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Stormwater Management
Kane County Stormwater Management Links
50 Water Facts and Conservation Tips

    WATER USAGE FACTS:

  1. There's as much water in the world today as there was thousands of years ago. Actually, it's the same water. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank. Perhaps Columbus sailed across it.
  2. Nearly 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all of humanity's needs -all its' agricultural, manufacturing, community, and personal household needs.
  3. In Kane County, we receive about 37.8 inches of precipitation each year. Across the whole County, that adds up to 277 billion gallons per year, or 686,000 gallons per person.
  4. The United States uses some 450 billion gallons of water every day - or 1,600 gallons per person.
  5. The average household uses 350 gallons of water per day, or 127,400 gallons per year.
  6. If all U.S. households installed water-saving features, water use would decrease by 30 percent, saving an estimated 5.4 billion gallons per day.
  7. Indirect uses of water also add up quickly:
    • Each gallon of gasoline per week requires 1,000 gallons of water to produce.
    • Each can of soda requires 29,000 gallons of water to produce.
    • Each newspaper requires 66,000 gallons of water to produce.
  8. Every glass of water brought to your table in a restaurant requires another two glasses of water to wash and rinse the glass. Since nearly 70 million meals are served each day in US restaurants, we'd save more than 26 million gallons of water if only one person in four declined the complimentary glassful.

    9. WATER CONSERVATION IN YOUR HOME:

  9. About 40% of water used indoors gets flushed down toilets, more than 30% is used in showers and baths, the laundry and dishwashing take about 15%, leaks claim 5% or more, which leaves about 10% for everything else.

    10. CONSERVING THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE:

  10. By installing more efficient water fixtures and regularly checking for leaks, households can reduce daily per capita water use by about 30% to about 51.9 gallons per day.
  11. Little leaks add up in a hurry. A faucet drip or invisible toilet leak that totals only two tablespoons a minute comes to 15 gallons a day. That's 105 gallons a week and 5,460 wasted gallons of water a year.
  12. Check every faucet in the house. A single dripping faucet can waste far more water in a single day than one person needs for drinking in an entire week. Don't wait to fix a drip. Do it now!
  13. Here's a two-for-one idea if you have a fish tank in the house. When you clean the tank, use the dirty water on your houseplants. It's rich, in nitrogen and phosphorous, which gives you a nice fertilizer while you use the same water twice.
  14. Check the water taps in your home to see if they all have aerators or spray taps. An aerator mixes air with the water, which not only cuts the flow but also reduces splashing. The spray tap is similar, but also can swing from side to side like a tiny showerhead.
  15. Select the appropriate water level for the size of your load of laundry. Most washers now offer preset water levels for small, medium, and large loads. Use full loads whenever possible.

    16. CONSERVING IN THE BATHROOM:

  16. The bathroom accounts for 75 percent of the water used inside the home.
  17. Each toilet flush uses up to five gallons of water. An average family of four uses 881 gallons of water per week just by flushing the toilet.
  18. If everyone in the United States flushed the toilet just one less time per day, we could save a lakeful of water about a mile long, a mile wide, and four feet deep every day.
  19. Some people thoughtlessly flush away tissues and other bits of trash in the toilet. Using a wastebasket, instead, will save all those gallons of water that otherwise go wastefully down the drain.
  20. Leaky toilets can waste as much as 200 gallons each day. Identify leaks by adding food coloring in your toilet tank. If the color shows up in the bowl without the toilet being flushed, you have a leak to repair.
  21. When remodeling your bathroom or building a new house, consider some of the water saving toilets available:
    • conventional U.S. toilets use five gallons of water per flush
    • common low flush toilets use three and one half gallons per flush
    • ultra low volume toilets use one and one half gallons per flush
    • the air-assisted toilets uses one half gallon per flush (a potential savings of 90 percent).
  22. An average bath requires 37 gallons of water. The average shower takes about 20 gallons of water, around 40 gallons are used in 10 minutes. You could save up to 27 percent more water by taking showers instead of baths. Test your shower consumption by plugging the bathtub drain during your shower. When finished, compare the water level to your typical bath water level.
  23. Have you ever heard of showering "The Navy Way"? Because fresh water is relatively scarce on ships, sailors were taught to just get wet, and then turn off the shower while soaping and scrubbing, and turn it on again briefly to rinse off. It's a great water conservation technique.
  24. Increase your water savings further by installing low-flow shower heads, toilet dams, or other devices designed to reduce the amount of water used in a toilet, shower or sink.
  25. Any showerhead now manufactured in the United States is required by law to release no more than 3.2 gallons of water per minute. Super low-flow showerheads that deliver as little as 1.25 gallons per minute, cost anywhere from $5 to $75.
  26. You use about 5 gallons of water if you leave the water running while brushing your teeth.
  27. If someone in your family likes to shave with water running in the basin, they probably use at least one gallon per minute, most of it wasted. A stoppered basin needs one-half gallon or so of water for adequate razor rinsing.

    28. CONSERVING IN THE KITCHEN:

  28. The kitchen is a great place to save water. Doing dishes by hand can save twice the water used in a dishwasher. When washing dishes by hand, don't leave the water running, plug the sink or use a portable dishpan.
  29. If using a dishpan for dishwashing, carefully carry the water outside and dump it on your garden or lawn to give your lawn or garden an extra drink (during the summer your plants will appreciate the effort).
  30. Fill your dishwasher full because it will use the same amount of water for a normal cycle, whether it contains a full load of dishes or just a few items. Also, there's really no need to fully wash dishes before loading in the dishwasher. Just scrape off food scraps and rinse.
  31. When it comes time to buy new appliances, look for those that are water-efficient and have settings for water-saving cycles.
  32. Use a little water and a lid on the pot when cooking most food. This method uses less water and any left over water can be applied to your plants (be sure to let it cool first).
  33. Instead of running the tap water to get a cold drink, keep a container of drinking water in the refrigerator.

    34. WATER CONSERVING OUTDOORS:

  34. If you have a lawn, chances are it's your biggest water gobbler. Typically, at least 50% of water consumed by households is used outdoors.
  35. Do you wash your car at home? Please don't let the hose run. Instead, wet the car thoroughly, then turn off the hose while you swab the car with soapy water from a bucket. Use the hose again for a final rinse. A trigger nozzle is best because it turns off automatically.
  36. Sweep outside with a broom, not the hose. Yes, it's lots more fun using water, but just five minutes of hosing will waste, unnecessarily, some 25 gallons of water. Sweeping the sidewalk and driveway will get them clean enough.
  37. If you have a swimming pool, get a cover for it. Evaporation can make hundreds, even thousands, of gallons of water disappear. An average-size pool with average sun and wind exposure loses approximately 1,000 gallons of water per month, enough to keep a family of four in drinking water for nearly a year and a half. A pool cover cuts the loss by 90%.
  38. When you walk on your lawn, do you leave footprints behind? That's a sign the grass needs water. It's too dry to spring back when you walk on it. Another sign is grass that turns a dull grey-green color. Give that off-color grass a good drink.
  39. Don't sprinkle grass lightly, deep-soak it. Light watering can't get water down deep into the soil. The grass develops shallower roots and is both less drought-resistant and more prone to winterkill.
  40. Don't water your lawn too much. An automatic system can be preset, but a sprinkler on the end of a hose needs your personal attention. Buy timer attachments that hook on between the faucet and hose, or set a kitchen timer to ring in 15 or 20 minutes to remind you to move the sprinkler to a new area.
  41. Grassy areas on sunny southern sides of buildings or on slopes and areas near sidewalks and driveways need to be watered more often. Shady areas and northern exposures need water less frequently.
  42. Adjust lawn watering to the weather. Following a heavy rain, for instance, skip your regular watering day until the grass needs it again. Teach the family how to turn off an automatic sprinkler system in case a storm comes up during the sprinkling cycle.
  43. With or without an automatic sprinkler system, it is wise to water during the evening or early morning hours. Water applied to a lawn during the hottest part of the day tends to evaporate before it has time to soak into the roots of the grass.
  44. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, check the heads periodically. Be sure they haven't shifted direction to spray water on the side of the house, driveway, or sidewalk instead of the lawn.
  45. For any small area of grass, water by hand to avoid waste. On steep slopes, try a soaker hose to help prevent wasteful runoff.
  46. Adjust your lawn mower to a higher setting. The grass blades grow longer and shade one another, as well as the ground, helping fight off heat and hold moisture longer.
  47. Minimize grass areas in your yard, because less grass means less water demand. Survey the lawn and consider whether it might make sense to remove grass from areas that aren't used much. Replace it with low-water use landscaping.
  48. Try the concept of Xeriscape"! (pronounced Zer-i-scape), which means "landscaping for water conservation." The idea is to use plants that require less water. You also can decorate creatively with interesting objects that need no water at all, such as rocks, bricks, benches, gravel, and deck areas.
  49. Mulch planting areas. Mulch covers open areas with tasteful good looks, helps keep the ground from overheating, holds moisture that otherwise would evaporate, and discourages weeds.
  50. Be careful! Water the landscape only, not streets, walks and driveways. (We already have plenty of concrete and don't want to grow any more).