Water
Water is essential to all life. Some major issues with water are going to strain Earths' inhabitants in the upcoming centuries. Water pollution causes stress to intricate food webs. Excessive water usage also equates to more energy usage through processes to heat, treat, and dispose of wastewater.
How Does Excessive Water Use Affect Water Quality?
The demand for water in the United States creates the need to build dams, dig wells, and make withdrawals from our natural water bodies. Using too much water also significantly contributes to "nonpoint source pollution." This is when water moves across the ground, collecting pollutants from various sources, and eventually depositing them into our drinking water. Failing to use water efficiently can hurt our water supply by:
- Altering stream flows due to excessive withdrawals.
- Causing saltwater to intrude into freshwater aquifers due to
excessive withdrawals.
- Increasing the amount of dirty runoff water that flows into
natural water supplies. This runoff water carries sediments, nutrients,
salts and other pollutants and can be caused, among other things,
by overirrigating urban landscapes or farm fields. Nutrients such
as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are naturally occurring,
but habitats can be destroyed when excess amounts of any one nutrient,
especially phosphorus, are concentrated in the soil or water.
- Creating the need to build additional dams. Dams generate nonpoint source pollution by trapping sediment and other pollutants, affecting water quality both upstream and downstream. This concentrates pollutants, causes sediment in the river to pile up, decreases dissolved oxygen, and alters water temperatures.
Water is vital to the survival of everything on the planet and is limited in supply. The Earth might seem like it has abundant water, but in fact only 1 percent is available for human use. While the population and the demand on freshwater resources are increasing, supply remains constant.
Managing water is a growing concern in the United States. Communities across the country are starting to face challenges regarding water supply and water infrastructure. Although these facts makes the future availability of water seem dire, there is are many positives.
Water conservation products are more available than ever in America today. European countries tend to be ahead of the curve in the mainstream use of such products. The following list categorizes water conservation technologies into relevant products. The phrase High Efficiency is drawn from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Watersense Program.
Additional good news is that to conserve water, you really don't even have to spend money. In fact, most heavy water usage is due to wasteful practices that have become engrained in our daily routine. As always, one of the best way to save money and help the environment is to teach your children to break wasteful habits. Here is a list of tips and tricks to save water and money now:
- Only wash full loads of clothes and dishes. Pack those machines full. That is what they are
designed for so get your money's worth.
- Turn off the faucets when not using them. You really have to tell your children this constantly,
although it is something that stays with them their entire life.
- Fix leaks! Leaky faucets, toilets, and other plumbing can really rack up some serious water consumption.
A good way to check a leaky toilet is to take put some food coloring dye in the back of the toilet tank. Don't flush the
toilet for several hours. If the dye shows up at all in the bowl, then you have a leaky toilet. The quicker the dye shows, the bigger the leak.
- Xeriscape. This is a term used to describe landscaping with local plants, or plants that do not require more water than the local rainfall. This is
growing in popularity in arid regions.
- Make or buy a rain barrell and use it to water your garden.
- Take showers instead of baths.
- Keep a pitcher of water in the fridge or use ice to cool your water. Never run the faucet until
the water is cool.
- Install a faucet aerator. These are relatively cheap and a good way to update an older faucet. They now
make 1.5 gallon per minute aerators.
- Thaw foods in the fridge the night before. Never use hot water to thaw foods.
High Efficiency Toilets
Toilets are large consumers of potable water in the average household. Toilets, until recently, were not restricted on the amount of potable water they used to flush. After 1994, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enacted legislation to ensure that a maximum of 1.6 gallon per flush toilets were installed in all new homes. Some old style toilets used 5-7 gallons of clean water per flush!
Manufacturers are producing toilets that are generating even less than 1.6 gallon per flush without sacrificing efficiency. The EPA's Watersense Program has helped provide incentive for manufacturers to acheive lower water flush requirements without sacrificing effectiveness. This program offers manufacturers the chance to get the Watersense label for their toilet by achieving 1.3 gallon per flush or less.
A great innovation that is now being installed in America is the dual flush toilet. This toilet gives the operator the choice between a 0.8 gallon flush or a 1.6 gallon flush. This greatly reducing the strain on water supplies. Click here for a list of HE toilets.
High Efficiency Faucets
The current minimum requirement for faucets in new construction is 2.5 gallons per minute. High Efficiency faucets discharge 1.5 gallons per minute or less. There are currently aerators that can be retrofitted to achieve these numbers. Click here for a list of products that have met the HE standard for faucets.
High Efficiency Shower Heads
There has yet to be any products labeled with the watersense label in this category of water fixture. There are many efficient shower heads out there, any one with a maximum flow rate of 1.5 gallons