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Okay, I’m Green and Clean Mom and I’ve launched myself as an “expert” but really I’m learning and I’m just like everyone else out there. I just happen to concentrate on a topic, try a zillion green products, research tirelessly on environmental and green issues but I have questions too. I’m real behind this screen. With this said, I’m launching something new here at Green and Clean Mom, besides just videos. Thanks for the complements, by the way.
I’m reaching out to you. I’m asking you for help on some issues where I don’t have an opinion, I’m unsure of or shoot, I figure you could help me. Help guide me. Help open my eyes. Point out something new to me. I learn from my readers and want to take advantage of this. I have some intelligent readers and your input is very important to me.
Here it goes, the very first “Green Help” post. Rain barrels are something I’m fascinated with. I read about water conservation and ways to save water. The EPA says water is a limited resource and only 1% of the water on our Earth is usable. Wow! It just so happens that my husband and I have different opinions on this topic. My green help question is this: Is it necessary to collect rainwater? Can we make more water?
Seems like a silly question. I just read it and thought, duh.
Problem being, I have someone else to convince in my home and I need help. Here are his points:
1. There is always water, it just changes form. Doesn’t mean clean water.
2. We can make more water, hydrogen and oxygen (H2O).
3. If we collect rainwater in a barrel does it really help make a difference?
4. Turn off the faucet to save energy not water.
5. The EPA says 1% is usable. So salt water can’t be made into safe drinking water?
I’m reaching out to you. I’m asking for your resources, guidance, answers or whatever information you can give me to help either prove my lovely husband wrong or right. What are your thoughts?
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This is very interesting. I have always wondered about that, except we have no rain! We are in the middle of a drought so I don’t know of any alternatives right now. With that said, I’m curious as to what others have to say on the topic.
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Well I am definitely no expert but I have read in the past that the cost of taking the salt out of saltwater to make it drinkable is not cheap. It costs so much that this is not a feasible solution.
I do believe in collecting rain water in a rain barrel. It can be used to water plants, grass and gardens when there is not enough rain, wash the cars, pets, even fill the bird baths. There are so many uses I cannot name but a few. So yes, saving rain water is one step in saving the planet.
I really recommend that you get the book, “The Green Gardner’s Guide” by Joe Lamp’l. He is very specific in this book on what you can save when turning off water faucet and has a great chapter on rain barrels too. I seriously have most of the book underlined. It covers most everything.
Here is the faucet stats: “At the rate of 1 drip per second, a leaky hose bib wastes 8.64 gallons of water per day. Letting it leak for a month wastes almost 260 gallons.”
I can’t write it all here of course but a blib on rain barrels says “For every one inch of rain that falls on a catchment area of 1,000 square feet (the typical roof size), approximately 600 gallons of water can be harvested.” Whoa.
Well, I don’t know as if there really is a right or wrong answer. It just depends on what you are passionate about. There seem to be unintended consequences for everything green.
Using potable water for watering lawns and flushing toilets in areas with water shortages is a real issue, so using a rain barrel in those areas would help tremendously. It would help even more if the greywater system was used on a community scale, not just in individual homes. I know that Florida is considering Legislation about this. Trying to get off of aquifers completely by 2012 or something.
I wish I had some sites to source, but I don’t. Desalinazation is very costly, I know that much.
Water shortages are a very real issue in many areas of the United States and in areas that are experiencing unbelievable growth right now, they will see the shortages before a lot of other places do when their municipalities start taxing residents.
But, it sounds like both of you are passionate about one item or another. One for water and the other for energy. That’s a good thing!
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1. There is not always water that is potable, or in large enough quantity to be useful. In developed nations quantity is often the issue. Once the water comes out of the aquifers etc it doesn’t just go straight back in. Google ‘water cycle’ and get your doubter to bone up on it!
This site also explains why water is an issue http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/
2. Here is how you make water (from Yahoo answers)
Can I make water at home?
“Short answer is no. Not unless you have access to industrial chemicals. You’d need pure H2 and O2, in a ratio of 2:1, and mix them then light a match. Big big explosion, and not much water.
For every 18mL of water, you would need 48L of hydrogen gas (or 2 grams), and 24L of oxygen gas (or 16 grams), presuming you’re at sea level.”
3. Yes! Read this site http://www.doityourself.com/stry/rain-barrel
4. Turning off the tap means you are saving water. When the tap is off, no water is coming out - you are saving water!! (I’m sure YOU knew that!!)
http://www.epa.gov/watersense/water/simple.htm
http://www.smarterhomes.org.nz/water/easy-ways-to-save-water/
5. You can turn saltwater into drinking water. It is costly and uses a lot of energy - so in the future our water problem would turn into an energy problem.
An interesting issue to consider is that as the freshwater aquifers are emptied they will be filled with saltwater . . . which is a whole new and complex issue to deal with!
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html
http://www.physorg.com/news113591544.html
Hope that helps!!
I think one of the issues w/ water is that when rains falls a portion of it is absorbed by plants, etc., and only a certain amount of it reaches the aquifers. Being on well water, this makes sense since our well is about 150 ft deep. And our grey water is filtered through our septic system and then through the rock and sand in the ground, and I don’t have a percentage, but I know not all of it reaches 150ft again.
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I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said something like “You never know the worth of water until the well is dry.” It’s easy for people to assume that water is an endless resource because we live on a planet that’s nearly covered in water. Problem is, most of it is saltwater or frozen.
It seems easy enough to say we could desalinize the oceans or melt the ice caps (oops, we’re already doing that with global warming), but it’s not that simple. It’s also completely arrogant and stupid for us to always think we can use any natural resource as we please with complete disregard for the natural ecosystem.
For example, most of the water we use comes from underground aquifers. In many cases, what we withdraw from them is replenished through the natural water cycle. But, if we pull out more than can be naturally replenished, the aquifer starts to dry up. What happens if it dries up? Obviously the people relying on it will have to find water elsewhere, but the natural ecosystem that depended on it will also feel the pain. Springs, swamps, wetlands, and a huge variety of wildlife and biodiversity can be lost because we abuse natural resources.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this, but I need to get back to work. Last bit I’d like to plug in is that it is predicted that the wars in the coming century will be fought over water, not oil. Check out “Blue Gold” by Maude Barlow.
Do you have your own well or are you use community water? Do you have a septic tank, or does your water go into the sewer system? If you have your own well and septic tank, I’d say that your husband is right and it doesn’t make too much difference how much water you save or don’t save, assuming you don’t run your own well dry! (Unless I am overlooking something . . . This is just my guess!)
If you use community water and sewer systems, then it matters more because you are using resources to make that water safe, transport the water, etc. Disposing of water, especially “black water,” i.e., water with hazardous waste including what you flush down the toilet and any toxic cleansers, is another issue. It would just make sense to conserve as much water as possible so as to be less of a burden on the system. Already as the Green and Clean Mom, you are not adding toxic chemicals to our water supply, so that’s a great start.
I don’t really know much about this, either, so I am going to look at those links Meg posted.
Rebecca,
Yes, we have our own well and septic but does that mean we don’t need to conserve water? Hmm? Chime in group. Help me.
Even if you are getting your water from your own well rather than on ‘town supply’ you are still tapping into the same water sources as everyone else - so you still need to conserve!
http://www.watersystemscouncil.org/vaiwebdocs/wscdocs/2026952insert_conserv.pdf
http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Health+Department/Top+News/News+Archive/2007/WellConservation.htm
http://www.bcgwa.org/waterwell/4conservation.html
http://www.groundwater.org/
and a totally random link about water conservation
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0806/S00079.htm
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I think even if you have your own well, it still taps into shared groundwater resources.
Also, with the population rising and our natural resources (like water) being stretched further and further, it behooves you to teach your kids how to conserve water - to embed it in their habits by starting when they’re young. If they are used to turning off the water when they brush their teeth and see you using a rainbarrel - all if it will come quite naturally when they are older and water conservation will be even more necessary.
Sommer, I will ask my dad! He’s an engineer who works with water control systems (such as wells, tanks, pumps, etc.). Meanwhile, Janelle makes a good point about teaching your kids about conservation!
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Yes, please do Rebecca. I’m confused on this. How do I convince my husband when he’s probably closer to your thinking with the well and septic. He also sees an abundance of water in our area…the Great Lakes and my belief is he takes it for granted. I recycle bath water, etc and he just eye rolls. So I might need some facts. No, I do need some facts.
Janelle, you are right. Boy am I trying this to be a role model. Almost asked for a Rain barrel for my b-day!!
Some approximate facts:
1. It would take 5-6 planets to sustain human life if everyone lived like Americans.
2. People in rich countries use about ten times as much water as those in poor ones.
If you really want to have an impact on water conservation in your home, you should really focus on your potty (which is the main use of water in every home) and your food choices (because 70% of water use goes to agriculture). From GoVeg.com:
“It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day.”
I’m still in the boat that you need to be a role model for your kids and the rain barrel is a very tangible way that they can gain an appreciation for water conservation, but if you (or your husband) want concrete reasons for actions that have a real, immediate impact, you may want to look at your toilet or your daily menu.
We added a rain barrel this year. We purchased through our town at a discounted rate. We too have well water, so economically the $50 or so we spent on the barrel will take a while to recoup in energy saving from running the well, but it is the right thing to do. During a heavy rain storm the barrel fills in about 5 minutes. We run a soaker hose from the barrel to our veggie garden and water the garden from the barrel as needed. I would actually like to get another barrel for the other down spout as well. Maybe look for a local discount program to purchase through so the money issue becomes harder for hubby to argue!
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A cheaper makeshift alternative to a rain barrel is to buy a heavy duty trash can and set it out. This comes in handy because you can get one that has wheels and move it around fairly easy.
Check out the book Blue Gold from the library. Great resource!
Okay, I finally talked to my dad, the water systems engineer. I also read the links Meg posted above, which seemed to deal mostly with drought conditions.
My dad said that domestic wells draw from the aquifer at a certain rate–it doesn’t depend on how much you use. Too many wells on the same aquifer could bring the aquifer down, but if you were using it to irrigate or something, you’d be putting that water back on the fields. For your situation, he does not believe there would be any ecological benefits to conserving water.
However . . . as your husband pointed out, when you turn on that faucet, you are using electricity to pump from the well. My dad said that where he works (California and Nevada), people may spend around $40-50 for the electricity used to pump their wells. Therefore, any conservation you can do will reduce the amount of electricity you use, which of course is better for the environment.
So whether you need to save the actual WATER or just the energy used to pump the water, it is valuable to reuse bath water, get a rain barrel, etc.
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We have well and septic and use rain barrels too. Less strain on the well, motor, storage, pipes, electric to name a few things. We have rain barrels that we bought from http://www.aquabarrel.com they have large inlet and outlet so they don;t overflow in place - that’s one of the biggest issues we saw when we were shopping around for one.