Comments on: Los Angeles Proposes Plan to Conserve Water http://earth911.com/blog/2008/05/19/los-angeles-proposes-plan-to-conserve-water/ Make Everyday Earth Day Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:02:55 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: doagreenthing http://earth911.com/blog/2008/05/19/los-angeles-proposes-plan-to-conserve-water/comment-page-1/#comment-14696 doagreenthing Tue, 20 May 2008 13:38:44 +0000 http://earth911.com/blog/2008/05/19/los-angeles-proposes-plan-to-conserve-water/#comment-14696 I recently realized just how much one can waste water without really realizing it. We had a lawn sprinkler system installed some years back. The installer set it, and we never bothered to think about it for a year or two. Then after deciphering our water bill, I realized how much water we were using. Since then, I have investigated more natural methods for keeping my lawn green (mow long, leave the clippings in, use little or no fertilizer and so on, mulch our garden beds) and found that we hardly needed any water at all (we watered twice last summer). We cut our overall water use by more than 1/2. Since then we have added low-flow shower heads, fewer flushes, a new clothes washer and general consciousness about water use have cut our use almost in half again. Sadly, our pre-enlightenment water use is probably typical. The good news is that without any "sacrifice" we are using a great deal less water and have a much lower water bill ... and because some of the water we save was heated, lower energy bills, as well. This and other things we have done are cataloged on my blog at http://fivepercent.us for anyone interested. Tom I recently realized just how much one can waste water without really realizing it. We had a lawn sprinkler system installed some years back. The installer set it, and we never bothered to think about it for a year or two. Then after deciphering our water bill, I realized how much water we were using.

Since then, I have investigated more natural methods for keeping my lawn green (mow long, leave the clippings in, use little or no fertilizer and so on, mulch our garden beds) and found that we hardly needed any water at all (we watered twice last summer). We cut our overall water use by more than 1/2.

Since then we have added low-flow shower heads, fewer flushes, a new clothes washer and general consciousness about water use have cut our use almost in half again.

Sadly, our pre-enlightenment water use is probably typical. The good news is that without any “sacrifice” we are using a great deal less water and have a much lower water bill … and because some of the water we save was heated, lower energy bills, as well.

This and other things we have done are cataloged on my blog at http://fivepercent.us for anyone interested.

Tom

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