Water restrictions!

StarSong

StarSong

Awkward is my Superpower
Location
Los Angeles Suburbs
I live in an area periodically affected by severe droughts, and right now we're experiencing a doozy. Effective June 1st we'll be restricted to an average of 80 gallons per day per person. It sounds like a lot more than it is, particularly for people living in landscaped, single family homes.

We're talking crunchy brown lawns and flower beds, very quick (non-daily) showers, not necessarily laundering clothing after each wearing and only running full loads in the washer, using the dishwasher (again, full loads only), less frequent toilet flushes, and so forth.

When running the shower to get the water up to temperature, we capture that water in a big bucket for watering plants or flushing a toilet. Same with sink water used for hand washing or to get the worst of the goop off dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher.

If you live where there's plenty of clean water, count yourself fortunate. If you don't, please share your experiences and water saving tricks.
 

StarSong said:
I live in an area periodically affected by severe droughts, and right now we're experiencing a doozy. Effective June 1st we'll be restricted to an average of 80 gallons per day per person. It sounds like a lot more than it is, particularly for people living in landscaped, single family homes.

We're talking crunchy brown lawns and flower beds, very quick (non-daily) showers, not necessarily laundering clothing after each wearing and only running full loads in the washer, using the dishwasher (again, full loads only), less frequent toilet flushes, and so forth.

When running the shower to get the water up to temperature, we capture that water in a big bucket for watering plants or flushing a toilet. Same with sink water used for hand washing or to get the worst of the goop off dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher.

If you live where there's plenty of clean water, count yourself fortunate. If you don't, please share your experiences and water saving tricks.
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I'm sorry you and your fellow Californians have to go through this. I know it's not the first time. A good friend lives in Cali, not that far from L.A. She owns a single family home and just remodeled her beautiful, peaceful garden. She told me about water restrictions in the past. It's too bad that ya'll will be going through it again! Our environment is in a sad state. I saw a report the other day showing a "lake"...well it used to be a lake, now it's bone dry. I forgot where it was.
 
A long time ago when I lived in a place where we had to haul water, it was rationed and we did many of the same things as you.

One thing was to use a paper towel to wipe all the dishes off prior to washing. Stack all dishes and only do them once a day in a sink of soapy water and rinse in the adjoining sink of water. No running the water. Our dishwasher runs for 1.5 on it’s shortest cycle. I don’t believe it can use less than I could and I’d still have to wash the pots and pans and a few incidentals.

Showers. Get wet, turn off water, then rinse. If someone one doesn’t want to do that, set a timer for a short period to train yourself how long you’re showering. Nothing makes me scurry like paying for a shower in a campground.

If designing a home my I’d have xeriscaping. We live in strata that has underground sprinkling. Cedar shrubs are indigenous to this area yet they’re along the perimeter of most homes, because they grow fast, look good when young and will grow taller than the permitted 6’ fence. They require lots of water, which people don’t want to pay for so they don’t water enough, the trees die and add to the fire hazard.

We pay high water rates here because it’s semi-dessert. For the rich this is no issue.

We’re on limited watering days, limited hours, limited things like car washing. IMO, the cheaters should be reported.

StarSong said:
Effective June 1st we'll be restricted to an average of 80 gallons per day per person.
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How do they enforce this?
 
These climate conditions are showing NO signs of abating. The entire SW is in increasing danger of having severe water issues. Lake Powell is little more than a stream, and Lake Mead is at the lowest level in decades. We took a nice drive through the Rockies, west of Denver, a couple of weeks ago, and the Only snowpack was on the highest elevations....and that is melting quickly.

Conversely, here in the Midwest, we're seeing above normal precipitation, and that seems to be the trend for the eastern half of the nation. If these patterns continue, I can see the day coming where it may be necessary to build huge pipelines from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to the desert SW.....or there will be a mass migration of people out of those growing desert areas.
 
StarSong said:
I live in an area periodically affected by severe droughts, and right now we're experiencing a doozy. Effective June 1st we'll be restricted to an average of 80 gallons per day per person.
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I agree 80 gallons per person per day is not much for watering, but you should be ok for indoor uses. That's about half of the average, when I took water treatment engineering courses, years ago, the national average use was 150 gallons/person/day.

You've gotten a lot of good suggestions from others, not sure I can add a lot. Most of it's common sense. Problem is you may lose some of your vegetation.

No formal restrictions here in Utah, but they are likely coming. We have already been asked only to run yard sprinklers ever other day, and only at night. Not a big problem yet...
 
When I lived in Adelaide, South Australia, there were water restrictions. I had to get used to washing dishes by wetting & soaping everything up, then rinsing briefly by turning water on and off. We used the water from the rain water tank to do the dishes.

Because of the restrictions, many properties had paved areas and little grass.
 
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Not a problem for most of us here as we tend to have a excess of water. However a lot of rural properties have their own wells which are limited in the amount of filtered water the can produce. This means they have the same restrictions as StarSong for most domestic applications, although unfiltered water can be used for water the lawn, washing the car etc..
 
After living in the Arizona desert years ago, it seemed so practical to have desert landscaping .... it looked beautiful, and sure helped with yard maintenance. Not sure how Phoenix and Tucson are faring these days.

We don't have any water issues in on the Texas Gulf Coast, but that is now. Western part of the state is drought stricken, hot and dry.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There have been ancient cultures that thrived in the Southwest, and some believe drought caused them to flounder. So, droughts in your area are serious. I'm wondering-we can't get people to wear a lousy mask in a pandemic, how are the water restrictions working?
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Water bills will increase exponentially for those who go over their daily average. Complete scofflaws (wealthy folks for whom money doesn't matter) could see water restrictors placed on their utility hookups.
 
It sounds like you've got it covered.

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Good Luck!
 
oldaunt said:
Disconnect your shower drain and fix it to run out in the yard, same with the washer. That takes care of the plants. And yes, cancel the dishwasher, too much water AND power.
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Unfortunately, disconnecting a shower drain and rerouting it would cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. Ongoing costs and hassles of filters, pumps, special soaps and shampoos also factor in.

Modern era dishwashers use far less water than hand washing. DWs use 3-4 gallons per load.
 
StarSong said:
Unfortunately, disconnecting a shower drain and rerouting it would cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. Ongoing costs and hassles of filters, pumps, special soaps and shampoos also factor in.

Modern era dishwashers use far less water than hand washing. DWs use 3-4 gallons per load.
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Really? I was able to do my own.
 
oldaunt said:
Disconnect your shower drain and fix it to run out in the yard, same with the washer. That takes care of the plants. And yes, cancel the dishwasher, too much water AND power.
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yes, use your GREY waters on veg and other 2nd type uses. iow collect the dish waters and use them outdoors.
in summers you could use a solar shower outdoors and that water then goes to a 2nd use too.
 
oldaunt said:
Really? I was able to do my own.
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Most in So Cal (including me) have small, flat lots that would need pumps to move grey water along and filters to catch hair.
While some houses are on subfloors, many are on concrete slabs. Also, many two story houses with bedrooms (and showers) upstairs.

It may be that recapturing grey water is more difficult here than in other places.
 
StarSong said:
Unfortunately, disconnecting a shower drain and rerouting it would cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. Ongoing costs and hassles of filters, pumps, special soaps and shampoos also factor in.
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And that's if you could even find a plumber to do that.

Pinky said:
We used the water from the rain water tank to do the dishes.
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What is this "rain" water you speak of?
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There have been ancient cultures that thrived in the Southwest, and some believe drought caused them to flounder. So, droughts in your area are serious. I'm wondering-we can't get people to wear a lousy mask in a pandemic, how are the water restrictions working?
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the ancients deforested their areas so severely they brought on the droughts that ended the maya civilization.
they were not alone. this happened over and over around the planet with diff places humans planted on.
humans cant seem to comprehend that constant growth is harmful to all living things.
easter island also was doomed as they removed every single living tree on the land mass.
the land must rest too.

this constant using and abusing and expecting good results is insane.
...doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results....has never worked.
 
helenbacque said:
You are right beside a HUGE body of water - the Pacific Ocean. Build desalination plants instead of high speed rail systems, new golf courses and swimming pools. If we can pipe oil from Canada, we can pipe water from areas where it is plentiful.
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Agreed, desalination is very expensive but not using desalination will be far more costly.
 
StarSong said:
Water bills will increase exponentially for those who go over their daily average. Complete scofflaws (wealthy folks for whom money doesn't matter) could see water restrictors placed on their utility hookups.
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Yes,this is exactly how it is enforced-and the fines are quite high! When we were on water restrictions while living in California (early 90s,after that we had private wells) there was a tier system.For every tier you went over,the water cost more.After the 3rd tier,you were fined heavily. I don`t remember if they then used water restrictors but that does sound familiar.
 
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