On Water Conservation, Texas Has Room to Improve
* Correction appended
Last week, on a quiet residential street in north-central Austin, a crew in hard hats and yellow safety vests worked to dig up a water pipe that had been laid in 1951. The pipe was prone to leaking, and the Austin Water Utility had decided to replace a long stretch of it as part of a five-year, $125 million push to replace leaking pipes.
"Instead of continuing the Band-Aids, we just do the whole line," said Jason Hill, an Austin Water Utility spokesman. Last year, the utility lost 8.6 percent of its treated water to leaks — a ...
Comments (5)
Irene Solnik via Texas Tribune on Facebook
except we don't have one :(
Sonora Hartley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
20 years ago I changed 50% of my yard to rock with 2 small flower beds. We're a 2 person household in a neighborhood of 2-4 persons households. My water bill show my monthly usage at a little over 6,000 gallons and my neighborhood household average over 17,000 gallons. I get no reward for my conservation. My city also has curbside recycling but we must wash and dry all containers before putting them in the bin. Grey water is not piped to my home so I must use pristine Edwards water to wash out cans and bottles so I stopped recycling everything but paper. If it should come down to a shower or a flower pot made of recycled plastic I will choose the shower. In my city during water restrictions the water police must work at night to catch the automatic sprinkler system violators - how sad is that? San Antonio needs to establish strong year round water restrictions. New neighborhoods should have mandatory piped grey water systems and there should be a long range plan to install same in existing areas and also make available low cost drought tolerant grass seed for those willing to convert their lawns. Drive through any older middle and upper income neighborhood and you see block after block of carpet grass. And yes, raise the rates but also recognize me for my commitment to conservation.
visule
"This spring, Dallas — a heavy water user, with 120,000 gallons per month on average for a single-family household last year — "
The above stat quoted in the article probably should have said 12,000 galllons per month. Or maybe 120,000 gallons per year. The average Dallas Residence could not possible use that much water.
Kate Galbraith
Thanks for the comment, visule. Right you are — fixed. KG
p wolfe
I'd like to know how much water is used by other than residential areas. Does the statement "the drought prompted people to water more than usual to save their lawns." include businesses? I got tired of driving by Texas A&M University campus, and other non-residential areas, and seeing the sprinklers on while it rained or in the midday sun. I'm a homeowner who opted to not water, so have nothing but weeds now. Am in the process of planting Texas native landscape and groundcover, more so in the Fall to give them a good chance to take.
Any businesses using grey water for their lawns?