Fl6-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 6,1990
NEWARK, Del. For survi
val, the average person needs only
about 2'A quarts of water a day.
The average Delaware resident
uses 75 to 100 gallons!
“Most of us take for granted
that an unlimited supply of clean
water will always be available,”
said University of Delaware
Extension water quality specialist
Tom Williams. “However,
increasing development through
out the area is beginning to strain
our precious water resources.
“People are beginning to realize
that clean water is not drawn from
a bottomless well. There are limits
to how long water supplies can be
overused or abused before giving
out altogether,” Williams said.
Williams says individuals can
make a difference. “You may
think that you’re just a drop in the
bucket, but if every Delawarean
reduced personal daily usage by
just a single gallon, it would
amount to a statewide savings of
about 240 million gallons annual
ly,” he said.
An individual savings of one
gallon a day, and even many times
that amount is possible to achieve
without making any real sacri
fices, Williams said.
University of Delaware
Cooperative Extension and the
New Castle County Conservation
District have each published a
series of pamphlets providing
practical suggestions for the
individual.
“Water Conservation,” a pam
phlet in the New Castle County
Conservation District’s Clean
Water series, suggests practical
ways for individuals to conserve
water in the home.
First, check for leaks. A leaky
faucet or toilet may seem to be
nothing more than an annoyance,
but in reality they are major sour
ces of waste. A leaking faucet can
waste 20 gallons of water a day; a
leaking toilet, 100 gallons a day.
Combined, these problems could
amount to a loss of more than
40,000 gallons of water a year
from a single home.
To check for leaks, turn off
everything in the house that uses
water. Record the reading on your
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water meter. Wait 20 minutes and
then recheck the meter. If the
reading changed, you have a leak.
While a dripping faucet makes
itself known by the telltale noise, a
leaky toilet is often silent. To
check your toilet for leakage, drop
food coloring into the tank. If after
a few minutes the color appears in
the bowl, you have a leak.
Install water-efficient fixtures
and appliances or retrofit existing
ones with water-saving devices.
Conventional fixtures and
appliances use tremendous quanti
ties of water. A conventional
toilet, for example, uses 5 to 7 gal
lons per flush while new low
consumption toilets use as little as
1.6 gallons.
If you can’t afford a new toilet,
place a quart plastic bottle with
sand or pebbles for weight in your
toilet tank. Do not uses bricks
since they can break apart and
cause damage. By reducing the
amount of water flowing into the
tank, this will save many gallons a
day.
Installing a low-flow shower
head that costs about $lO can
reduce water flow by 50 to 75 per
cent without changing the way
you shower. Installing aerators on
your household faucet can also
result in substantial water savings.
These inexpensive devices quick
ly pay for themselves in water
savings.
Finally, identify and eliminate
wasteful habits. In the bathroom,
don’t use toilets as ashtrays or
trash cans. Each unnecessary flush
means as much as 7 gallons literal
ly down the toilet. Turn the water
off while you shave, brush your
teeth or soap your hands. Take
showers instead of baths. And,
take shorter showers, remember
ing to turn off the water while
soaping up or shampooing
(installing a showerhead with an
on/off control allows you to cut
the flow without having to remix
the water).
In the kitchen and laundry
room, run your dishwasher or
washing machine only when you
have full loads. Some washing
machines have water-saving set-
AT HOME
ON
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lings tor small loads. Use a basin
or pan for rinsing dishes rather
than running water continuously.
Put your garbage in the trash or on
the compost pile instead of down
the garbage disposal. Disposals
use a good deal of water and add
unnecessary solids to the sewer or
septic system.
According to John Tarburton,
New Castle County Conservation
District Nonpoint Source Pollu
tion (NPSP) project coordinator,
“It is important that everyone
makes an effort to conserve water.
Saving water now will not only
leave more water for the future,
but it also saves money and energy
and helps reduce the amount of
pollution in the water.”
One of the most effective ways
in which individuals can reduce
the amount of pollution they con
tribute to the nation’s waters is to
reduce the amount of water they
use.
• “Many sewage treatment plants
are too small to handle the wastes
of the populations they serve,”
Williams said. “This can lead to
bypassing the sewage plant,
dumping raw sewage into our
waterways or sending wastewater
through the plant so rapidly that
proper treatment is impossible.”
Reducing the amount of water
entering the plants can mean bet
ter treatment and cleaner waters
being discharged into waterways.
The most effective way to achieve
this is to reduce the amount of
water used in the home.
Similarly, if you have a septic
system, conserving water can pre
vent drainfield overloads and help
assure that your septic system is
properly treating wastewater. If
your system overflows, the first
rainstorm will carry any pollutants
into the nearest river, stream,
creek, lake or pond.
Conserving water has other
benefits as well. For example,
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water conservation saves money,
Treating, pumping and delivering
drinking water is an expensive
process and becoming more so
every year. On top of that, add the
cost of treating the wastewater
that leaves your home.
In the end, these costs are
passed on to the individual. By
reducing the amount of water you
use, you can achieve substantial
savings on your water, sewage and
energy bills. Even if you have a
private well and septic system,
conserving water saves you
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This counter-balanced air Inlet is simple to install and
requires little maintenance. It Is constructed of a specially
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money. Using your pump less
saves money on your energy bill,
and reducing the amount of water
discharged into your septic system
can prolong its life.
“Conserving water means
cleaner and more abundant sup
plies of water in the future,” Wil
liams said. "It’s not only smart
management, but an obligation.
By conserving water now, we can
ensure an adequate supply of
clean water for generations to
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atmospheric corrosion. As
opposed to most other systems
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