Summer Water Restrictions

Water Conservation Outdoors

The average New Castle water customer uses nearly 200 gallons of water each day. This may surprise you, especially if you consider that the national average is about 100 gallons per person per day. You may even question this – thinking only of the water that you drink. However, the amount that we actually drink is very insignificant – less than 1% of our total water use. We use water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, laundry and outside. Outdoor use, mostly lawn watering, accounts for the vast majority (about 70%) of New Castle’s water consumption. As you might expect, demand peaks during the hot summer months. Average water demand for a single day in the year 2004 was about 590,000 gallons per day. However, the peak demand for a single day in the year 2004 was over 1.3 million gallons (over twice the average!). Conservation is a way to lower peak demand. Here are some ways to practice outdoor water conservation.

Water your lawn only when it needs it. Watch your grass — it has some distinct ways of letting you know it is thirsty. Areas of grass may begin to change color, picking up a blue-green or smoky tinge. Grass will not spring back up after being stepped on, and faint footprints will remain. Allow nature to water your lawn by delaying the activation of your system as late into the spring as possible. Check to see if rainfall is quenching your lawn’s thirst. Hand water or use a sprinkler to water dry spots rather than water the whole yard.

Water during the cool part of the day. Water loss to evaporation can be as much as 20-25%! Avoid times of high winds which can reduce efficiency. Water droplets clinging to grass can actually cause the sun to “burn” individual blades. Water early in the morning or late at night. Early morning is better than dusk since it helps prevent the growth of fungus.

Deep soak your lawn. Water your lawn just long enough for water to seep down to the roots where it won’t evaporate quickly and where it will do the most good. A light sprinkling, which sits on the surface, will simply evaporate and be wasted. A slow, steady fall of water is the best way to irrigate your lawn.

Keep your spray pattern coarse, low and slow. Fine mist or fog sprays are more likely to lose water to drifting and evaporation than coarse sprays. Water sprayed low is less subject to wind disturbance and therefore, more likely to land where you’ve planned.

Save water by planting a water-conserving turf grass. Visit the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension website for articles about lawn care and other gardening topics.

Don’t water the gutter. Position your sprinklers so water lands on your lawn or garden, not on concrete where it does no good.

Customize your sprinkler system for your landscape. Observe and alter watering times for each section of your yard depending on exposure, shade and sprinkler output. Develop a separate watering schedule for turf, trees, shrubs and flower beds. Most trees and shrubs don’t like to be watered as often as turf or annual flowers. Use a drip irrigation system to water trees, shrubs and flower beds.

Install a rain sensor that will override your sprinkler system controller and shut the system off during rain.

Raise your mower height. The height of your grass is directly proportional to the depth of the roots, so encourage roots to grow deeper by cutting grass at a height of 3 inches. Also, grass blades will actually shade each other and the soil to help the turf to retain moisture.

Aerate your lawn every spring and fall to reduce soil compaction. This will help prevent runoff and supply oxygen to the roots.

Plant drought resistant trees and plants. Xeriscape™ is the use of native and climate-adapted plants in landscape. There are many beautiful trees and plants that thrive in the New Castle area with far less watering than other species.

Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants. A layer of mulch will slow the evaporation of moisture.

Check for leaks in pipes, hoses, faucets, and couplings. Leaks outside the house may not seem as unbearable since they don’t mess up the floors or drive you crazy at night. But they can be even more wasteful than leaks inside the house. Use hose washers between spigots and water hoses to prevent leaks.

Use a broom to clean driveways, sidewalks, and steps. Using a hose to push around a few leaves and scraps of paper wastes water.

Don’t run the hose while washing your car. Soap down your car with a pail of soapy water. Then use a hose just to rinse it off.

Want to learn more?

• American Water Works Association
• United States Drought Assessment
• Colorado Foundation for Water Education
• Colorado Snow Survey Program
• Irrigation Manuals and tips on installing water conservation systems – Hunter Manual, Rainbird Manual, Toro Manual

Water Conservation Indoors

Don’t let the faucet run while you clean vegetables. You can serve the same purpose by putting a stopper in the sink and filling the sink with clean water.

Use your sink garbage disposal sparingly. Better yet—compost garbage.

Thaw frozen food in your refrigerator or microwave, not under running water.

Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. This ends the wasteful practice of running tap water to cool it off for drinking.

Laundry

Use your washing machine for full loads only. Washing machines use 30 to 35 gallons of water in a cycle; that’s a lot of water for three t-shirts. Most automatic washers have a water level regulator; save water by using the proper setting.

Consider buying a front-loading washer. Front-loading washers use about 1/3 as much water as traditional machines. On average, front loaders cut the water required to wash a load by about 15 gallons. One industry leader estimates that households laundering an average of nine loads per week can save $100 a year in electricity bills and 7,000 gallons of water with a good front-loading machine.

Around the House

Check pipes and faucets for leaks. Even the smallest drip from a worn washer can waste 20 gallons or more a day. Larger leaks can waste hundreds.

Catch the water coming from the faucet while you are waiting for it to get hot or cold. Use it to water plants, fill the washing machine or humidifier or top off fish tanks.

Reuse certain water. Used water may be suitable for some purposes, even with no treatment or filtration. For instance, you may not finish a glass of drinking water. You can put it in a household plant, put it in a pet’s water bowl, or save it and drink the rest later. Water used to boil food can also be used once it has cooled. When you clean a fish tank or a fountain, you can use the dirty water on potted plants. The State of Colorado Health Department does not differentiate between gray water and black water (sewer water); it considers all waste water to be black water. If you were to use dishwater to water your plants outside, nothing catastrophic would happen, but be sure to use only soap—not detergent. In addition, bath water and laundry water have an amount of fecal coli forms, so it is best not to use that water on anything edible.

Your efforts matter! Try as many of these activities as you can for one month and then compare to that month last year. If it doesn’t seem like much to you, multiply the water you didn’t use by 1,500 (the number of water bills the Town mails each month); see how important your efforts are in making a difference!

More water conservation tips are listed on the American Water Works Association and Water Saver websites.