Bottlemania - Elizabeth Royte [86]
Then there are the “soft” options, which emphasize efficiency (drip instead of flood irrigation) and better matching of water source to water use. For example, we can build new homes with “dual plumbing” that collects gray water (from sinks, showers, and washing machines) for such nonpotable uses as lawn watering or car washing. We can stop leaks: 14 percent of piped water disappears through holes and cracks. We can protect our water supplies by supporting legislators and advocacy groups that work to control polluters and to curb development in critical watersheds (see the appendix for a list of such organizations). We can revegetate urban areas, plant green roofs (which hold on to rainwater until it evaporates, instead of funneling it directly into storm drains), harvest rainwater in barrels and rain gardens, and restore wetlands along streams and rivers (marshes filter pesticides and nitrates, and some plants specialize in taking up heavy metals).
Inside our homes, we can practice good old-fashioned conservation. If all Americans cut their showers by one minute for a year, we’d conserve 161 billion gallons. Why does saving water matter if reservoirs are full? There are a couple of reasons. First, treating and delivering water takes energy: according to the EPA, letting a faucet run for five minutes consumes about as much energy as burning a sixty-watt incandescent lightbulb for fourteen hours. Second, once water runs down our pipes—in cities, that is—it isn’t going to filter back through the earth into aquifers. It joins other waste streams from homes and businesses and storm drains, then gets pumped—much, much dirtier—into wastewater treatment plants. The more liquid that enters these facilities, the more energy and chemicals it takes to clean the water before it’s discharged into the ocean or into a river that provides drinking water to another community downstream.
In homes with septic systems, excessive water use will overload the tank, causing it to fail—another reason to turn off taps while toothbrushing, to install low-flow toilets and shower-heads, and to flush our toilets “selectively” (if it’s yellow, let it mellow, et cetera). Conserving water, drought or no, leaves more behind for other living creatures up-and downstream, and it can help avoid the need to find or build new water sources and treatment plants. We may not need them today, but good habits take a while to form, and we will almost certainly need more water in the future.
Eating less meat isn’t a bad idea either, in terms of water conservation: the water footprint of a four-ounce hamburger produced in California is 616 gallons. A cotton T-shirt is backed by 528.3 gallons of water, a single cup of coffee, 52.8. America uses more water per person than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: about a hundred gallons a day. The British use thirty-one, and Ethiopians make do with just three.
Our leaders can more wisely allocate surface water and groundwater to their biggest users, farmers and industry. Does it make sense to grow water-intensive rice in the arid West? Can more industries use recycled water? Frito-Lay, for example, recently retooled its chip factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, to recycle 90 percent of its wastewater. Many utilities offer discounts to bulk users of water: raising rates inevitably leads to conservation.
Paying more to protect source water and upgrade infrastructure isn’t impossible. Municipal water in this country is spectacularly underpriced—nationwide, about $2.50 for a thousand gallons. That consumers are willing to pay several thousand times more for bottled water that tastes good indicates we’re willing to make some sacrifices for water that actually is good. Raising water rates is one answer; a tax on bottled water is another; and a clean-water trust fund, financed by industries that profit off of, or damage the quality of, clean water, is yet one more. (“We