Colorado Water Issues

[Ticky909]

Yea, you should take measures to toughen your plants, or at least use resistant species that can handle not being babys. I think the most trees and whatnot you'd see 30 years ago east of the front range would be a few strings of sometimes huge trees along either an irrigation ditch, an arroyo, or some semi-dead sem-alive trees strewn about some periodic stream. As for changing the humidity due to plant life, it is possible, most of the rainforests moisture comes from the transpiration of the huge numbers of plants, but Colorado is far from the rainforest. One thing I think is different is the dry in the ground, Alot of the water would sink into aquifers compared to the rainforest, and the evaporation is probabl similar to if just the dry ground were being rained on, the difference being the irrigation of lawns bringing water that didn't otherwise fall, it would increase humidity, but by perhaps an irrelevent amount, especially with the sinking air coming from the prevailing westerlies.

[GardenDancer]

Originally Posted by tfox

Actually, PEOPLE don't really use up that much water. We have plenty of water to accommodate the people. The one thing that uses up nearly all the water is people's lawns. You want to save water: that's the place to start looking at. One person's water-thirsty lawn uses up more water than the whole lot of us could ever drink in our entire lifetime.

I'm always shocked when I go back east and see how people can manage to have huge lawns without sprinklers. If you like big lawns, back east is the place to go. Surprisingly, it seems that most of our desert southwest neighbors know better than we do -- they xeriscape their yards. We don't. We Coloradans are the ones in denial about it. We live in an arid climate but we pretend we live in a humid, rainy one.

I'd be supportive of new landscaping guidelines forcing new landscape projects to be largely xeriscaped. With that one simple change, we could make our current water supplies last much longer, even despite the growth. And we wouldn't have to waste precious billions on new water projects! Sounds like a win/win for everyone!

tfox thank you for talking about the quantity of water needed to satisfy a thirsty green lawn and the insanity of this practice in dry regions such as Colorado!

I admit I am one of the newcomers to Colorado. I retired earlier this year and moved here from Washington state to live closer to my daughter who has lived here for a few years now. I was born in Phoenix and have wanted to return south for a long time but couldn't fathom living in the extreme heat of Phoenix. So this Durango, Co area is a good fit for me. I am renting for a year before I make any decisions on purchasing property or not.

I want to be educated on the issues of this area and definitely I want to fully understand water concerns. I have been moving, gradually, for a long time to a minimalist way of life and my next big step is taking my already low water consumption to the next lower level.....

So, this brings me to my contribution to this discussion....even though I realize I'm a few years behind I hope there is still interest in picking up on this topic...........

I believe the other extreme, mostly unnecessary, use of good drinking water is toilet flushing! My goal is to have a small piece of land where I can use a composting toilet. We, as a society, need to embrace the idea that using good drinking water for flushing toilets is about as insane as it gets. We could also be using our greywater for flushing if flushing toilets are more desirable as in densely populated areas. There really is no reason, in my humble opinion, in this day and age of advanced technology, to not be designing all new construction with systems of dealing with our personal, body waste that do not use our precious, drinkable water.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing any feedback to my comment : )

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by GardenDancer

I believe the other extreme, mostly unnecessary, use of good drinking water is toilet flushing! My goal is to have a small piece of land where I can use a composting toilet. We, as a society, need to embrace the idea that using good drinking water for flushing toilets is about as insane as it gets. We could also be using our greywater for flushing if flushing toilets are more desirable as in densely populated areas. There really is no reason, in my humble opinion, in this day and age of advanced technology, to not be designing all new construction with systems of dealing with our personal, body waste that do not use our precious, drinkable water.

1. New toilets use 1.2 gals per flush. If you flush 5 times a day then you consume 2200 gallons per year. This is not significant when typical usage (with zero lawn) is 40,000 gal/year.
2. It is illegal in Colorado to use grey water. You only get to use water once. It is also illegal in Colorado to have a rain barrel larger than 50 gallons.
3. Residential use of water in Colorado is only about 20% of the water usage. The vast majority is agriculture. total water, not just potable.
4. Denver Water usage has been declining.

5. The greatest use of treated water in greater Denver is for lawns. This is where the big payoffs are. For example, we installed a Rachio sprinkler controller and annual water consumption dropped by 10,000 gallons. We have a very small lawn on a 3100 sqft lot. If you want to reduce outside water consumption, learn about Xeriscaping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

1. New toilets use 1.2 gals per flush. If you flush 5 times a day then you consume 2200 gallons per year. This is not significant when typical usage (with zero lawn) is 40,000 gal/year.
2. It is illegal in Colorado to use grey water. You only get to use water once. It is also illegal in Colorado to have a rain barrel larger than 50 gallons.
3. Residential use of water in Colorado is only about 20% of the water usage. The vast majority is agriculture. total water, not just potable.
4. Denver Water usage has been declining.

5. The greatest use of treated water in greater Denver is for lawns. This is where the big payoffs are. For example, we installed a Rachio sprinkler controller and annual water consumption dropped by 10,000 gallons. We have a very small lawn on a 3100 sqft lot. If you want to reduce outside water consumption, learn about Xeriscaping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping

And remember just like electricity the less water you use the higher the price is for it.

Utilities are protected monopolies that have guaranteed rates of return so they will raise the rates when people use less.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by LHS79

And remember just like electricity the less water you use the higher the price is for it.

I would agree.
My guess is that 95+% of Denver Water's costs are fixed.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

3. Residential use of water in Colorado is only about 20% of the water usage. The vast majority is agriculture. total water, not just potable.

Local agriculture should learn from the Israelis how to use water efficiently .

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by BarryK123

Local agriculture should learn from the Israelis how to use water efficiently .

Duh.

We could also repeal the sugar price support law and that would remove 30,000 acres from cultivation. Sugar beets are the second (after alfalfa) greatest use of agricultural water.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Duh.

We could also repeal the sugar price support law and that would remove 30,000 acres from cultivation. Sugar beets are the second (after alfalfa) greatest use of agricultural water.

IIRC that law also protects growers in LA and FL who use imported labor to do the work, i.e., the same old game of a few at the top privatizing the profits while taxpayers eat the social costs of schools, hospitals and law enforcement in the labor camps.

[Big Owl]

I am inclined to agree with tfox on this one.