My friend in Antioch has been notified that a reduction in water use is required this summer. Here in Santa Clara County, we are still in a voluntary reduction area, but with a dry summer ahead, we all want to do our part. All urban water users have been asked to reduce consumption by 20%.
Since half of all urban water usage is for landscaping, that is the easiest place to conserve. If you reduce your landscape watering by 2/5, you'll reduce your household water use by 2/10 (20%).
Here are some tips from Mr. Handyman:
1) If you water your garden for 10 minutes at a time, reduce it to 6. If you usually water every day, water 3 days out of 5, and if some plants start to die due to lack of water, replace them with plants that need less water.
2) I'm personally a fan of those really small low flow shower heads you can buy for $7 on amazon.com, because somehow the water flow feels strong, even though it's reduced. One important point to remember is that this shower head lasts about two years and then the water flow becomes uneven. I'm not sure why, but you will recoup that investment several times over in your water bill.
3) If you have an older "high flow" toilet, the brick in the tank trick helps.
4) A single slow leak of 10 drips per minute wastes about 500 gallons in a year. If you have any, anywhere, get them fixed.
Every little bit helps.
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