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Anybody in California washing their cars?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by DumbMike, Jun 5, 2015.

  1. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    In Sacramento, that is scheduled to be completed in December 2025.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yes, meters are necessary. shows cali's commitment to conservation. not.
     
  3. el Crucero

    el Crucero Senior Member

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    I went to a Town Hall meeting put on by our local water district. The average use for each of their clients - residential, commercial, industrial (does not include agricultural) is 280 gallons/day. I went home and checked our water bills for our last year. Our household of two averages 80 gallons/day. We rarely use the dishwasher. Showers are short. Toilets (low volume) are flushed only when "necessary.' We have re-landscaped with drought tolerant plants. I take the Prius to the local car wash that uses recycled water. Typically, this type of car wash uses LESS water than washing your car at home. We don't feel disadvantaged at all and our yard is beautiful.

    Interestingly, the water district said that agriculture is not the greatest use of water in the U.S. They said that that electric power production is number one. I don't know if that is true or not, but I am happy we generate our own power with solar panels. I have no guilty conscience when I plug in my Prius after each trip around town.
     
  4. LuckyName

    LuckyName Junior Member

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    @DumbMike I hope you're joking. I hope you know that washing your car is a VERY SMALL FRACTION of the water that is wasted on what you eat. So maybe you should go 2 years without eating too? Lol.
     
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    The state is not monolithic, different portions of CA have vastly different degrees of commitment. Some have been conserving quite well for a very long time. Some others fought conservation until the bitter end.

    The state legislature required water meters on all new construction since 1992. Some communities (e.g. Sacramento, Fresno, Folsom) effectively declared unmetered and unlimited residential water to be a birthright, and forbade the reading of those meters for billing purposes. In 2004, the legislature required metered billing statewide by 2015. All the major holdout communities except Sacramento complied, meeting the requirement several years ahead of the deadline. But Sacto continued to resist, getting the deadline pushed back a decade.

    I believe some small northern communities are also not yet in compliance, but have sufficient local water to not be a meaningful part of the state's overall water problem.

    40 gallons/person/day (gpd), that is excellent. I believe SoCal has a number of communities in the 40-50 gpd range. But others pull the statewide average far higher.

    I believe the residential efforts should be towards finding the 200+ gpd households and bringing them down to the 100 gpd level.
    It depends on how they define water use for electric power production. If they include the water flow through the turbines of hydroelectric plants, then it is true. Some of the water in the Columbia River gets counted as used by hydroelectric plants more than a dozen times on its journey downriver.

    But the U.S. as a whole isn't suffering California's degree of water crisis. In CA specifically, agriculture takes about 80% of human use.
     
    #45 fuzzy1, Jul 27, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2015
  6. DumbMike

    DumbMike Active Member

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    I was told the other day (unverified) that California was doing a pretty good job of water conservation. Maybe not perfect, but we have cut down on our water usage. Most of us (should be all) pay based on metered usage. I also believe that the costs are set by the powers that be. The problem is that with everybody cutting back on water, we are paying less for water and the water departments are getting a lot less money. Of course, the water departments will get the price increase and when (hopefully) water levels are normal and water usage rises, the price won't decrease. Isn't that how it usually works?
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    when the mwra fixed most of the leaks in their system, they had to lower water prices and encourage use for the same reason. we went from conservation to sales strategies to pay the bills.
     
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  8. el Crucero

    el Crucero Senior Member

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    EXACTLY!
     
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