Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New Mexico
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-24-2009, 03:10 PM
 
Location: Missouri Ozarks
7,394 posts, read 19,283,647 times
Reputation: 4067

Advertisements

One of the things I do now is instead of letting the water run to get hot, I use a container for the cold water running and use it for things such as making coffee, watering plants, filling up the dogs water bowl, etc.

Things you do ???
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-24-2009, 03:47 PM
 
Location: T or C New Mexico
2,600 posts, read 2,313,148 times
Reputation: 607
Default water conservation

I think the best way for people to learn how to conserve water is to do this:
plan a trip to a national forest, gila or cibola would do.
forest camps have very little to offer for facilities, no running water, vault toilets, and usually only a fire ring.
a couple should plan to stay one week, a solid 7 days. you're allowed to pack in only 12 gallons of potable water, this will be used for drinking, sponge bathing when you must, washing your plates, forks and knives, pot & pans you eat out of daily. see if you as a couple can make the 12 gallons stretch 7 days. after this, you'll realize how precious water can be.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-24-2009, 06:50 PM
 
Location: Ruidoso, NM
5,667 posts, read 6,550,176 times
Reputation: 4817
When me and my wife were living in the truck we used about 6 gallons for drinking, and 10 gallons for washing ourselves and the dishes. Compared to the bazzillion gallons the "average household" goes through in a week this is essentially zero.

But even normal residential use is trivial compared to agriculture... and things like watering golf courses and lawns. I also hear that power plants go through a lot of water.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-24-2009, 08:02 PM
 
Location: Missouri Ozarks
7,394 posts, read 19,283,647 times
Reputation: 4067
Wow, both these stories are amazing to me in the sense that I've been in NM for 8 months knowing about the shortage of water but not really paying that much attention to how it affects us. I've filled up water containers in case one of the lines breaks here and we don't have water for days or months but up until about a week ago when I started researching water conservation and green living, I didn't realize the importance of conserving water.
Mutz and Ruff have lived with limited water and have made me appreciate it a lot more.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-24-2009, 08:14 PM
 
Location: Raton NM
215 posts, read 650,367 times
Reputation: 225
Song - I'm the only one that uses my 'loo', so I conserve on the number of flushes in a day.... works for me. Probably way TMI, aye?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-24-2009, 09:27 PM
 
Location: Missouri Ozarks
7,394 posts, read 19,283,647 times
Reputation: 4067
I know of people that flush toilets I think just to hear the sound.
I was in a public bathroom once with a coworker of mine and she must have flushed at least 3 times as she was sitting there.
I said something to her about it as a joke and her reply was, I didn't want anyone to hear me pee.
Like she's the only one that ever has.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-24-2009, 09:32 PM
 
Location: Raton NM
215 posts, read 650,367 times
Reputation: 225
LOL.....!!! Some people are strange..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2009, 04:57 AM
 
Location: T or C New Mexico
2,600 posts, read 2,313,148 times
Reputation: 607
Some people, especially municipalities think nothing of water conservation. my case in point is the city of Truth or Consequences. There is a grassy spot on the north part of downtown, near ralph edwards park which is constanly being watered as of the past week or so, in an effort to make the small grassy area green once again. I believe it is being over-watered because water is standing in the gutters of the street. so, I'd imagine the ground where the grass is, is soaked enough to where the water just goes onto the street. I wonder if the city has ever thought that they're over-watering this section of ground?
Some municipalities in northern Illinois/southeast wisconsin occasionally put out alerts for property owners not to water lawns, or are allowed to water on certain dates/times in order to save water, and they have a double standard too. while residents are told by cities and villages to conserve water, they're over-watering their parkways to keep grass green. so, go figure.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2009, 05:08 AM
 
Location: T or C New Mexico
2,600 posts, read 2,313,148 times
Reputation: 607
Default using water unwisely?

Quote:
Originally Posted by rruff View Post
When me and my wife were living in the truck we used about 6 gallons for drinking, and 10 gallons for washing ourselves and the dishes. Compared to the bazzillion gallons the "average household" goes through in a week this is essentially zero.

But even normal residential use is trivial compared to agriculture... and things like watering golf courses and lawns. I also hear that power plants go through a lot of water.
well rruf, we live in a travel trailer year round. some people know that toilets in rv's don't hold a bowl full of water, one must engage the flush valve to wash waste to the holding tank. since we have a small kitchen sink, we only wash dishes every-other day, and our dishes mostly are forks and knive and spoons, as we dine off of paper plates most of the time. so, water conservation by us is an understatement, we're super-conservatives.
oh yes, power plants? some do use water. but a great deal of the water they use is diverted into a cooling pond, and redrawn back into the cooler intakes. I'm in agreement with you that golf courses and cities/counties are sometimes the biggest wasters of water. gotta keep the greens green for the gophers. BTW, great post!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2009, 07:40 AM
 
Location: Albuquerque
5,548 posts, read 16,031,267 times
Reputation: 2756
songinthewind7 suggested to conserve water:

> ... instead of letting the water run to get hot,
> I use a container for the cold water running ...

I use this in the shower. The water is then used either to
flush the toilet or water outside plants.

It's not necessary to always use soap in the shower, so they
can be taken much quicker without a rinse-lather-rinse cycle.
Just rinse-scrub and out in less than a minute.

When we moved into this house, I unplugged the irrigation
system and never turned it back on.

When washing dishes, I always stage them so pans and serving dishes
are at the bottom of the sink and dishes that are being rinsed for the
dishwasher get rinsed into the pans.

Also, it is not necessary to turn the water on full blast to wash dishes.
A trickle is all that is required. I visit other people's houses and they
seem to use more water per dish than I would for a full load.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:




Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New Mexico
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top