Water Challenge: Results from Month 1

Well, the results are in! Our average water usage per person per day last month was 17 gallons. In one month, we were able to reduce our water consumption by 52%, and we moved a lot closer to the world average water consumption target of 13 gallons per day!

To sum up the results, our average water use per person in January-February was 33 gallons per day, compared to last month's (Feb. - Mar.) average of 17 gallons. I am honestly startled and encouraged by these results. I guess I haven't been paying as much attention to how we have used our water as I would like to think considering all the messages out there about California's severe drought. 

This is a family photo near a lake in the Sierra foothills, taken late February 2015. Note the buoy on the sand behind us that used to part of the swimming hole there.


The thing is, there is still plenty of room for improvement. For example:
*  We still watered our little yard last month. We could turn off the water entirely and only maintain plants that can survive without irrigation. This might mean killing off my 3 fruit trees and giving up on my berries and a few other vegetables we plant on occasion. It would also mean brown grass or the need to replace the grass with something else. Perhaps I will go back to backyard chicken farming and allow the entire space to become bare earth! We have maintained our little green patch for our kids to have space to run around in the backyard, but I don't think we would give up much to give up on green grass. I would be sad to see my plum, apple and lemon trees go, but perhaps they should.

Can we give this up? Probably . . .

*  We could simply continue to get better at flushing less often and also washing dishes and clothes less often. That is easy.

*  I haven't switched to using biodegradable soaps yet, but I could get more extreme and change all the products we use so that our gray water can get reused in other ways without concern about polluting the environment.

*  It would take more work, but we could save even more if it was possible to re-plumb our house so that kitchen sink and shower water could get re-used for irrigation and flushing toilets. (I also love the idea of an "endless shower" - a shower that continues to cycle the same water for x number of times, eliminating the guilt of a luxurious shower now and then. In talking with our contractor, I know the city of San Francisco does not officially allow this, but it would be fairly straightforward to include a switch system with a shower installation that allows for the homeowner to determine when fresh vs. recycled water gets introduced.)

*  We could utilize our rain barrel better to make rainwater our sole source of irrigation (when, in theory, it rains again). I know this is complicated when watering edible plants, but possible with some planning.

In the coming months, I will continue with the water challenge by obtaining a water conservation analysis from the SFPUC and also by attempting to keep a daily water usage diary. Send me your water challenge results and tips!