So how does California deal with a drought?

[BDBopper]

For the past two years or so we've had a drought here in Georgia. The water source our area uses, Lake Lanier is three months away from not having enough water for everyone to use. Some state officials are saying this could be "a disaster on the same line as Katrina). If we don't get any beneficial rains soon things are not looking good.

I know that y'all out there in California, specifically SoCal, have to deal with dry weather all the time. How do you conserve water to keep from being in a situation where no one can flush their toilets (that's where we are heading)?

[Alex]

Preferred Solution: Steal more from farther north or farther east. Seriously, very little of SoCal's water is indigenous (about 12%) to the area so while it is always dry, that doesn't necessarily impact their water supply. For Los Angeles water supply, drought in Northern California is a much bigger problem than drought in Southern California.

That said, I think most people who have lived in California long enough have gone through a "if it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down" period (or at least they all talk like they have). I've been in the Bay Area about 10 years now and missed the last one here by just a couple years.

My first suggestion: let all the golf courses die a grisly death.

[BDBopper]

A good idea. Actually it is a little longer than three months...more like five-six but you get the picture.

We usually get a lot of rain so we are not used to this kind of thing.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Mostly we deny we have a problem. When we do have a crisis, we'll just panic and get stupid.

Me, I try to be smart about my water use and hope others do as well.

[Not Afraid]

I havent' washed my car in a while. It's really dirty. I justify it because Long Beach is under strict water restrictions at the moment.

[blueerica]

Haha, yeah, drought means a dirty car for me, or at least an excuse for a dirty car ;)

[RStar]

The City of Garden Grove just bumped our water bill up about 65%, so that made me go into if it yellow, let it mello mode. But normally I try to be carefull about water use anyway.

[Tref]

I have started turning the hose off at night. Usually I let the hose run until I need it, which is not often, as the continuously running water from the hose drowned my lawn a long time ago.

[Chernabog]

It's raining like crazy now :P

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

I think we need to start draining oceans - besides, they're gonna rise anyway with global warming.

[Morrigoon]

Water your lawn at 2am, cut down on the amount of water you give it (you can, you know, since there is time for it to be absorbed by the ground without losing much to evaporation.

Restaurants no longer automatically serve water to you - you have to ask for it.

Don't wash your car so often.

Fix running toilets - a "slow" leak in a toilet can waste a TON of water. If you hear your toilet "running" on its own, it means there's a leak.

I can't remember a time when we weren't being told that we were in a drought, so it's really nothing new to me.

[BDBopper]

Water your lawn at 2am, cut down on the amount of water you give it (you can, you know, since there is time for it to be absorbed by the ground without losing much to evaporation.

Restaurants no longer automatically serve water to you - you have to ask for it.

Don't wash your car so often.

Fix running toilets - a "slow" leak in a toilet can waste a TON of water. If you hear your toilet "running" on its own, it means there's a leak.

I can't remember a time when we weren't being told that we were in a drought, so it's really nothing new to me.

All very good ideas. BTW I love your sunny avatar. It's so cute! :)

[Stan4dSteph]

Turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth.

[~MS~]

Run full loads in the dishwasher and laundry. If you own your home redo your yard to require less watering, if you don't have the new models of toliets, use the brick or 1/2 gallon milk jug trick to reduce the water capacity in the tank and the toliet will still flush just fine...take shorter showers, if you have a hand held shower head, turn the water off in between shampoo'ing up your hair and rinse and the same with conditioners. Like Steph already mentioned, turn the water off while brushing your teeth/shaving.

[figment1986]

Water your lawn at 2am, cut down on the amount of water you give it (you can, you know, since there is time for it to be absorbed by the ground without losing much to evaporation.

Restaurants no longer automatically serve water to you - you have to ask for it.

Don't wash your car so often.

Fix running toilets - a "slow" leak in a toilet can waste a TON of water. If you hear your toilet "running" on its own, it means there's a leak.

I can't remember a time when we weren't being told that we were in a drought, so it's really nothing new to me.

Now the Floridian news stations never said anything about watering the lawn at night after sundown... that sounds like a great idea for the people who have homeowners associations, myself my front lawn is either dead or weed grass while my backyard grows with the creek as a water source.

it seems FLA and southern California are similar with having drought conditions for long periods of time...

perhaps we could get a tropical storm to restart the weather cycle in fla and GA.

[Not Afraid]

Florida and Drought are two concepts that should not be in the same sentence.

[BDBopper]

To conserve water has anyone ever tried taking a shower but stopping the drain? I just tried that today and my shower wasn't as long and didn't use up as much water.

[figment1986]

Florida and Drought are two concepts that should not be in the same sentence.

it should not... But it happens, almost every year it seems we get a bad dry season. I think we're still under the old average even though July - early September was rain every afternoon or evening depending where you live.

they have yet to loosen the watering restrictions... which is not too bad. The water management even built a desalt plant to get water from the gulf to help when needed, but it doesn't work perfectly yet.

[BarTopDancer]

Nearly every shower head sold and installed now come with flow restrictors. Personally, I remove them - can't stand them and they make my shower longer.

Fix leaky faucets and toilets. Put a brick or milk jug full of water in your toilet tank. Water your lawn at night, don't wash your car, don't use water you don't need.

[Alex]

If you have a modern low flow toilet (and if you're toilet is newer than 1994 it should be) you probably don't want to do the "brick in the tank" trick since it will probably reduce the flush capacity to the degree that you're flushing multiple times which ends up using even more water (and this is a problem with poorly made low flow toilets without even putting a brick in).

Second, don't actually use a brick. Bricks dissolve in water and can damage the toilet tank when chunks get into places they shouldn't. Also, a standard brick doesn't really displace that much water. If you have a pre-1994 toilet then you can put something of larger displacement capacity that won't dissolve (such as a ballasted gallon milk jug) in there. Of course, if you're committed, simply replacing the old 3.5 or 5 gallon per flush with a modern low flow toilet would probably be a better idea.

There's no reason for every shower to be a luxurious experience and it really shouldn't take more than five minutes and if you start taking a "navy shower" you can cut water use from 60 gallons for a 10 minute shower down to 3 (in a navy shower you use water to get wet and rinse off and turn it off the rest of the time).

[BarTopDancer]

Thanks for that brick and toilet info Alex. I didn't know that the newer toilets were already low flow.

As for showers, personally, they are usually 5 minutes or less. But without the water pressure to wash my hair, the time goes up as I try to get the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair. Perhaps the water usage is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other but I feel as if I am using less water without the flow restrictor because the time is less. But that's just me.

[€uroMeinke]

I thought we just stole water from other states? I love long showers.

[ozron]

Put a brick or milk jug full of water in your toilet tank.

Wait...the brick goes in the toilet TANK? Yeah, I guess that would be better....

:eek:

[Kevy Baby]

My first suggestion: let all the golf courses die a grisly death.For that statement, you should be shot!

It's raining like crazy now :PWhich is almost totally irrelevant to the drought (in Southern California). Since (as Alex pointed out) most of our water comes from the Sierras and the Colorado River, rain here is just a way to pollute the oceans.

[Alex]

Hey I like golf as much as the next person but you have to admit that in a time of serious water shortage, keeping 7000 yards of fairway a beautiful green should be a pretty low priority.

[Kevy Baby]

Hey I like golf as much as the next person but you have to admit that in a time of serious water shortage, keeping 7000 yards of fairway a beautiful green should be a pretty low priority.No, it shouldn't.

(and this is all said with tongue in cheek)

[Alex]

Sorry, you never know with golfers.

I once worked with a group trying to get a local golf course to change the way they used chemicals since it was all running off into a nearby steam. Based on member's reactions you'd think we were stringing up their children after first sexually molesting them (and I think some of them would have actually found that more palatable).