Water Conservation
Indoor Tips
- Check your toilets for leaks. Put two drops of food coloring into your toilet tank. Without flushing, watch the tank for 3-5 minutes. If the food coloring appears in the toilet bowl, you have a leak that should be fixed immediately.
- Take shorter showers. Long showers can waste five to ten gallons of water per minute.
- Check every faucet in your home for leaks. Even a slow drip can waste 15 to 20 gallons a day. Fix it and you save almost 6,000 gallons a year.
- Turn off the water while shaving or brushing your teeth. This can save 3 to 7 gallons per minute. Just wet your brush and fill a glass for rinsing.
- Use your automatic dishwasher for full loads only. A dishwasher uses the same amount of water whether it is full or empty, so be sure to fill it.
- If you wash your dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running. If you have a two-sided sink, fill one side with soapy water and one with rinse water. If you have a single sink, try using a pan of hot rinse water or a spraying device.
- Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. Letting water run until it cools down wastes 3 to 7 gallons per minute.
- Don’t use the toilet as a wastebasket. Every time you flush the toilet, you use five to seven gallons of water.
Outdoor Tips
- Water your lawn only when it needs it. Step on your lawn to test if it needs watering. If the grass springs back up when you move, it doesn't need water.
- Water during the cool parts of the day. Watering during the heat of the day can actually harm your lawn. Early morning is generally better than dusk since it prevents fungus growth.
- Don’t water the pavement. Position sprinklers so that water lands on the lawn or garden, not in areas where it is not needed. Also, avoid watering when it is windy.
- Use a broom to clean the driveway and sidewalk. Sweeping the driveway and sidewalk will get them clean without wasting gallons of water.
- Check for leaks in pipes, hoses and faucets. Leaks outside the house may not seem as bad since they’re not visible. Outdoor leaks can be as wasteful as leaks inside the house.
- Don’t run the hose while washing your car. Clean the car with a pail of soapy water. Only use the hose to rinse it off.
- Cover your swimming pool. Covering a swimming pool will help reduce evaporation. An average sized pool can waste more than 1,000 gallons of water per month if left uncovered. A pool cover can cut this loss up to 90%.
- Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants. Mulch will slow evaporation and discourage weed growth, too.
Other Tips
- Do not pour grease into sinks, garbage disposals, and toilets.
- Do not pour pesticides, fertilizer, paint thinner, weed killers, antifreeze, motor oil, or other hazardous household items down the drain.