Saving Water?

Question

This is what id like a clearer picture on. I know that not watering the lawn and washing the car and stuff simular is more or less wasting water. But brushing your teeth and leaving the water on, is going right back to the water company, same as taking a shower ans that sort of stuff. I think it goes back to the plant and gets treated the sludge comes out and wala! Drinking water again. Well obviously im wrong. Id like to know where im wrong. Im sure something is missing. Im aware of it costing me money, but how is it harmful to the environment to run extra water down the drain?

Answer 1

Many people are confused by this issue.  You are running different issues as the same subject.

Wasting water.  Each area has its own water cycle.  If you live along the big rivers, your water is taken from the river, cleaned and sent to you.  You then use it and send it back to the city who filters it and returns it to the river.  If its a small river town it may use septic so the water goes to the ground and the soil filters it as it returns to the river.  Now it take energy to pump, filter and heat water so if you leave the water running while brushing you are wasting energy.  But its easier to say wasting water, so that how everyone refers to it.

Watering the lawn can be wasting water but it depends again on where you live.  Sprinkling water on the lawn causes some to evorapte and some to return to the soil and the water table.  If you live in the desert it is considered a waste because there is not enough water available for everyone if too many people water their lawn or grow and water other non-native shrubs. But if you live in an area with ample water and the water use of you and your neighbors does not take so much water that it deprives other creatures and plants in your area, then you are not wasting water.  What is evorapated will fall as rain somewhere else.  There is much more to this but it is mostly about where you live and the source of your water and what your community does with it after it enters the sewage system.

Answer 2

I have a coin collection and I save newspaper clippings. I try to save 5% of my pay check. But I have never heard of saving water. How do you store it? and does it gain in value as it ages? Don't understand why you have a water collection, but I guess people save different things. Try coins or stamps it don"t take up much room and they gain in value with time.

Answer 3

you should use store bought water like I do when I thursdy yooooo

Answer 4

YOUR NOT WASTING WATER!!!  There are some regions of the U.S. that have water conservation because they have a limited water supply.  For example, like L.A. they get their water from a river that they diverted many decades ago and their population has basically out grown that water source.  I live near the Ohio River, we have never had any water rationing because we basically have a endless water source.  So if your not in a water rationing region use as you want as long as you can afford the water bill.

As to your comment about the water going back to the plant then coming back to you.  Your local water company gets their water from a water source.  They then take that water and clean it of anything harmful.  They then put that water into the system which when you turn on your faucet, use the toilet or wash clothes your getting clean water.  Now after using the water and it goes down the drain it now becomes waste water and goes to waste water treatment plant where they remove all of the harmful waste that was put into it.  Then it's released back into the water source, except well water they can't and won't put cleaned water into that system.

Now about why don't they just recycle the water back from the waste water plant.  Think about it would you want that water even though yes it is cleaner than say river water, because we get what ever is put in from up stream from that city.

About washing the car and watering the lawn.  That water ends up evaporating back into the great cycle of life and comes back down as rain somewhere else.  HOPE THIS HELPS.

Answer 5

This depends on where you live.  I live in the Great Lakes area so we never have water issues.

Other areas have a limited water supply that needs to be kept up with.  Such as Atlanta recently when there was no rain and they were asked to limit if not stop water use.

Other areas pull from rivers and lakes, and overuse of water can help lower those levels.

As far as running water being bad, I'm not really sure.  You're right on the energy use but ultimately water goes right back into the ecosystem.  It happens to be cleaner than when it came out.

Answer 6

If your system actually reclaims waste water, as by passing it through the soil into the aquifer so that you get to use it again, and again, then the only way to waste water is to allow it to evaporate or be used to grow pointless vegetation in a desert.

When one has a septic tank/weeping bed system, the water coming from the septic tank goes back down to the aquifer, or it waters plants above, so a bit of water does get wasted, but most of it is reclaimed.

Many cities and towns release their waste water downstream from where the  water intake is.

So they do not reclaim the water, but it is there for downstream towns to reclaim, until the port city discharges it into the ocean. Those cities could be pumping the water upstream, not into the river, but onto the land to be filtering the water through the land, filling up aquifers.

We would hope that if our town does this to reclaim water, we would be very careful what we put into the sewers, because it comes back to us.

Answer 7

Running water down the drain does NOT mean that it goes straight back to the water company ... it goes into the same place your pee and p**p and that water goes, and it costs money to filter it and make it safe for human consumption again.  TURN THE WATER OFF WHEN BRUSHING, take a shower every other day instead of every day, save your dishwater to water the plants (they actually like the phosphates and grow better) ... we must start 'saving water' now or someday all the water on our planet will be 'too polluted to use' and then what will we do?

Answer 8

Your view of the water system is screwed.  The water down the drain does not go back to the water company.  It ends up up at a waste treatment plant and is then dumped into the river or ocean.  That is waste!  Cities Waste Water!

Watering your lawn does not waste water if you are on a well.         The water sinks back into the ground where it came from.   Same thing with leaving the water running if you are on a well, even thought it goes into the septic system it is filtered by the earth and returns to the water supply.