Water Wise Page

City of Torrington

"An equal opportunity employer"

2017 East A Street Torrington, WY 82240

To communicate with Master Gardeners,

Contact Ron Kaufman

at the Goshen County Cooperative Extension Service: (307) 532-2436.

Water Wise Program 2003:

Conserving Water at Home

Due to drought conditions, the City of Torrington may be forced to consider rate increases for "excessive" water users. Whether you are in the "excessive" category or not, there are many steps that you can take to limit water use in your home and yard. Everyone needs to practice water conservation.

Water Conservation at Home:

Lawns and gardens are great places to start conserving water because we usea lot of water there. To start, use sprinkler systems and drip or soaker hoses in a conservative manner. Always water very early in the morning or late in the evening. Morning is preferable. Never run sprinklers when wind is present.

More Master Gardener articles will be devoted to planning, planting, and watering lawns and gardens for water conservation.

In the United States, average per person water use in the home ranks as follows (Mayer, P., et. al, 1999):

Appliance Percent of Total Household Water Use

Toilet ....................................26.7%

Clothes Washer .................... 21.7%

Shower .................................16.8%

Faucet .................................15.7%

Leak ...................................13.7%

Other.................................. 5.4%

Improving Toilet Efficiency:

As the number one user of water in the house, toilets are prime candidates for improving water efficiency. All toilets manufactured in the United States after 1994 are required to use 1.6 gallons of water per flush (gpf), or less. If you have an older toilet, it most likely uses 3.5-8.0 gpf.

	Consider purchasing a new toilet. Replacing a 3.6 gpf toilet with a new,1.6 gpf toilet will save an average 9.7 gallons of water per person per day.
	Reduce water use on an existing toilet. To reduce water use on an existing toilet, purchase water dams, available at a local hardware store, to reduce the amount of water that flows out of the tank. Or, displace water in the tank by placing a pop bottle or plastic jug in the tank, so that less water flows out of the tank.
	Do not use caustic toilet bowl cleaners such as tank tablets. They can damage plastic and rubber toilet parts, causing leaks.

Improving Shower Efficiency:

New shower heads manufactured in the United States must be low flow units, less than 2.5 gallons per minute. Older shower heads may use greater than 5 gallon per minute flow. To check the flow of your shower head, place a 5 gallon bucket so that it will catch all the water coming from the shower head. Run the shower at full strength for 2 minutes. The bucket should not overflow if the shower head is a low flow unit.

Shower heads are relatively inexpensive, and replacing a 5 gallon-per-minute head with a new 2.5 gallon-per-minute head should pay for itself in water and energy savings in one year.

Take a shorter shower.

Catch shower water in a bucket, and use to water house plants.

Improving Faucet Efficiency

Faucets are the third largest use of water in the house.

	Reduce faucet flow with aerators, which are inexpensive units, as little as a dollar or two per faucet. Aerators can reduce faucet flow to < 1 gallon per minute. A family of four who uses aerator faucets may save greater than 1,700 gallons of water per year, including 1,300 gallons of hot water (DeOreo, et.al., 2000).
	Do not run faucets continuously while brushing teeth or doing dishes.
	Do not waste water while waiting for hot or cold water from the faucet. Store cold drinking water in the refrigerator rather than running the tap to wait for cold water. Collect water for watering house plants while waiting for hot water at the faucet.
	Repair leaky faucets.

Leaks:

Leaks use an average 13.7% of the water in our homes! Listen to your water system in the home. Do you hear water running? Are your faucets dripping? If you turn off all the water in your home, but still hear water, the leak may be between your meter and the street or even out at the city main (if you are on city water). If you hear these water leaks, the city water department should be contacted. Listen to your well, if you have one. If the well pump kicks on and off when you are not using any water, then you have a leak somewhere.

Did you know that a faucet that drips one drop per second wastes 7 gallons of water per day? This adds up to 2500 gallons of water per year!

Other water-saving measures:

Take showers instead of baths, but keep your showers short. Consider installing water-conservative shower heads. Run full loads of laundry. Garbage disposals require lots of water for proper operation. Start a compost pile. Garbage disposals can add 50% to the volume of solids in sewer systems, and may lead to problems with septic systems. Use a broom or blower instead of a hose to clean leaves and debris from your driveway or sidewalk.

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Excessive Water Use

The City of Torrington intends to initiate plans to assist residents determine excessive water use. For example: blue grass lawns require 3-7 inches of water per month, depending on soil type and temperatures. The average family of four on a medium sized city lot (80'x100' = 11,200 sq. ft.) should use less than 48,000 to 50,000 total gallons of water per month, for lawn and personal use. Larger lots should stay below 70,000-75,000 gallons per month. These figures are based on a month with no precipitation. Amounts may increase during the hot months of June, July, and August.

The City may at some point be forced to consider rate hikes for excessive water use. Rate hikes were considered during this drought, but at this time will probably not be invoked. However, it is best to be prepared for conservation.

The City and your Water Wise Committee ask that you extend water conservation into years with adequate precipitation, too. Good water-use habits formed in times of plenty will pay off when drought is severe. The water wise program should be everlasting. Water is one of our precious natural resources. By becoming water conscious, you may reduce your water significantly, as much as by 1/3. This saves you money on your monthly bill, saves on costs to heat water, and preserves a valuable natural resource.

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Links to Water Conservation Resources

California Urban Water Conservation Council, http://www.h2ouse.net/index.cfm, has lots of information about saving water in the home, maintenance, leak detection, repairs, and purchasing tips.

Texas Water Resources Education, http://texaswater.tamu.edu/inhome.htm, has a good, short summary of water use tips and a good xeriscape summary.

American Water Works Association (AWWA - need I say more?) has a fantastic site with abundant links to all facets of water use and conservation, including landscaping, xeriscaping, irrigation, re-use, fixtures and appliances, and more: http://www.awwa.org/community/links.cfm.

NebGuide contains a number of fact sheets, many appropriate to Eastern Wyoming turf and gardening. See http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs.

The CSU cooperative extension office has many of their fact sheets on line, including front range water guidelines, xeriscaping fact sheets and garden planners. See http://www.ext.colostate.edu/menugard.html.

Last, but not least, the State of Wyoming web site has information on Wyoming drought conditions and fact sheets on water use, turf types, and other gardening topics. Go to Drought Information from UW CES.