Attack Your Water Bill from All Directions!

by guest blogger Steve Barancik

Can you improve your sustainability? We have! At least when it comes to water.

This is our most recent water bill. As you can see, our water usage has been trending sharply down over the last two years. We're now at about 30% of average residential consumption.

We've managed this drop despite:

• Keeping a garden
• Keeping chickens
• Nurturing a couple fruit trees (while giving the death penalty to a couple others)
• Planting trees and cactus constantly!

It can be done...and you can save money while doing it!

(And remember: lowering your water consumption lowers your sewer bill as well.)

THE STUFF WE'VE DONE

We guttered up part of the roof, where runoff was not being made good use of, and attached the gutters to a tank....

That water now goes toward fruit trees and the garden.

Do we use ollas in that garden?...

Why yes, we do.

We turned off the irrigation to our landscape plants....

You'd be surprised how many of your plants are established and don't need it!

We removed the "weed-control" plastic from both front and back yards....

We used passive water harvesting techniques to:

-redirect (and infiltrate) water where it's needed....

- keep water from jumping the curb and leaving the property....

- and capture water that runs by the property or runs onto the property from neighboring properties!...

We dug a basin and diverted alley runoff to support a mature oak without groundwater....

And by the way, we eat from that oak. So do our chickens!

One key thing we do is make use of our graywater...and here's the thing: We don't HAVE a graywater system; we ARE the system. We capture shower water in buckets....

...and sink water in a dishpan.

(That's Lisa—the other half of "we." She thought of the dishpan as a graywater tool!)

We even catch laundry water in a bucket!...

The tank holds the laundry and spins. The spigot drains the water

Oh, and speaking of buckets...

Why would I go out of my way to get a straight-sided bucket? Well, it certainly makes scooping water out of a flooded street easier! All it takes is a quarter inch rain event for me to be able to fill basins that aren't filling on their own.

I'm a big believer in the water-saving powers of mulch....

I not only try to make use of all the debris and cuttings from plants on my property, but...

I've been known to rescue landfill-bound rakings from neighbors as well!

I even use a technique to irrigate BENEATH my mulch in order to lose less moisture to evaporation.

When it comes to water, I contextualize our use by comparing it with what falls on our 8,257 sq ft lot. At 11.59 in. of rain in a normal year, we have just under 8000 cu. ft. falling on us. Our groundwater use for the last year was only 3300 cu. ft., so I'm pretty happy. I'll be happier still if you're able to put any of these techniques to use yourself!

Another benefit...

This shaded walkway didn’t exist when I moved in six years ago...

Steve is a teacher who thinks his students deserve better than what we're leaving them. You can read more on his facebook page. 

Rebel Dishwater Gardener

After studying up on climate change (from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to NASA’s climate data), Dan and I have no doubt that climate change is happening and that we must do something about it. But it is such a hot button issue for so many people, that I have steered clear of blogging about it. I felt I could do more good blogging about our journey from a consumer lifestyle to a more sustainable one (fits and starts and all). But since Trump took office, everything we’ve worked towards is under siege. So I’m rebelling the only way I know how, by stepping up our water harvesting efforts and starting a new blog. I’ve never been much for the news, but with Trump’s daily assaults on the environment, I have to stay on top of it. I’ve become a sort of “desktop activist” – answering calls to action against the daily attacks on our water sources, air, wildlife, forests… and reposting them.

We are in the process of installing passive rainwater harvesting features in our yard.  But until we can get that and a laundry-to-landscape system finished (and finally get some rain!), we are using dishwater to irrigate four new desert trees and a tiny garden by the house (above).

We will dig out the red gravel to make a catchment basin.
The greywater from our outdoor washing machine will irrigate fig trees there. 

It can be sort of a pain, but it is also my solace.  It forces me to get outside during the loveliest time of the day when the birds twitter away as they raid our compost pile. It is such a joy to see our little garden growing. It makes my day! 

Our future edible forest! The baby desert trees are watered with the "clean water."
We will be planting drought tolerant, edible moringa trees in the catchment basin when it is done! 

I don’t pretend to be an expert gardener. You can probably teach me! Dan and I are still experimenting with different techniques in sustainable, low-water gardening. But I’m happy to share what we’re learning along the way.

"Clean water?" Yep! Coffee grounds go in there!  Plants love it! 

We are having to re-learn how to do the dishes. We have two plastic water basins – one for “clean water” and one for soapy dishwater.  

We rinse off produce and cutting boards (immediately after cutting produce) into the clean basin. Our plants love the broccoli water left in the steaming pan and the black water from the French press. 

The "clean water" goes to my little garden first, then the startup trees. The dirty (chunkiest) dish water goes to dampen the compost pit.  (I use low sodium dish-washing soap,)

It’s not always easy. Sometimes Dan and I bicker on the best way to do it. (I don’t like food fragments, grease, or cooking oil in the soapy water…) But we are finding ways to solve the problems (like having the dog lick the greasy pan or soaking the pan separately and dumping that water directly into the compost rather than into the dishwater.)

Finally found a sustainable job for Pooh...

Sure, it's a challenge retraining my teen boys to save water by washing dishes by hand  - or at least opening the door while I carry out the dirty dishwater! Sure, it's awkward opening the door with a basin full of water!  But there are always solutions... 

I think it’s worth it. Many thanks to all the people who are conserving water and irrigating their yards with rainwater or greywater. We are making a difference! That’s why Tucson Water offers up to $2000 in rebates for rainwater harvesting.

I understand not everyone has the time or energy to carry out dishwater, but we can all be more conscious of how much water we use and find ways to conserve water (like turning off the water while we suds up in the shower or while brushing our teeth. We can landscape with desert plants that don’t require watering, or install a high-efficiency toilet.) We can all be rebel water savers in our own way.