California has about one year of water left. Will you ration now? (Salinas: refrigerator, zip code)

[cb73]

If we had an actual serious drought problem, the first to go would be:

* Swimming pools
* Golf courses
* Country clubs (that have both)

Since none of them are slacking off on the water use, why should we?

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by cb73

If we had an actual serious drought problem, the first to go would be:

* Swimming pools
* Golf courses
* Country clubs (that have both)

Since none of them are slacking off on the water use, why should we?

You realize that most golf courses use recycling water, not fresh supply, right? Same with most municipal park and highway landscaping watering.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by janellen

Tule, your water conservation is truly admirable. I'm curious as to how you use that water. Could you give me a kind of breakdown on your water use? For example, what is the difference between a 3 gal day and a 5 gal day? Is the 5 gal/day a shower day? Do you not have toilet facilities on your boat so that you use some sort of dockside facility? Any toilet you flush, yours or not, is going to use a gallon or so, right? Do you wash dishes often? Laundry? I think 3 to 5 gals is what I use when dry camping in my old Silver Streak, but hygiene is not optimal. I conserve as much as I can but I don't think I could cut it as close as you do unless maybe I put in an out house. I have often thought of putting one in although I'm not sure it would pass county code. Tell us your secret please.

Sure.

But first, a disclosure: I may have lied. Because I didn't calculate how much water is used at the laundromats for my clothes washing. I just looked up average washing machine use and it's higher than I thought, if what I read is correct: 25 gallons per load. And I do 3 or so loads a month. So my usage might be more in the 5 - 8 gallons a day range.

1 - I use a composting toilet. Made it myself. Works like a charm. No water except to rinse out the bucket about once a month or so when I change straw and dump the compost. If y'all think that's gross, I can give more information. No smell. Completely sanitary. Great book on the topic: The Humanure Handbook - Center of the Humanure Composting Universe

That saves about 10 or so gallons a day over most people right there.

2 - I can shower on my boat, but I don't anymore now I live in the marina. I use their shower house. A complete shower can be accomplished comfortably with as little as a gallon of water, though I probably use gallon and a half to two. Mostly, unless doing dirty construction kind of work, there's no need for full showers daily. Washcloth baths suffice on many days. Hair (what there is left) is cropped short, like a Bruce Willis style Nothing much needs washing there.

Submariners can really give you a lesson on how to stay clean with half a gallon But I didn't serve on subs. Still, all Navy ships are strict about water usage and that's where I got my start with these habits. Later, out of the Navy, when I moved on my own little boat, I had to haul and row my jugs of water. Ya larn quick.

Your typical shower will run about 25 gallons to my one to two.
(Baths run 60 - 70 gallons)

3 - I own one fork, one spoon (a teaspoon), one butter knife. I've got several glass bowls with snap lids. More than half what I eat is raw food: veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds. I grill fish a lot. I eat oatmeal and homemade Muesli from raw oats. I wok-flash-fry some food in oil. I steam some vegetables. I never wash the wok. It's not good for it. Just wipe it clean with paper towel and re-oil. I don't wash my steamer either. Steam is so hot it sterilizes. I save the boiling water in the pan in the sink and reuse when washing other utensils or my hands.

When visitors come over I have a little box of plastic spoons and forks from deli's. but my own dishes and silverware just get reused all day long so wiping them clean with paper towel often suffices until new food is in them a couple hours later. Depends of what. Veggies and fruit don't rot. Meat does. Meat stuff gets washed with soap.

I only use Dr. Bronner's soap - for everything, btw. Dishes, body, whatever. You can wash vegetables in it it is so safe. So no pollution issues over the side.

If you think I'm grubby living this way all I can tell you is I am considered fastidiously anal about my personal hygiene according to the gal pals.

This lifestyle isn't really so hard at all. I don't do it to be "green". Although I agree that is nice. It's just habit bred of Navy life and then having to haul my water.

Oh, and I drink about a half gallon a day. Just water and tea. No pop, no coffee, no juice.

[BeauCharles]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

The "package" has a name. It's called : a "Blivet".

I never heard anyone but him use that word! I thought he made it up.

[LuvSouthOC]

Tule, a friend has a larger Hunter sailing boat and thus I'm somewhat familiar with boating. Do you not have plumbing on the boat for the toilet?

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Sure. But first, a disclosure....

Wow, mutt; that is impressive. More people should live like this.

[katharsis]

Just curious how many people REALLY think it will be as drastic as the article says.

I haven't lived in California for almost 30 years, but claims such as this have been made for at least 50 years. (I clearly remember seeing a B&W film in my fifth or sixth grade class that proclaimed that we would run out of water within, I think, ten years -- and being very alarmed by it.) I still visit relatives in SoCal every other year, and every so often, I hear the "water doom" alarm sounded again and experience "no water unless asked" in restaurants. (Btw, I think this policy should be instituted as a matter of course in most of the southwestern states, at least.)

Please don't misunderstand. Unless we have been seriously deceived, I know this is a REAL problem (although, of course, I am not sure how big), but I just wonder how many Californians read articles like this, and their reaction is basically one big yawn.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

Tule, a friend has a larger Hunter sailing boat and thus I'm somewhat familiar with boating. Do you not have plumbing on the boat for the toilet?

Keywords to note: "large" and "Hunter".

Hunter's are luxury sailing yachts. Life aboard is mostly at the dock. And whatever takes place underway goes into holding tanks to later be pumped out at the docks. Hunter's are plumbed to be connected to fresh water at their slip - and have large fresh water tanks that their owners fill at the dock for when they go out for an afternoon or dinner cruise or occasional overnighter to Catalina. And seawater pumping for toilets that are plumbed to the waste holding tanks.

I have lived on a variety of boats. All under 30'. Some did have plumbing including heads. But I never used the flush heads. My present boat is 24' and has a small fresh water bladder tank I can fill with a hose or a jug. It is plumbed to my one little sink that has a foot pump to supply the faucet.

Lots of small boats are not plumbed for flush heads. Boaters often use 'Porta-Potties' which have little tanks you can fill and add deodorizer chemicals to - plus a removable waste tank you carry down the dock to the shower house bathroom to empty. They are clunky and messy in my experience. They suck.

There is at least one, I think several, composting heads specifically made for boats that work great. And cost close to a thousand bucks $$. My bucket composter cost me less than $10. Works just as well and no installation required. Just sits there.

The old type of saltwater flush-direct-to-the-sea heads are now illegal to use unless miles offshore. If you have a boat in a marina, many marinas require an inspection to become a tenant. Some marinas also require periodic Coast Guard safety inspections. If the marina or Coast Guard come aboard and find a flush head that doesn't have a waste holding tank that can be pumped out at a pump out station - said head has to be sealed off from use.

You will also find boats with 'Electra-San' type waste disposal systems that incinerate solid wastes with electricity from a heavy-duty battery system after running it through a 'macerator' to grind it all up. Once neutralized it can be flushed anywhere legally. - Again: $$$

I spent $10 or less and I return nutrients safely composted to the biosphere.

It's not hard. It needn't be expensive. More in another post on the topic of how we can save extraordinary amounts of wasted water and do our biosphere a favor to boot.

[CamaroGuy]

Originally Posted by mbell75

Yup, desalination plants are too expensive but hey, lets spend over $100 BILLION on a train!

That's probably $100 billion just to get started. It will be close to $400 billion when or if its completed.

[CamaroGuy]

Originally Posted by bruhms

drought isn't only affecting california.

Quite right. Its the whole west that's been in a drought the past few years.