Gilda responded to a recent posting about water use/drought. I believe that this topic is so important that it deserves its own posting.

Gilda, I agree with you about how precious or water is. Unfortunately, no matter how much we conserve, it won't be enough, unless we somehow get the world (and our own) population under control. If we cut water use by 1/2, all that savings is lost when the population doubles.

Not that I am against water conservation; au contraire! (sorry for the French, mud wrestler, et al :)

One good way to conserve water, and either make your septic system last longer, or keep some of your wastewater out of the river or stream that your city disposes of its sewer waste into, is to divert all the wastewater from your home EXCEPT toilets and kitchen sink to your lawn or flower garden.

Unfortunately, this is illegal in many locals. Nevertheless, many, many people continue to do this, as it is seen as a very environmentally friendly thing to do.

Some builders (I plead the fifth) do a bit of alteration on their plumbing rough-in after having it inspected, but before putting the floor down, running a separated pipe to the outside of the house for the future homeowner's use.

I have queried the local building officials, along with the local health department about why this is not only legalized, but encouraged. They tell me that even the water out of your lavatory is considered "greywater" and, as such, is possibly unsafe.

You be the judge.

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (al@ready.now), August 21, 1999

Answers

Al, I'm glad you followed up on this. I'm very worried about the water situation. As I said earlier, we are in the midst of a severe drought, the worst heat I ever experienced, while other parts of the country are have raging wilfires. The bottom line on all of this is we have to start conserving every way we can, and stop breeding like our natural resources are endless. The following is from the editor of E The Environmental Magazine, whose July August issue focused on overpopulation.

"Why is it that we have so much trouble making the connection between runaway population growth and environmental degradation? It seems plain that the issues that matter most to us--biodiversity, urban sprawl, loss of rainforests and old-growth trees, air and water pollution--have their roots in the incredibly successful propagation of the human species." (end quote)

The human species needed millions of years to reach a population of one billion. The second billion was added in slightly over one hundred years in l930. In only 69 years we will reach 6 billion This is insane! Enough.

We add 50 million cars to the worlds roads every year. Where I live we have a store that stays open 24/7 and I shop at 5:00 AM to avoid the clogged roads.

When it comes to stress, overcrowding is the number one factor, that affects the most people. The effect of overpopulation concerns everyone of us and much of the pollution that goes into the air will be there one hundred years from now. There's a message here.

School districts can't even begin to keep up with adding enough teachers and classrooms. Road building never stops. We are losing farmland at the rate of 15 million acres per year. Our rivers and streams are polluted.

Last year when we bought our Berky, it was because we had our water tested and it was polluted, not because of Y2K. It was much cheaper than the hassle of buying bottle water.

If we don't control our population, it will control us, and the results will not be pretty.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), August 21, 1999.

From Santa Cruz today:

August 21, 1999

Chemical caused SC water crisis, officials believe Some restrictions likely to last until Monday

By DARREL W. COLE Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ  City officials now suspect that the continuing water emergency was caused by too much of a treatment chemical getting into the pipes at the water-treatment plant.

Watering restrictions were eased somewhat Friday but officials weren't able to end the emergency today as hoped. Instead, it is now expected to last until Monday, when the city's 17 holding tanks should be full.

The treatment plant was back to full production Friday, but conservation is still needed until the storage tanks are filled. The city's largest holding tank, the 39-million-gallon Bay Street reservoir, was only about 10 percent full Friday.

City Water Director Bill Kocher said residents can now water plants if necessary but are still being asked to curtail other outdoor uses, such as car washing and lawn watering.

Failure to keep water use down will trigger more restrictions, city officials warned. The water emergency was declared Wednesday after an alarm went off late Tuesday night at the treatment plant on Graham Hill Road.

After days of speculation, water officials said Friday they now believe the alarm was triggered by a double dose of a chemical that increases the effectiveness of the sand filters, the final stage in the treatment process.

When authorities could not immediately determine the cause of the alarm, they cut water production from 16 million gallons a day to 2 million gallons to ensure the water leaving the plant was safe to drink. Since Thursday morning, car washes have been ordered closed and area nurseries and retail garden centers have been forced to rely primarily on water trucked in from elsewhere.

The city provides water to about 90,000 people in the city of Santa Cruz, part of Capitola and parts of the unincorporated areas of the county, including Soquel, Live Oak and Pasatiempo.

State Department of Public Health officials said the double chemical dose was a logical explanation but an uncommon occurrence.

A state health official said new regulations are being considered to require additional testing to prevent such situations.

The city obtains most of its water from the San Lorenzo River and Loch Lomond Reservoir in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

At the city plant, it undergoes various treatments, including chlorination to kill bacteria from human and animal waste.

The final process is filtration to remove microscopic organisms such as Cryptosporidium, which can cause gastrointestinal illness.

Just before the water reaches the final filter, a polyelectrolyte chemical is added to essentially increase the size of the micro-organisms to ensure they are caught by the filters.

Periodically, the filters are cleaned by a reverse flow of water. That tainted backflow is then diverted into a holding tank to be treated. After the contaminants and filtering chemicals settle out, the water is tested for contamination. However, it is not tested for an excess of the chemical treating agents. Treated water from the backflow process is eventually reintroduced into the city water supply.

City officials believe excess polyelectrolyte in that water tripped the alarm. "Typically what we put in the water to treat it dissipates but some of those polyelectrolytes are difficult to detect," Kocher said. "We are going to test for those things from now on."

Kocher said the city plans to hire a Walnut Creek consultant to review its process. "We'll get them in here to look over our shoulders," he said.

The state Department of Health Services regulates municipal water systems but does not require them to test backflow water for treatment chemicals, said Catherine Ma, who oversees the department's North Coast region.

That could soon change, Ma said. One possibility, she said, is that the backflow water may have to go to sewage treatment plants rather than back into the water supply. "We are attempting to get regulations to reduce the amount of backflow water that can go back in the system," Ma said. "That backwash has everything in it you don't want, from bacteria to chemicals, and even though it's treated, you're still putting the worst back in."

Ma said requiring agencies to test backflow for their own chemicals also is something she will attempt to add to the new regulations.

Water systems prefer to recycle the backflow water rather than let it flow off to wastewater treatment and out to sea. The Santa Cruz water plant creates about 500,000 gallons of backflow water each day while producing 14Xmillion to 16Xmillion gallons of drinking water.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District also recycles its backflow but tests it for treatment chemicals. "Most agencies do recapture that (backflow) water for supply reasons, because otherwise you are putting water not as bad as sewer water into a system that is emptying in the ocean or somewhere in the environment," said Mike DiMarco, a spokesman for the Santa Clara district. "This (backflow) is still a usable and precious resource."

Kocher said the city really has no choice because "when you're so short of water, like we are, you have to do these kinds of things."

Ma, who oversees water systems from Mendocino to Monterey, said the Santa Cruz Water Department did nothing wrong and acted appropriately when the alarm sounded. "I believe they took the appropriate health approach because they didn't know the problem at that time," Ma said. "They could have put water through, but if water was released that had exceeded standards, we would have had (to order people to boil their water)."

Copyright ) 1999, Santa Cruz County Sentinel Publishers Co.

-- sandi (unknown@eye.com), August 21, 1999.

So, folks, let's post our water conserving ideas, ok?

Me first. Collect and save the water that comes off your Air conditioner's cooling coils. Use it to fill your toilet tank (not bowl), or some other non-ingestion use. (it MAY have lead in it from the solder on the AC pipes, MAYBE).

After you run your clothes washer, hang your clothes up in an area that is close to a dehumidifier. You run the dehumidifier, and 2 things happen. 1) the clothes dry, albiet a bit more slowly than if they were outside, 2) you retrieve the water that was in the clothes.

Using both methods, I have been able to reduce my overall water consumption by 3-6 gallons a day, or even more.

Wash your clothes less, and wear them longer. If they stink, wash them, but don't if they don't offend you. :)

Collect water from your roof gutters and use for gardening. Could be used for human consumption if you make a solar distiller, or filter twice (once with small-pore filter system, and once with a charcoal system).

Ok, that's my ideas. Let's hear yours.

-- Bill (billclo@msgbox.com), August 22, 1999.

Good ideas Bill. I am careful with water, but I never even thought about the water that comes out of our dehumidifier. I could collect this for house plants.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), August 22, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

Some more ideas on water conservation: Check your water bill to see your current usage. Recognize you may have to reduce long term to 1gal per day (plus crop irrigation)

Clean everything like there's no tomorrow, NOW! Spring cleaning in early fall. Clean again in spring, before water starts to go scarce again.

Set up a water puddle purification system instead of boiling. This will concerve both water & fuel.

Stand in a dishpan when you shower or rig your drain to capture the greywater.

Get several Suds Pumps from A Pampered Chef representative. These will allow you to easily work up a good lather without using much water.

Get hand sanitizer for killing germs without water for those times when water is simply not available.

Buy or make wet wipes.

Even if your water service is working, if you want to conserve, measure your shower water into a solar shower bag and force yourself to confine your usage to what is in the bag.

Have the whole family take turns in the same shallow bath water. Contrary to popular mis-conception, dirty water will still get you clean.

Cut your hair. (Everywhere) Trim your dog's fur.

Get or make a non-electric composting toilet. (expensive)

Hand wash dishes instead of using a dish washer, but don't let water run while you wash or rinse. Use dish pans.

Use low flow shower heads and toilets. Install dual flusher to use less for flushing urine. If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down. Add a brick or two to your tank.

Check your faucets & toilets for leaks.

Use a Wonder Clean hand operated tumbler instead of a traditional washing machine.

Irrigate crops with a drip hose.

Disconnect any reverse osmosis filtration systems, since they use 10 gallons for each one they produce.

Keep a log of your water use, and measure each ration. This will give you ideas on how to cut further.

Xeroscape your yard, using drought tolerant plants and decorative stones.

Add urine to irrigation water at 1/4 dilution.

Stock up on downspout materials. Set your neighbors up for roof water catchment and take your gratitude in water.

Get used wine barrels to capture roof water. They're almost as big, cheaper, look better, and are harder to dump & roll.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), August 23, 1999.