Conservation Efforts

[Ulu]

Well it's no secret that California is in a terrible drought, and the city has asked us to cut back 36% on water use or face fines and higher water rates.We have a baseline allowance of 5000 gals a month right now, and it's half what we've been using.

 

In line with that directive, I installed a cistern yesterday (50 gal plastic rain barrel) so I can collect the wash water & run it out through a soaker hose on the lawn. Normally you get a ticket here for having a dead lawn. Now you'll get one for watering too much. This is a way to cut back and still keep the lawn green.

 

It works great & I only spent $200 & it has no pumps. The whole thing works on a siphon from my utility sink.

 

I attached a short 2" ABS pipe inside my utility sink & stuck the washer drain hose there, so it fills the sink instead of the sewer.

I added a second tailpiece to my sink with a rubber stopper. I now have 2 drains with stoppers.

 
I used a 1 1/4" spa-type vacuum hose, as it's quite strong & will not collapse under a siphon, yet bends around corners easily.

One end is epoxied over the new tailpiece, it runs through the wall, and it ends in the bottom of the cistern.

 

But I don't have much drop from the sink to cistern, so for the system to work without a pump, it must siphon & the siphon must be started. You plug both drains, then let the washer fill the sink. Lay the empty cistern down (It's very light when empty)  and pull the new drain plug. The cistern starts to fill, purges the water from the hose, and you must then stand it up to seal the siphon.

 

Now the system will always siphon wash water to the cistern when you pull that plug; as long as you never let the cistern go dry, as that breaks the siphon: Then you must lay the barrel down to prime it again.

 

Now I need to divert the shower drain to the back yard

[greg g]

You know, back when I was a kid there was an Easy wringer style washing machine in the basement.  My mother used a similar thing in the set tub.  She washed the white stuff in the first load, saved the wash water , and the rinse water.  She used the wash water with a bit more soap to wash the everyday stuff.  That tub got drained.  The rinse from that load got saved.  The she used the rinse water with some more soap and washed my father's work clothes and used the other tub of rinse water for the first rinse and finished them of with a half load of clean rinse water. So she basically did 3 loads of wash with 1 1/2 of the volume of water.  she may have saved the last rinse as a starter for the next load if there was one.  She learned that from my Grandmother who's only water supply was from a rain and melt water cistern until about 1964.

[TodFitch]

When we moved into our current house some P.O. had put a similar drain in for the clothes washer. It had no end of maintenance issues as wash water has lots of lint in it. Some place along the line there was always something that caught the lint and got clogged. Also have to be careful of what you put in your was water, some of the stuff in standard laundry products is not as plant friendly as you might like.

 

I ended up removing the system after a few years as I got tired of fixing it.

 

Past the rainy season now, what little of it there was, but I suspect the water off the roof would be a good candidate for saving until later in the year. Different set of plumbing needed for that. At the moment all my downspouts are piped underground to dry wells so I figure that when it rains I am building up the soil moisture which ought to help the plants for while after it stops raining for the year.

 

What happens in your area when you go over your base allowance? Where I am they simply charge you a lot more for the next tier up. Base tier for residential service here is 400 CF (about 3000 gal/mo).

[Dodgeb4ya]

People today use way too much water !

Swimming pools, hot tubs, saunas, water bottles by the billions...half empty thrown out...waste of water.

[ggdad1951]

yah I wonder how much grey water you could collect off of showers and in the kitchen?  Washing machines have their own issues as stated above.

[greg g]

Just looked up our rates.  I guess this might be wierd but they charge a base rate bases on the inlet size of the meter.  that rate for us is 28.00 for 3 months.  Then these rates are added bases on usage. 

 

WATER USE RATE:

First 10,000 gallons @ $2.555 per 1,000 gallons
Next 13,000 gallons @ $3.355 per 1,000 gallons
Over 23,000 gallons @ $4.165 per 1,000 gallons.

 

I do not believe we have ever exceeded the first 10000 gallons per quarter.  Pretty sure these may be some of the cheapest rates in the country.  so based on this we are at about 16 bucks a month.     But still we do not waste water, just out of principle.   

[jcmiller]

I think our rates are $4.93 per 1,000 gallons plus a base fee of about $11/mo.

[Ulu]

I don't remember the rates here, but it is tiered, so that the price jumps up as you use more. Baseline is 10,000 gals each 2-month billing period.

 

Right now, if you use more than 73%  (EDIT:...SORRY 63%!) of your corresponding month's 2013 usage, you will get a fine of $50 ($25 for the first offense) & I expect the tiers will also jump up soon.

 

I didn't put any special lint trap in the system. Big chunks will get caught in the utility sink strainer, and that's easy to clean. I just have one unbroken hose from sink to cistern, so that's not gonna clog.

 

It'll clog the restrictor in the garden-hose soaker system I have hooked to the cistern though. I'll have to blow that out from time to time.

 

My only complaint so far is that when the cistern is getting full, it siphons rather slowly. There's not much "head" of water at that point. I'm going to add another one in series, down hill slightly, that I'll tap for a tree root feeder. That will speed up the siphon action too.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Ulu

[Don Coatney]

Do the folks in California with wells have water usage guidelines too?

[TodFitch]

Do the folks in California with wells have water usage guidelines too?

Until this drought there was no management at all for ground water pumping but that has changed. Not sure how the big pumpers (typically big farms) are affected but I think part of it is keeping track of the amount of water pumped and reporting it.

 

The one fellow I know who has a well for his household water is hoping that his well will not run dry. Since he lives in a fire zone simply stopping all landscape watering is not really an option as he will lose his 200' or so of required “defensible” space if the plants he currently waters die. I guess he could remove all plants for some distance from his house but he'd like to avoid that. He has cut back as much as he can without causing a fire hazard without major landscaping changes. At least he has his own well and it still has water in it. A bunch of his neighbors are on a community well that has gone dry. Not sure of the current situation as they were desperately drilling new wells but I understand that for a while they were trucking water in from maybe 50 or 100 miles away.

[Ulu]

Lots of private wells have gone dry here. That's the main control: it just dries up.

 

Farmers pay for ditchwater, and they pay a yearly subscription, so that they pay whether it rains or not.

 

They are getting a "zero percent" allotment this year, but are still paying the fee.

 

What a racket, but without that they'd never afford water when they really needed it.

 

(Now that they really, really need it, it's just not there of course.)

Edited May 5, 2015 by Ulu

[greg g]

I think I just stay here and put up with the 120 inches of snow we get.... I remember years ago in a comedy bit ,some one on a phone asked the person on the other end how things were in California.  The good news was that the mud slides were putting out the wild fires started by the severed  gas lines from the earthquake. Perhaps it is time to reconsider relocation options.  Nice sunny days not with standing.  

[DJ194950]

Maybe It may be time to sell before my house becomes close to worthless as the area around here really are based on a farm economy. When people finally realize this here it may be too late for those who wait. Born and raised in central Ca.  I feel I may just get what's really up! :( :(

[TodFitch]

I think I just stay here and put up with the 120 inches of snow we get.... I remember years ago in a comedy bit ,some one on a phone asked the person on the other end how things were in California.  The good news was that the mud slides were putting out the wild fires started by the severed  gas lines from the earthquake. Perhaps it is time to reconsider relocation options.  Nice sunny days not with standing.  

At the time of the Northridge earthquake I was working for a small company in Chatsworth, only a couple miles from the epicenter. We had a project that was under test for delivery to a company on the east coast. One of their engineers was rotated out just after the earthquake and they said they were never coming back to the area as the earthquake was too much for them.

 

A couple weeks later they were back on the next shift rotation. We asked about their previous statement. Turns out they got back to the east coast in time for the beginning of an ice storm followed by a long stretch of sub-zero weather. They said, end the end, that the earthquake came and went and was over. But the unbearable cold just kept happening day after day after day after day. . .

[DJ194950]

At the time of the Northridge earthquake I was working for a small company in Chatsworth, only a couple miles from the epicenter. We had a project that was under test for delivery to a company on the east coast. One of their engineers was rotated out just after the earthquake and they said they were never coming back to the area as the earthquake was too much for them.

 

A couple weeks later they were back on the next shift rotation. We asked about their previous statement. Turns out they got back to the east coast in time for the beginning of an ice storm followed by a long stretch of sub-zero weather. They said, end the end, that the earthquake came and went and was over. But the unbearable cold just kept happening day after day after day after day. . .

 

Get what you are saying Tod.

 

I hate snow! Except to watch it when I do not have to move it. Do not like the hot humid summers much either. Been in both before for a yaer or two.

Why have I not already moved? Where to move to with Ca. weather!!   Also were can I move where it's 1 -1/2hr. drive  to ocean beach area, OR 1 hr+ to hi sierra mountains!  hard to replace the NORMAL weather orverall!!

 

Overall I do know it well and generally love it but finanically It appears to be best to give up my birthplace and find something else that I hope works for me??

Edited May 6, 2015 by DJ194950

[ggdad1951]

rates in my area: $2.34 per 1,000 over 9,000 gallons, $2.60 per 1,000 over 25,000.

 

If I were a CA resident, or AZ or NV I'd seriously start thinking about if where I lived was really going to be viable in 10, 20 or 30 years.  I've always contended that there is lots of talk about wars for oil, but at some point it's going to be like "Ice Pirates" with wars over clean water.

[TodFitch]

rates in my area: $2.34 per 1,000 over 9,000 gallons, $2.60 per 1,000 over 25,000.

 

If I were a CA resident, or AZ or NV I'd seriously start thinking about if where I lived was really going to be viable in 10, 20 or 30 years.  I've always contended that there is lots of talk about wars for oil, but at some point it's going to be like "Ice Pirates" with wars over clean water.

“At some point. . .”? In the arid west its been like that since Anglos started coming into the area, maybe even before with the Spanish and/or Indians. Mark Twain is supposed have been the one that came up with “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over”.

[Ulu]

I gotta believe that the climate will cycle again in 10,000 years, and California will have rain again.  

 

But in my lifetime, It'll probably get even drier the way it looks.

[greg g]

There was a section in Ireland called the Burrens.  Folks said it was not fit to live in, it is a country where there is not water enough to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury them.  

 

Had a friend who moved to Florida, then moved back. when asked why he replied, well up here if it get cold you put on some more clothes, down there, there are only so many clothes you can take off, and to no effect as far as getting any cooler.

[Plymouthy Adams]

best part about Florida...it's optional (entire state)

[T120]

“At some point. . .”? In the arid west its been like that since Anglos started coming into the area, maybe even before with the Spanish and/or Indians. Mark Twain is supposed have been the one that came up with “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over”.

Kinda goes along with the storyline in some of the old time western movies...

Edited May 6, 2015 by Ralph D25cpe

[Ulu]

 . . . there are only so many clothes you can take off, and to no effect as far as getting any cooler.

 

My HS gym coach used to say something similar back in '68: "You can always put on more clothes, but you can only take off so much."

 

The thing is that clothes won't always save you. Lots of fully-clothed people froze to death.

 

Also, since then, everybody bought air conditioning.

 

I remember shoveling tons of snow, and chopping ice all winter. Cars rotting out in 3 years. Walking to school when it was 30 below. Stopping to put on tire chains. Pulling people out of ditches. Getting pulled out of ditches. Putting up storm windows. Plugging in the car heater every night so it'd start in the morning.

 

I'll never live in the snow belt again folks. 

 

I've come to prefer the desert.

[T120]

Aaaah..."The Shifting Whispering Sands"...

[Ulu]

That's the Sahara.    

 

We irrigate here, and after 150 years of it we've managed to grow a lot of trees in this desert.

 

But it is still the desert. When you travel you take water. Always. Heat stroke is not fun.

[T120]

That's the Sahara.  

 

We irrigate here, and after 150 years of it we've managed to grow a lot of trees in this desert.

 

But it is still the desert. When you travel you take water. Always. Heat stroke is not fun.

I believe in the Billy Vaughn recording the lyrics were referring to the American west...