Water Conscious Home Owner Tips

This April, take some time to focus on steps you can take to conserve water in your home. Water conservation refers to any beneficial reduction of water usage, loss or waste. It also includes the strategies and activities to manage and protect water resources to meet the demand for human consumption. As you may have heard, water conservation efforts in the US have been increasing over recent years due to increasing population and decreasing usable water supply. Because of current water conservation effort, it is important for each person to be aware of and responsible for their own personal water conservation efforts. Below are some stats about water usage in the US:

• Toilets use the most water on a daily basis (20.1 gallons per person per day).
• Clothes washers were the second largest water users (15 gallons per person per day).
• Showers use the third most water (13.3 gallons per person day).

Because of the importance of water conservation, below are a couple of tips to help you cut back on your daily water usage:

• Turn off faucets while brushing your teeth.
• Make sure your water heater works properly to reduce the ‘water-warming’ period.
• Don’t flush as much (If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down).
• Check faucets and pipes for leaks.
• Limit your showers to five minutes (or turn on some music and limit your showers to the length of one song).
• Water your lawn sparingly.
• An alternative to lawn-watering is replacing traditional grass lawns with grass alternatives, succulents (which require less water), a garden (which requires water but also doubles as a food source), or even using cobblestones or paving parts of your lawn.
• Wash dishes by hand.

These are just a few suggestions to get you on the road to water conservation. There are many other options available to help you reduce your water usage. Explore these options and find additional ideas to see what works for your family and your lifestyle.