Landscaping Water Essay

In the modern age of high-speed internet, self-driving cars and VR it’s easy to forget that some places in the world still don’t have fresh water, let alone plumbing. The average person uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water a day. If you drink the recommended 8 glasses per day that’s only 8 oz a glass, or 64 oz in total. Of those 80 to 100 gallons we use an average of 3 every time we flush the toilet, 5 gallons per minute in the shower, 36 gallons for a bath, 8-27 gallons while doing the dishes, 25 gallons for every load of laundry and another 2 gallons a minute if you’re doing any outdoor watering or filling a kiddy pool. By using a newer toilet, you can reduce the gallons per flush to about 1.6 gallons, and when using a water saving shower head you can reduce your use to about 2 gallons per minute. This may not seem like much of a difference, but it can make a big impact.

Irrigation was the biggest impact to hit the Yuma and Southern Arizona. Without Irrigation Yuma and Southern Arizona wouldn’t be what they are today. At first only 7,500 acres were available for irrigation, but after the necessary canals were built more than 59,450 acres were irrigable. Irrigation allows crops grow at a higher rate because it allows the crop to get the adequate amount of water. Putting water to the rich soil turned the desert into an agricultural oasis that could produce a wide range of crops from wheat and cotton to fruit and vegetables. “We have the climate, water and soil for intense farming,” Davis said. “It would be hard to find farmland anywhere else that would be as productive.” If it wasn’t for irrigation Yuma wouldn’t have become famous for its lettuce. Then, Yuma even expand to a multi-crop system that requires less water and will help significant

People and businesses in a variety of situations and sectors are helping out with the cause. City residents are cutting a surprising amount of water. People are taking shorter showers, switching out inefficient appliances, not washing their cars, and letting their lawns go dry. Water agencies are actually offering rebates for people that switch out their innefieciant shower heads and toilets. People are also saving water through, “xeriscaping, which means “dry landscaping,” homeowners replace thirsty grass with drought-tolerant native plants like wildflowers and succulents” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). The Santa Clara Valley Water District is even paying residents $1 per square foot to xeriscape their properties. Another method for conserving water is water recycling. It’s a method to cleanup and reuse wastewater. In Orange county there’s a Groundwater Replenishment System (GRS) that cleans 70 million gallons of wastewater per day. More plants like this are planned to open up in the next couple of years. California restaurants aren’t even allowed to serve water unless the customer specifically asks for it. The biggest water saving technique is drip irrigation. Drip irrigation, “allows water to seep slowly into the roots of plants through a network of tubes and valves at the base of a plant” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). While this technique is significantly more efficient than sprinklers and flood irrigation, it’s still not as widespread because it costs a lot to install the necessary equipment. About 40 percent of farms still use flood irrigation. Californians are finding many different ways to save every drop they can, but a whole lot more can still be done to save the maximum amount of

According to the State Water Resources Board (2015), there are water conservation actions that must be taken by the public, restaurants, and water suppliers to meet the state requirements. The public must stop using potable water to wash sidewalks and driveways, using hoses with no shutoff nozzles to wash cars, using potable water in decorative water features that do not recirculate the water, and using outdoor irrigation during and 48 hours following measurable precipitation. Restaurants and other food service establishments can only serve water to customers upon request and hotels and motels must provide guests with the option of not having towels and linens laundered daily (“Emergency Conservation Regulations,” n.d, 2015). Water suppliers must impose restrictions on outdoor irrigation, notify customers about leaks that are within the customer’s control, report on water use monthly and report on compliance and enforcement ((“Emergency Conservation Regulations,” n.d, 2015).

A few options would have to be considered to limit the use of water no matter where anyone lives in order to delay the complete depletion of our water supply. A simple start would be to start limiting water usage in homes. People are guilty all over Kansas area of taking twenty to thirty minute showers which is completely unnecessary. Cutting the length of showers to once a day and a fraction of that shower time would save millions of gallons of water expeditiously. Another valid option would be to consider the amount of water used to water household yards. Yes, everyone wants a luscious front yard with healthy trees and a beautiful garden but the use of water can be regulated to help save. Hundreds of gallons of water are used in towns every where in order to make their grass green again. It is beautiful but the water can be shaved down in order to

Californians are using standard heads on their showers and are taking an abundant amount to get clean. There are so many products that you can buy at your local store that can reduce water use by half of what you regularly use. People who don’t use WaterSense shower heads that save up to 2,900 gallons per day and instead use regular shower head should be warned and show the problems it caused to our water supply. Those who over water their lawns are wasting 265 gallons of water monthly, and those who wash their cars and driveways are wasting 80 to 140 gallons of water were as an actual car wash garage only uses 30 to 45 gallons of water, we might think we are not wasting a lot, but we actually are. We do know that agriculture takes almost 70% of the water usage in California, but that’s because we need that water to help our produce survive. “California is one of the biggest providers in the world for fruits, vegetables and nuts.” (Zamora, Amanda, Lauren Kirchner, and Abrahm Lustgarten 2014) Without water providing this help, California would be affected almost

Today, one can conserve water. Water is an important part of our everyday lives and one should use it as efficiently as possible. There are a few ways to focus on conserving water. One step to take would be to change and update pipes, fixtures used, and operating systems so that the newest and easiest systems are being used. These new systems today tend to save and cut down the amount of water we use by just running water in the shower or by flushing the toilet. The other most practical way to conserve water would be to change one’s habits while using water. Instead of letting the shower run for two minutes before one actually getting in it, one should turn it on as they get in. Another conscious way of conserving water usage would be to do less loads and bigger loads of laundry so that not as much water is used as often. Some things are easier to conserve than others, but when a conscious effort is made there is a way to get it

Americans consume far more water on average than people in other countries. This means there is significant room for making lifestyle changes and reducing our per capita water usage. However,

In today's day and age it is impossible to live without water. The American society relies heavily on water in public

Although this may seem like a small problem, but it's just a microcosm to the real world. The amount of water wasted is so vast, that in Stewartsville alone up to 30.528 gallons can be wasted in a day, 213.696 gallons in a week, or even 11112.192 gallons in a year. It happens in the building in the following classrooms: Mrs. Dabour’s room, the kitchen sink, both sinks in the art room, faculty, 8th grade math, 7th grade social studies, the nurses back sink, room 101, 7th grade science, Ms. Piazza, and 7th grade ELA.

I would like to suggest using low flow toilets, low flow valves in sinks or sensor faucets (Tagtow et al., 2014). I have noticed many a times in restroom, students are in a hurry and forget to close the tap completely and as a result, water drips till the next person notices and turns off the tap. What if this happens during night time and the next person notices this in the morning, there will be so much of water waste till that time. Replacing the current faucets with sensor faucets would be a great idea to minimize the water waste. These small changes can definitely bring some reduction in water

Just raising the cost of water is not sufficient, as it does not discourage people from using more water because they are not forced to use less. An acceptable, humane amount of water per person should be decided upon by the water conservation act, and if this amount is exceeded, the cost for additional gallons of water should be triple what is normally paid. This would be effective in discouraging people from using too much water and depleting the supply.

Using less water also puts less pressure on our sewage treatment facilities, and uses less energy for water supply to the grid.

This may not sound like a lot of water that is used but if you add in how much water is used daily for landscaping/ farming which is about 32 percent of what is used daily in the states it adds up to be a lot. Now it is clear that we need the farming to survive but they have developed other ways to help conserve water for example. By having scheduled irrigation system that would use water when actually need and not waste water. It is clear that each person needs to make sure that they are not wasting water by doing the simple thing. Some of the smallest things can help conserve water in Arizona. Some are make that your faucets in and out of the house are not leaking or consoling dripping, other way would be to some of the simplest things installed in your residents like a water saving toilet lower pressure shower heads. A few other simple things are like turning the water off while you brush your teeth or even just filling up a sink and letting the pots and pans soak then having warm or hot water running constantly on the dishes. (Tips on Water Conservation in the Desert. (n.d.). There are so many things you can do to help with conserving water).

The total volume of freshwater consumed and polluted for the production of goods and service used by a consumer is known as the water footprint. Consumption is loss of available water from its catchment area and redeposited at another catchment area, or used to make a product or by evaporation such that it is no longer available for use for another purpose. (Hoekstra et al 2011)