If the cost of a
certain treatment is prohibitive to the water utility companies, then the EPA
may decrease the water quality standard. States are
authorized to grant variances
from standards if smaller water supply systems cannot afford to comply with the
standard. Exemptions from EPA standards
can also be granted to allow water utility companies extra time to create the
necessary infrastructure to comply with the standards. Unfortunately these exemptions can also be
renewed, sometimes allowing water utilities to be out of compliance with
federal regulations for up to 5 years after a new water quality standard is
established. During that time, the population served by
the water utility continues to drink the contaminated water. Of greater cause for concern is the fact that drinking water
standards for levels of aluminum, foaming agents, fluoride, chloride, and a
host of other viruses, bacterium, chemicals, radioactive materials and other
contaminants, are not regulated by the EPA.
They are either included in the National Secondary Drinking Water
Regulations (non-enforceable recommendations for water quality standards) or
are simply not mentioned and therefore completely non-regulated. It is possible that these contaminants are
found in our own drinking water, with unknown effects on our health.
How Water Use Affects Water Quality
According to the EPA,
our water consumption habits can directly affect the quality of our water. More specifically, “depleting reservoirs and
groundwater aquifers can put water supplies, human health, and the environment
at serious risk. Lower water levels can lead to higher concentrations of
natural contaminants, such as radon and arsenic, or human pollutants, such as
agricultural and chemical wastes.” Our current level of water use is damaging
aquatic ecosystems, depleting and contaminating groundwater sources, and
forcing the development of new water treatment and storage facilities, with
often unfavorable environmental repercussions.
Using too much water
also significantly contributes to "nonpoint source pollution," which
happens when water moves across the ground and collects pollutants from various
sources, eventually depositing them into our drinking water. The less water we consume, the more we can
protect the quality of our water. We will
see fewer sewage system failures due to excess water overwhelming them; intact
wetlands act as natural pollution filters for contaminants that spill into
rivers and streams; less over-irrigation of agricultural and urban landscapes
means less water contamination caused by polluted runoff. Finally, more water availability through
current sources reduces the need to construct additional dams and reservoirs or
otherwise regulate the natural flow of streams, thus preserving their free flow
and retaining the value of stream and river systems as wildlife habitats and
recreational areas.
How Water Use Affects Energy Use
According to Heather Cooley’s
Congressional testimony in July 2008, “Capturing, treating, transporting, and
using water require large amounts of energy. This is particularly true in the
West, where water supplies and population centers are often separated by
hundreds of miles, requiring a tremendous amount of infrastructure to move
water from where it is available to where it is needed. In California, for
example, an estimated 19% of electricity use, 32% of all natural gas
consumption, and 88 million gallons of diesel fuel consumption are
water-related.”
 Saving water can therefore save
energy, and saving energy can also help save water. Tremendous amount of water are required for
cooling traditional fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. Water shortages may limit energy production,
and energy constraints may limit water availability or at the very least
increase the price of water. Efficient water use can also reduce the amount of energy
needed to treat wastewater, resulting in less energy demand and, therefore,
fewer harmful byproducts from power plants.
American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56
billion kilowatt-hours per year—enough electricity to power more than 5 million
homes for an entire year.
This direct relationship between
water and traditional sources of energy makes renewable energy sources, such as
wind and solar, all the more attractive.
Not only do they preserve our valuable and limited water sources for
human and agricultural uses, but they also help to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions thus further preserving snowcaps and other vital sources of fresh
water replenishment.
Regional Water Use
The average amount
of water used for domestic purposes in the United States per person per day is
around 100 gallons; however this varies across the country. The average resident of Los Angeles,
California, uses 122 gallons of water daily, while a New York City resident
averages just 75 gallons. In Iowa, the average resident uses just 65 gallons
per day, but next door in Illinois the average is 90.
Throughout the
country, many counties and states are facing mild to severe water shortages due
to drought and overdrawing of water. This situation has caused the affected regions
to call for water conservation measures, in some cases imposing stiff fines for
excess water use and failure to abide by restrictions. In other regions, counties or states have
chosen to encourage water conservation through direct incentives such as
rebates for the installation of low-flow toilets or high-efficiency fixtures,
or indirect incentives such as volume-related fee structures whereby the more
water you consume, the more you pay per gallon.
All regions of the United States are facing water challenges, though the
causes and impact may vary.
Great Lakes Region
The five Great Lakes compose the planet’s largest
freshwater system. The lakes (Huron,
Superior, Erie, Michigan and Ontario) cover 94,000 square miles and contain
5,500 cubic miles of water. These lakes
alone account for almost 20% of the world’s freshwater and more than 95% of the
surface freshwater in the lower 48 states. The U.S. cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Green
Bay, Duluth, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo are located on the shores of the
lakes, as well as Toronto in Canada. In
total the Great Lakes basin supports the water needs of over 40 million people as well as many
industries. Currently, there are 15
active nuclear power plant reactors in the Great Lakes basin; 8 are in the Lake
Michigan basin.
The challenge of the Great Lakes region is not necessarily
a declining water supply, but rather heavy contamination of a water source that
so many people depend on. Some 300 toxic
chemicals occur in the Great Lakes including lead, cyanide, arsenic, PCBs,
dioxins and pesticides. Pollutants reach the
Great Lakes through different pathways including runoff from farmland and urban
surfaces, seepage through groundwater, and even settling air pollution. Urban runoff contributes sediments
contaminated with not only pesticides and nutrients but also chemicals, oils,
and road salt. There are 581 beaches
listed for the Great Lakes basin, and on any summer weekend, at least a million
people visit them. Beach closures are often posted, and most are caused by high
levels of micro-organisms coming from sewage overflows and polluted storm water
runoff from cities and farms.
In the Lake Michigan basin ecosystem, for example, there
are currently six viruses, nine bacteria, five protozoa, two algae, one worm,
and one yeast/fungi causing or potentially causing serious human health
problems. Twenty chemicals or classes of chemical stressors are also present. These include “critical pollutants” (such as
PCBs, DDT, mercury and dioxins/furans); “pollutants of concern” (arsenic,
chromium, cyanide, lead, HCB, toxaphene, PAH, and others); and “emerging
pollutants” (atrazine, PCB substitute compounds, etc). Certain nutrients and radionuclides
have also been detected.
According to a 2000 report on Lake Michigan, “These
substances accumulate or persist in the lake because, unlike rivers that are
constantly flushed with water, the lake is a sink. A drop of water entering
Lake Michigan will take an average of 100 years to either evaporate or be
washed into Lake Huron. For a particle of soil, the retention time is even
longer and its attached contamination can be taken up in the food web of the
lake— a food web that includes the human population.” The Chicago Tribune recently published a story on
Chicago’s impending limits on its fresh water supply. More than 75% of residents of the Chicago
metro area get their water from Lake Michigan; however the city is reaching its
legal limits on the amount of water it can withdraw from the lake. In addition, the deep aquifers that supply
about 20% of the region’s population are becoming depleted. With an estimated 2.2 million new residents
anticipated by 2030, the city is beginning to make plans for more serious water
conservation efforts in order to head off challenges in the future. According to Paul Schuch, Director of Water
Resources for Kane County, “People may think as long as water is running out of
the tap there is plenty. But we have been mining water and we need to [plan]
now rather than address this on a crisis basis.”
The
Midwest
In the Midwest, a region generally associated with an
abundance of water, the vast Ogallala Aquifer which many Great Plains states
depend on is steadily being depleted. Farmers tapping the aquifer are progressively
seeing their wells dry up. The Ogallala
Aquifer is the largest in the United States, with a depletion rate of around 12
billion cubic meters a year. Since
pumping began in the 1940s, Ogallala water levels have dropped by more than 100
feet (30 meters) in some areas. Irrigation
accounts for 94% of the groundwater use on the high plains, and in the future
it may be disrupted as water levels continue to drop past the well intakes of
farmers. It is also projected that the
cost of drilling and maintaining deeper wells may exceed the value of what can
be grown, severely limiting the continued production of crops and the value of
the farmland. In some of these areas, there is no other viable
water source.
The Southeast States
In 2007 much of the Southeast, including North
Carolina, Alabama and Georgia, reached the most severe category of drought
assigned by climatologists. This created
a situation so serious that some cities came dangerously close to running out
of water.
The Southeast continues to experience
what some have called the worst drought on record. In 2008 the National Drought Mitigation
Center classified areas of Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas as being in an
extreme drought.
The drought has affected water supplies in cities such
as Atlanta and Raleigh, who both depend on lakes for drinking water (Lake
Lanier and Falls Lake, respectively).
Both cities have experienced explosive growth, which in combination with
the 2-year drought, has severely affected water supplies. Several cities and counties throughout the
region have instated restrictions on water usage, and violating the
restrictions in some towns can bring fines of up to $250. According to Graeme Lockaby, Director of the
Auburn University Water Resources Center in Alabama, “Until the last 10, 15, 20
years, we [in the Southeast] always had plenty of water. Then we had this acceleration of people and
development.”
As water becomes scarcer, tensions between states are
rising. In February of 2008 two Georgia
legislators introduced legislation to move the state’s northern border to
include part of the Tennessee River—a move they said would correct an 1818
surveyor’s error. In response the
Tennessee Governor vowed to “fight any Georgia attempt to siphon water from
Tennessee.” In 2007, South Carolina sued North Carolina
over a plan by the North Carolina cities of Concord and Kannapolis to withdraw
10 million gallons a day from the Catawba River. The suit is pending in the
U.S. Supreme Court. Experts in the
region predict that such fights will likely “intensify and multiply” in the
coming years. The drought in the Southeast has also led to increases
in water prices. For example residents
of Atlanta Georgia, Charlotte North Carolina, and Palm Beach County, Florida all
saw increases of around 15% in their water bills in 2008. According to Robin Craig, a law professor
and water expert at Florida State University’s College of Law, "Nobody in
the Southeast has been paying the true price of water. We're in a painful transition period. As
people are realizing the need to conserve, the same processes are forcing the
cost of water up."
The Northeast
The Northeast
states were home to an estimated 1 to 2 million people around 1760, and now
host over 42 million people according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2004
estimate. Blessed with an abundance of
rivers and lake systems, populations in the Northeast have generally enjoyed
unrestricted access to water, with the exception of a few drought years in
recent decades. Despite its abundance of
natural water sources, the Northeast is home to over 350 superfund sites, over 500 impaired water
systems, and 100,000+ registered sites that handle hazardous waste. In addition, runoff from large cities
throughout the region contributes to the contamination of the watersheds. Residents of the Northeast, as in most
regions of the country, should be concerned with their water quality though
they may not be facing impending water shortages. Fortunately,
the Northeast states often have been proactive regarding the protection of
their water sources. In late 2007 they
called on the EPA to enact stronger national mercury limits, after developing
their own mercury action plans and submitting a broader mercury clean-up plan
to the EPA. In July of 2004, Attorneys
General from the states filed a lawsuit against polluting power companies, and
a week later they filed a lawsuit against the EPA over a change in rules
governing water use by power plants.
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and
Massachusetts filed the lawsuit in protest of the EPA tacitly allowing power
plants to avoid reusing and cleaning water (as required by the Clean Water Act)
before dumping it back into watersheds.
The Southwest
By contrast, the
Southwest United States is well-known for its water challenges. California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada,
Texas, and parts of Utah and Colorado have been struggling over the last
century to provide water to their residents and support a rapidly growing
population. Two principal watersheds
provide much of the water to these seven states: the Colorado River and the Rio Grande
River.
The Colorado River water is shared by the states of
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The cities of Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and
San Diego depend on the Colorado River to survive. The river also supplies the reservoirs of
Lake Mead and Lake Powell, and 25 million people in the region depend on
them. The Rio Grande River provides
water to El Paso, Texas; Las Cruces New Mexico; Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; and will
soon provide water to both Albuquerque and Santa Fe as well. In 2003, the Rio Grande dried up completely
before reaching the Gulf of Mexico, an event that garnered considerable press
coverage. Both the Rio Grande and the Colorado River depend on
the melting snows Rocky Mountain range to replenish their waters each
year. By some estimates however, the West’s
total snowpack could be reduced by as much as 40% in the next 50 years. This is bad news for the West—not only the
rivers depend on the snowpack but also up to 90% of groundwater comes from
melting snow. River levels continue to decrease as underground
aquifers in the region are rapidly being depleted. These tendencies have states throughout the
Southwest grappling for water, and water conflicts or conservation efforts make
the news on a regular basis. Most cities
have already begun planning for alternative water sources, and implementing
incentives for water conservation.
In June of 2008, California’s
Governor Schwarzenegger officially declared that the state is
suffering drought conditions and called for a 20% reduction in water use
statewide.
California’s population has increased from around 29 million residents in 1990
to 37 million people today, and by 2030, the population is projected to top 50
million. The state has no choice but to address water
issues as its top priority. California
has launched public awareness campaigns to encourage water conservation, and
water authorities stepped up efforts to incentivize conservation through
rebates, free high-efficiency fixtures, or other measures. In some areas water is being recycled and
delivered to large irrigation customers in an effort to conserve potable water
supplies.
Other states
in the region have not been as proactive as California in urging water
conservation, though measures are being taken.
In Nevada, Carson City residents have been asked to voluntarily curtail
outdoor water use until further notice because of a drop in the city's water
supply. City officials made the request
after the water supply decreased to 16 million gallons, about 44 percent of
capacity. If Lake Mead water levels continue to fall,
1.9 million people in Las Vegas will also be without water as 90% of its supply
currently comes from the Colorado River.
Las
Vegas gets 4 inches of rain and 60,000 new residents each year, and its population
growth shows no signs of slowing down. According
to a study by the Pacific Institute, Las Vegas could save 86,000 acre-feet of
water annually (nearly 30% of Nevada’s allotment from the Colorado River) with
the installation of water-efficient fixtures and appliances in homes and
hotels.
New Mexico is also facing water challenges, yet has been
slower to impose water conservation requirements. A 1999 report by the U.S. Geological Survey
and the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources revealed that the
underground aquifer Albuquerque has long relied upon is being depleted at a
rate that is twice that of the recharge to the aquifer from the Rio Grande. Along with Santa Fe, Albuquerque is now
planning to supplement its city water with water from the Rio Grande—this despite
concerns over nuclear waste contamination from Los Alamos, other known river
pollutants, and increased demand downriver in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Although most New Mexico residents recognize
the tremendous value of the state’s water, new projects continue to be proposed
that will use massive amounts of water and potentially pollute the existing aquifers. These include oil and gas drilling, new power
plants, and a nuclear reactor.  Population growth in the El Paso / Ciudad Juarez
area is expected to outpace the available water supply by 2025, despite
conservation and reclamation projects. Ciudad
Juarez will be the first hit by shortages, as it relies on a groundwater
aquifer that El Paso also uses for 40% of its water which is expected to dry up
by 2030. Water officials are buying up
water rights from agricultural land, and El Paso is already reinserting treated
sewage water into the aquifer in an attempt to prolong supply. Despite current conservation measures, the
population of the area is expected to grow to 6 million by 2025 and the
existing water supply can only support 4 million people at most, in years with
normal rainfall. Echoing the situation
in other communities throughout the United States, this situation may lead to
failed farms, a shrinking economy, and potential health problems as
contaminants concentrate in the diminishing water supply.
The Northwest
The Pacific
Northwest is also known for an abundance of water. The Columbia River provides water to much of
Washington and Oregon, replenishing groundwater and other sources. Despite their abundance of water, Washington
and Oregon have often been proactive in promoting water conservation and
environmental consciousness.
In a 2002
randomized survey of Pacific Northwest residents, over 90% of respondents
considered clean drinking water, clean rivers and clean groundwater to be “very
important.” Second in importance to respondents were wetlands, preservation of
salmon runs, watershed restoration and water for recreation. Many respondents had also already taken
action to conserve water-- 78% reported installing a water-saving appliance in
their home and 68% reported consciously saving water through a change in behavior.
In Seattle these
and other actions have saved water. By
2007, the Seattle-area Saving Water Partnership, an 18-member utility
consortium in Seattle and King County, reported the total billed water
consumption had dropped 23% since 1990 and 13% more since 2000. The drop was the result of a public education
program and incentives to use more water-efficient equipment. This Seattle program is serving as an example
to cities such as Chicago, who hope to replicate the successes of the program.
By contrast a bit
further east, Montana and Wyoming are clashing over access to water. In the Tongue and Powder River basins,
Montana officials claim that Wyoming is diverting too much water from the
rivers before they cross the state line, which has sparked a U.S. Supreme Court
lawsuit. This conflict
highlights the growing pressures on states around the country to provide water
for their residents and other uses, in the face of rapid population growth and
depletion of the natural environment. As such conflicts become more and more
frequent throughout the country, it is hoped that those cities or states with
documented success stories (like Seattle or California) can share their lessons
learned with others and help to decrease the building pressure on our water
sources.
Solutions
As demonstrated in
various communities across the United States, there are numerous viable water
conservation solutions that can significantly decrease water consumption: - Widespread reparation of leaks in municipal systems
- Recycling wastewater for large-scale irrigation
- Restricting water waste in consumers who irrigate
their lawns and gardens
- Rebates or other incentives to encourage consumers to
replace old appliances and fixtures with new highly-efficient water saving ones
- Fines for those who violate water restrictions
- Variable fee structures so that those who consume more
water pay more for it
- Public awareness campaigns encouraging water-saving
behaviors
- Replacement of traditional power plants with renewable
energy sources
According to
Edward Osann, an analyst on natural resource issues who coauthored a report for
a consortium of plumbing manufacturers, environmental groups and drinking water
utilities, “Water conservation makes sense even in the wettest American cities,
because the biggest costs connected with water are the pipelines and treatment
facilities that are needed to bring clean drinking water in and to carry
wastewater out. Saving water means
saving private and public dollars, and that's why cities… are actively and
successfully promoting efficient plumbing fixtures."
If
all U.S. households installed water-saving features, water use in the country would
decrease by 30%. This translates into
savings of around 5.4 billion gallons of water per day, or more than $4 billion
per year.
What Can You Do?
Saving Water at Home
The easiest way that
you can help conserve our precious water resources is to decrease your
household’s water consumption. This can
be done in several ways: - Change basic everyday behaviors to use less water;
- Install high efficiency fixtures and use other affordable and simple devices to save water;
- Trade in your old appliances for new high-efficiency
dishwashers, washing machines, and toilets;
- Collect and reuse water through rainwater catchment
systems and grey water systems.
In addition, you can contact your federal and state government
representatives and encourage them to pass new legislation to help conserve
existing freshwater sources, and create incentives for corporate and community
water conservation.(Click here for more information)
There are many simple things you can do that cost
little or nothing: Turn off the water while shaving or brushing
your teeth ; only water your lawn at night; trade in your old showerhead for a high-efficiency one,
etc. We’ll walk you step-by-step through
your home to show you many ways that you can save water, and even give you some
estimates on how much water you’ll save with each action.
Bathroom
In most families,
more water is used in the bathroom than anywhere else inside the home. According to a 1999 study (Mayer et al) the average family used: - 26.7% of their water flushing the toilet;
- 16.8% in the shower;
- 15.7% through bathroom faucets;
- 1.7% in the bathtub
This means that more
than 60% of our total water consumption (excluding landscaping) happens in
the bathroom. So what can we do to
decrease it?
Toilet
The best thing you
can do to save water in your bathroom is to replace
an old or inefficient toilet with a new one.
Toilets made before 1993 use anywhere between 3.5 gallons per flush (GPF)
and 8 GPF, while post-1993 toilets are mandated to use 1.6 GPF or less. Some water utility companies offer rebates
for replacing old inefficient toilets, so take a look at the manufacturing date
(on the underside of the tank lid) and replace if necessary. The EPA Watersense program certifies toilets that use
1.28 GPF. Many states offer rebates that sometimes account for up to 30% of the cost. Replacing
a 3.5 GPF toilet with a 1.28 GPF model can save a family of four more than
14,000 gallons of water per year.
If you aren’t ready to replace your toilet
however, there are a few other ways that you can save water:
- Reduce
the amount of water per flush through a Toilet Tank Bank which can
save up to 0.8 gallons per flush
- Install a Toilet Fill Cycle Diverter which can save as much as 75% of fill cycle
water per flush
- Replace your existing toilet flapper with an adjustable toilet flapper that can
be programmed to reduce water use in old toilets
- Make sure
your toilet isn’t leaking by inserting leak detection tablets even a silent toilet leak can waste 30 to 500 gallons a
day!
- Avoid
using caustic toilet bowl cleaners such as toilet tank tablets which can alter
the pH of water in your toilet tank and damage plastic and rubber toilet parts
causing severe leaks.
Shower
The easiest way to
save water when showering is to install a High-efficiency showerhead. Federal regulations mandate that new
showerhead flow rates can't exceed more than 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) at a
water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch (PSI). Before 1992, many showerheads had flow rates
of 5.5 GPM. Therefore if any of your
fixtures pre-date 1992, you’ll definitely want to replace them. Even if your current showerhead uses 2.5 GPM,
you can still save up to 40% more by installing a high efficiency 1.5 GPM showerhead. The
low-flow showerheads generally compensate for less water with more pressure, so
you don’t even feel the difference. In
most cases you won’t need a plumber or even tools to make the switch. The national average duration of a shower is 8.2
minutes, with an average of 0.67 showers per day. So while
a 5.5 gpm showerhead means you’ll use over 11,000 gallons of water each year
showering, you can reduce that to only 3,000 gallons with a 1.5 gpm
showerhead. Now multiply those
differences by the number of people in your household, and we’re talking about
tremendous differences!
If you’re not sure how much water your fixtures are
currently using, you can do a “quick test” as follows: - Place a bucket marked in gallon increments under your
shower head;
- Turn on the shower at the normal water pressure you
use;
- Time how many seconds it takes to fill the bucket to
the 1-gallon (3.8 liter) mark.
If it takes less than 20 seconds to reach the 1-gallon
mark, your shower consumes more than 2.5 gallons per minute and you should definitely
change your showerhead.
In the case that you would like more accuracy a Flow Meter Bag is a better tool to measure
your consumption.
Other ways you can save water while showering: - Turn off the water while you’re soaping up or
shampooing
- Install a greywater system to reuse water from showers
and sinks for your garden or lawn. This can potentially save a family of four
30,000 to 40,000 gallons of water per year.
Bathroom Faucets
High-efficiency
water fixtures are easy to install, affordable, and most will pay for
themselves within just a few months. The faucet aerator (the screw-on tip of the
faucet) ultimately determines the maximum flow rate of a faucet. Aerators are easy and inexpensive to replace,
and they can be one of the most cost-effective water conservation measures.
Some high-efficiency aerators even come with a shut-off valves that allow you to stop the flow of water while shaving or brushing
your teeth without affecting the temperature.
New bathroom
faucet aerators in some states restrict flow rates to 1.5 gpm or more, while in
other states 2.2gpm aerators may be more common. Changing
your 2.2 gpm aerator to a 0.5 GPM aerator
can save you up to 77% of the water you use in your bathroom sinks.
Other ways you can decrease water use in your bathroom
sinks: - Turn off the water while brushing your teeth
- Fill the sink then turn off the water to shave
- Check for leaks, which can
consume hundreds of gallons per day
- Make sure you always turn the faucet completely off
when finished
Bathtub
For many
Americans, the bathtub is now used much less frequently than the shower. If you still enjoy a hot bath (which uses 24
gallons per bath on average) every once in a while, there are several ways to
conserve water: - Begin filling the tub as soon as you turn on the water
rather than waiting for it to get hot.
Chances are you would end up running cold water toward the end anyway to
get the right temperature
- Only fill the tub as much as you really need to, never
fill it to top (consider the volume displacement of your body).
- If after a while in the tub you need to put more
water in because the water level is lower than at the beginning then you might
have a leak and need to replace the drain’s plug.
Garden
Almost half the
water that most families use in a year goes to the landscape or garden. While more water is used for gardening and
landscaping in dry climates, even in a wet climate the lawn can be the single
most important source of water use in a home. In the long run, the best way to minimize water use in
the lawn and garden is to landscape using native plants and have underground
drip irrigation systems installed. If
you’re not able to make that investment, then you can at least review your
irrigation and watering habits. Most
people tend to overwater their lawns and gardens, which ultimately leads to
less healthy plants that don’t develop deep and thriving root systems.
There are a series of tips that together can
significantly decrease your water consumption: - Use hose timers
for manual irrigation
- Use Sub irrigation system containers for potted
plants
- Replace your hose nozzle with a high efficiency one
- Apply a safe and biodegradable Root Zone Moisture Manager for 50% water
use reduction without polluting your garden
- Reschedule your sprinkler timer whenever the weather
changes
- Install a rain shutoff device on your automatic
sprinkler system
- Water only late at night to reduce evaporation
- Use mulch around your plants to minimize evaporation
- Harvest your rainwater for irrigation
- Install a greywater system to reuse your shower and
sink water on your lawn or garden
Remember that outdoor watering uses 5 to 10 gallons per minute. So in
10 or 20 minutes, you may use 100 gallons – the amount used by an average
person each day for all personal water needs.
Kitchen
Most of the water
in the kitchen is used for washing dishes.
The easiest ways to reduce water use are therefore to replace the kitchen sink faucet aerator for a high efficiency one and to use your dishwasher
efficiently or switch to a new high-efficiency model.
Most
new kitchen faucets are equipped with aerators that restrict flow rates to 2.2
gpm, however even more efficient aerators of 1.5 GPM are available. Making the switch from an older model to a
1.5 gpm model can save over 7000 gallons of water per year. When
used properly, dishwashers can be more efficient than hand washing your
dishes. A typical dishwasher uses
between 8 and 15 gallons per load of dishes, while a high-efficiency dishwasher
can use only 5 to 7 gallons per load. A high-efficiency model can save 2,500
gallons of water per year to a family who uses their dishwasher on a daily
basis. Regardless of what kind of
dishwasher you may have, you should only run the dishwasher when it's
completely full and use the appropriate water-level settings for the most
efficient run. And if you don’t have a
dishwasher, then be sure to fill your sink or a bowl with water for washing and
rinsing dishes, and turn off the faucet as soon as the water is not being used.
Car Wash
If you are used to washing your car with a hose, there are excellent waterless car wash alternatives that leave your car just as clean. Washing the car at home typically uses between 50-100 gallons per wash. If you are used to washing your car once a week, you could save up to 5200 gallons of water in a year by switching to waterless car wash products.
Other Conservation Measures
There are several other measures that you can take to
save water at home, in addition to those already mentioned: - Purchase a front-loading washing machine that uses 28
gallons of water per load or less, and better yet a “smart” version that only
uses as much water as needed for the load size.
Regular washing machines usually use around 41 gallons per load.
- Only use the washing machine when you have a full
load.
- Verify whether you have any leaks at your house. The easiest way to do this is to turn off all
of the water fixtures in the house, and then take a reading of your water
meter. Wait an hour without using any
water, and return to see if your water meter has advanced. It should not have changed at all. If it has, you have a leak somewhere in your
house.
- If you do have leaks, you can measure how much water
is being wasted with a drip gauge, you
can also fix some small leaks by reinstalling the fixture after putting teflon tape on it.
- Remember that your toilet is the most common culprit for
water leaks, and you can detect any leak by using biodegradable leak detection tablets. The most common solution
is to change the flapper.
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REFERENCES
13th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water
Quality. Dec, 2006. International Joint Commission Canada and the
United States.
U.S. Water News Online. “New study says efficient toilets,
showerheads, faucets provide big savings for communities that encourage them.” May 1998
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