Why Conserve Water?

Why should I conserve water? There is plenty of it...right?

I'm going to touch briefly on how, I believe, people actually think (or don't think) about the subject of water conservation. Lets agree that, for the most part, the average citizen in this country is not concerned with water conservation for whatever reason and that awareness needs to be heightened about the environmental issues that plague this planet due to lack of drinkable water in some parts of the world. We won't even get started on the subject of pollution. Lets save that for another discussion.

That being established, I will attempt to relate the importance of water conservation to the environmentally unconcerned on a level we can all relate to... MONEY. By sharing my own journey to awareness, hopefully I will inspire others to make an effort.

As a boy, and even as a young adult, living in my parents home, my main concern regarding water was that the shower head in my bathroom felt like someone opened a fire hydrant on my back and that the toilet tank dumped enough water into the bowl that I wouldn't have to reach for the plunger. I didn't pay the water bill.

Now its a different story. While living in an apartment in West Asheville, I was reminded that the city expected me to pay for the water I used. After a couple of $90 - $ 100 water bills I installed water efficient aerators on all the faucets, a water efficient shower head, and a
high efficiency Flapperless toilet (HET); all of which were EPA Water Sense recommended products. I could see a noticeable difference in the amount of MONEY I was spending for water. It didn't cost much to make these changes, I could see tangible and immediate results and they all worked great. The Niagara Flapperless toilet by the way, is an incredibly smart and simple design that flushes better than most tank toilets I have used.

These days, I own a home. I pay $25 per month to a Home Owners Association for my water and for road maintenance. Great! I can use as much water as I want... right?... Wrong. This home has a septic system. All that great low fixed rate water I use dumps directly into it. Said septic system is 23 years old and has some issues with roots so all the money I save (and then some) by not paying the city for water or sewer goes straight into having a repair field installed for my overworked and over saturated septic system. Even if there were no root issues, a family of 5 can saturate an aging drain field in no time. Now what?

You guessed it. Water efficient aerators on all the faucets, water efficient shower heads in both showers, and water efficient toilets in both bathrooms. 2 of the 4 inch lines going to my leach field are still clogged with roots leaving me only one 4 inch leach line but my septic system is functioning just fine and should continue to do so until the spring when I can dig it up and replace the root impacted sections of pipe. I'll probably never have to install a repair field as long as I continue to be mind full of conserving water in my home. That saves me MONEY ($ 2300 to be exact).

If I'm unsuccessful at changing the world and how it thinks with regards to being environmentally conscious, and being a good steward of the planet, by appealing to peoples sense of social responsibility then I'll do it by showing them how conserving water will save them MONEY.

PB


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