Fix a Leak to Conserve Water

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named this week the Annual Fix a Leak Week. For those homes on ”City” water and sewer, a quick check of the status of your plumbing fixtures and checking your water usage indicated on your water bill could save thousands of gallons of water a year. Look for changes or increases in water use as well as calculating your absolute use. If your household uses more water than is typical, you might have a hidden leak, or you could be wasteful in your water use. Find out which. According to the EPA, one out of every 10 homes has a leak that is wasting at least 90 gallons of water per day.

The EPA’s WaterSense program is designed to encourage Americans to check and replace leaky plumbing fixtures and be thoughtful in their water use. This comes at a time when many urban water systems in the United States are nearing or at the limits of their water supply. Even in generally water rich areas there are limits to the availability of water and United States has begun to address the availability of water by recycling wastewater. In the United States municipal wastewater represents a significant potential source of reclaimed water, an estimated 32 billion gallons of water a day is treated in wastewater treatment plants throughout the country. Before recycling wastewater, we should eliminate water waste in our communities.

If like me, you are on well water, you do not have a water bill to track your water use, but you need to be aware of the factors that impact your water supply and regularly practice household water conservation to live within your water resources. Your well is not unlimited and you need to be aware of your water use because wells often have weather and seasonal supply limitations. In addition, the life of a septic system is directly related to the amount of water that flows through your system. All of us need to become aware of how much water we use and where that water is coming from and eliminate the egregious waste of water leaks.

The EPA makes the following suggestions:

·        Check toilets for silent leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank at the back and, if after 10 minutes, color shows up in the bowl before flushing, it may be time to replace the flapper.

·        Check outdoor hoses for damage from winter frost and tighten connections at the water source.

·        For in-ground sprinkler systems, a professional (certified through a WaterSense-labeled program) can inspect sprinkler heads and pipes for signs of leakage and help homeowners maintain an efficient system and healthy lawn. (Though you might want to reconsider a lawn that needs regular watering.)

·        Check additional plumbing and outdoor fixtures for leaks. They may just need a quick twist, cleaning or pipe tape. Check all faucets for slow drips.

According to the US Geological Survey total domestic water use in homes totaled 29,400,000,000 gallons per day in 2005, and the “average” US citizen uses 98 gallons a day of water for domestic use, which includes, bathing and bathrooms, laundry, cooking, drinking and outdoor use. Outdoor watering in the drier climates causes domestic per capita water use to increase in the driest and hottest climates. In Nevada, average domestic water use was reported to be 190 gallons/day per person, while in Maine they used on average 54 gallons/ per day. In Maryland average domestic water use was reported to be 109 gallons/day per person while here in Virginia the average water usage was 75 gallons/day per person. Pennsylvania to the north uses an average of 57 gallons/day per person. The US Geological Survey who collected and compiled all this data and the estimates imbedded in them offers no explanation for the differences in domestic water use.  While I believe there are differences in water usage, I do not know the causes of the variation beyond the weather, but the age of the water fixtures can contribute to the differences.

There are tremendous differences in water consumption of appliances and fixtures based on their age and design. For example we all know about low-flush toilets which use 1.6 gallons per flush versus 5 gallons per flush for the older toilets. According to the 2001 Handbook of Water Use and Conservation by A. Vickers and published by WaterPlow Press in Amherst, MA the average person flushes the toilet 5.1 times a day. Before the advent of low flush toilets, flushing was the largest use of water for each person. If you have new toilets and are home all day, your daily water use for flushing would be 8.2 gallons versus 25.5 gallons for an older toilet.

The typical American uses the most water for flushing, showering, washing hands and brushing teeth, and laundry. Buying water efficient appliances and fixtures, maintaining the fixtures and repairing any leaks can significantly reduce our water use. For bathing and brushing teeth low flow faucets and showerheads and behavior modification (not running the water while you brush your teeth or shorter showers can save about a third of the water typically used for personal hygiene, reducing the typical 28 gallons a day to 19 gallons a day. Laundry is the second largest use of water after toilets. The typical American does 0.37 loads of laundry per person per day. A top loading washing machine uses 43-51 gallons per load while a full size front load machine uses 27 gallons per load and some machines have low volume cycles for small loads that use less. Replacing a top load washing machine with a front load machine saves 6-9 gallons of water per person per day or 24 gallons per load of laundry. A standard dishwasher uses 7-14 gallons per load while a water efficient dishwasher uses 4.5 gallons per load. Eliminating the watering of our ornamental gardens would significantly reduce water use especially in the most arid parts of the country where there is the most pressure on water supply. By replacing appliances and fixtures with water efficient fixtures and eliminating outdoor use of water the typical American could reduce their water use to about 38 gallons per person per day without significantly changing their lives. That is a significant water savings that will become more important as water resources in the United States become stretched to their limits.

Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s Water and the New Water Reality

Lake Sidney Lanier Reservoir commonly known as Lake Lanier was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when they constructed the Buford Dam in 1956. According to Charles Fishman in “The Big Thirst” in the 1950’s when Lake Lanier was created the city of Atlanta did not finance a share of the project believing that the city that typically receives almost 50 inches of rain on average a year would never need the water. Atlanta has grown far beyond the expectations of those city fathers and the downstream states of Alabama and Florida have through legal action sought to limit the quantity of water Georgia can retain for their use above Buford Dam, arguing that Florida and Alabama need an adequate flow of water down the Chattahoochee River for power production and drinking water supply in Alabama and for maintaining adequate fresh water flow to the Apalachicola Bay to keep the salinity balance to maintain the estuary ecology, fishing habitats and breeding grounds in Florida. Georgia has single mindedly sought to protect the ability of Atlanta-area water utilities to withdraw unlimited water from the reservoir to meet the unrelenting water demand of the Atlanta metropolitan area for lifestyle water (gardens and green lawns) and life essential water through litigation rather than through conservation and smart planning. A grassroots effort has been launched by the local governments, water authorities, environmental groups, farm groups, industry and others-in short, the ACF stakeholders themselves, to try to achieve equitable water-sharing solutions among stakeholders that balance economic, ecological and social values, while ensuring sustainability for current and future generations.

In the Washington Metropolitan area where two states and the District of Columbia are dependent on the flows of the Potomac River they have the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, ICPRB, which was authorized by congress in 1940.  ICPRB allocates and manages water resources of the river through the management of the jointly owned (and financed) Jennings Randolph Reservoir (built in 1981), Potomac River Low Flow Allocation Agreement (1978) and the Water Supply Coordination Agreement in 1982 which designated a section of the ICPRB as responsible for allocating water resources during times of low flow and assists in managing water withdrawals at other times. These steps improved reliability of the water supply and ensured maintenance of in-stream flows to meet minimum aquatic habitat requirements. The task of cooperation may be more difficult for Georgia, Alabama and Florida where the distance creates different views of how much water is available and makes it difficult to see that they are joined in a regional watershed.

Back in Georgia- in 1989 after four years of drought, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended the 20% of the water used to generate hydroelectric power be diverted for Atlanta’s water supply.  Alabama and Florida objected and filed suit against Georgia and the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1990, arguing that diverting water to Atlanta was environmentally harmful and economically problematic, and that in any case it required congressional approval because the purpose of the Buford Dam was not to supply water to Atlanta. Thought Atlanta has an average annual rainfall of almost 50 inches a year it varies tremendously in 2007 rainfall was less than 32 inches and in 2009 it was over 69 inches.

Drought has always occurred in Georgia. Five times in the past 90 years has Georgia had multi-year droughts that were called “Droughts of the Century.” An analysis of rainfall in Georgia by the U.S. Geological Survey found that  normal and above-average rainfall years occurred or 43% of the time in the past quarter century and drought and severe drought years occurred 57% of the time. If the weather patterns change the problem could be exacerbated, but what has really changed in Georgia to make the problem acute is the population of Atlanta metropolitan area has grown from about 2 million in 1970 to 5.5 million in 2010 without giving any thought to water resources which have not increased and that unrelenting growth impacted water infiltration and hydrology.  While on average there may still be adequate water to sustain the region.  It is clear that Georgia and Atlanta need to be proactive and plan for regular prolonged drought occurring each decade. Georgia has not been at all proactive in protecting the hydrology and water infiltration and regulating consumption of water in the Atlanta metropolitan area, preferring instead litigation in order to obtain more water from Lake Lanier. Georgia has encouraged unsustainable water usage through largely unregulated growth of population, industry and agriculture without any consideration given to historic drought experience and ever increasing demand for water.

Back in 2009 (a year that saw more than 69 inches of rain in Atlanta) as part of the never ending litigation between Georgia, Florida and Alabama Federal District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that Georgia either had to reach an agreement with her neighbors by July 2012, or return to 1970s water withdrawal levels. Instead of working towards an agreement, Georgia once more chose litigation and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the 1950s legislation approving the construction of the Buford Dam, (which, in turn, created Lake Lanier), anticipated that the metro-Atlanta area would need greater water withdrawal from the lake over time. The Eleventh Circuit Court overruled Magnuson’s 2012 water-sharing deadline. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case to the Army Corps of Engineers, which controls Buford Dam, telling the group to review Georgia’s water needs against the environmental impact, as well as Florida and Alabama’s water demands.

Alabama and Florida appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,who declined to hear the case on Monday letting the decision of the EleventhCircuit Court stand. Nonetheless, none of these decisions will create water in Lake Lanier or increase water resources enough to fully supply all needs during a prolonged drought now or a shorter one as demand for water continues to grow. Lake Lanier must be shared and the demand for water during droughts has exceeded the resources available. No matter the outcome of the case Georgia will have to take responsibility for managing its water resources. “More reservoirs” is not a rational response to drought, due to several factors, including the inevitable and large-scale evaporation issue and the cost of construction. Drought is not only part of our lives, but an increasingly, a recurring part of our lives due to the impact of impervious ground cover and increased demand have had on the storage capacity of the watershed. Water usage must be rationalized to the complete hydrological cycle and reliance on water conservation and reuse to stretch existing supplies for use during drought. Finally, litigation does not increase water supplies. Lives, livelihoods, food supply and cost, and life styles are dependent on water as a community, region and nation we need to understand that.