In blow to water conservation, court rejects San Juan Capistrano's tiered rates

latimes.com ^ | Matt Stevens

[DoughtyOne]

So Fairy Brown was upset? Big D!

[ansel12]

I can use the meter but I just haven’t gotten around to doing it.

I did look at a few monthly water bills and my usage was running between about 30 gallons and 38 gallons for the months, per day.

If I get in the mood to make this a game I will see what I can do with it. A problem is that I don’t want to install a urinal at this address, and can’t really afford to buy a waterless one and a 1.28 gallon toilet, at this time.

Still, if these threads keep popping up, maybe I will see what I can get my water usage down to.

[Thud]

It was a lot more than that. Local governments were demanding that developers turn over 5-10% of any property they intended to develop as fees for various things. The state government was going overboard with excessive fees too.

[onedoug]

I was talking to a liberal neighbor of mine who knows I’m conservative, and we both agreed that runoff and sewage should be recycled instead of just treating it preliminarily and pumping it out to sea.

The technologies are already in place for this. With some rerouting of drainage systems it seems very doable despite the “ich” factor which appears to be the main political obstacle.

[Baltimore ken]

This ruling makes entirely too much sense.Liberal heads are exploding.

[super7man]

One of the things they recommended was a urinal

I fixed it. I just go pee in the back yard at 5:00am.

Its my contribution to being green....uh yellow...uh green.... whatever.

[ansel12]

At my beach shack before this address, I did make a homemade urinal outside on the side of the shack, with water to it for flushing, and connected it to the sewer.

It was so the guys could use it during BBQs while the females had the inside toilet.

I found it quite useful.

[Michael.SF.]

we both agreed that runoff and sewage should be recycled instead of just treating it preliminarily and pumping it out to sea.

You may be surprised at how much this is already being done.

The Orange County (Calif) WWTP has been pumping discharge into the ground to replenish the aquifer for over ten years.

We are talking about millions of gallons per day.

'Water Reuse' is big in Calif., Arizona, and other states.

[Enterprise]

Thank you.

BUMP!!!!!!

[PA Engineer]

Still, if these threads keep popping up, maybe I will see what I can get my water usage down to.

I was surprised how much water our old washer used. I remember hearing the pressure tank relay switching regularly during the loads and finally clocked it. The new washers are pretty amazing and that includes the agitator less top loaders. The spin cycle sounds like a jet taking off and substantially reduces drying times.

My reasoning was also to ease up on the septic system, and get my daily water and laundry electrical load to under 1KW.

For showers I installed 5 Minute Shower Timer / Shower Clocks (don't know why the reviews are so bad). I also changed out the heads with Delta 75152 Adjustable Water-Amplifying® showerhead with H2Okinetic® Technology, Chrome. Our well cycles from 25 to 50PSI, so we are averaging about 7.5 gallons per shower. Could make it shorter with soak, lather and rinse in a worst case situation.

These changes have brought us down from 50 gallons a day to about 25 per person without sacrifice.

Mine is more for prepper reasons and not the result of failed state government policies.

[onedoug]

With some degree of treatment, I trust. Otherwise, it’s going to be pretty darned sludgy. They do this with raw sewage?

[ansel12]

That is interesting, have you thought of rigging up some homemade gray water, or is your place too tidy for that kind of jury rigging?

[Michael.SF.]

WWTP = Waste Water Treatment plant.

Yes, the water is actually can be fit for consumption upon discharge from the plant (depending on the plant). It just sounds revolting.

The wizards in OC actually coined a marketing phrase: "Toilet to tap"

It did not sell well.

[PA Engineer]

That is interesting, have you thought of rigging up some homemade gray water, or is your place too tidy for that kind of jury rigging?

I'm on a ridge in the country and have multiple sources. I do have a spring 50 feet up on the ridge, and am piping that down this year. I think I also (finally) have a design for a water diverter off of my greenhouse glass. The lower greenhouse level has a 2200 gallon swim spa I plan to rig with a gate valve and separate pressure pump. We also have a high quality stream in the valley. I thought of a ram pump, but I figure I'm pretty much covered for the garden with the spring and the house with the greenhouse collector.

We only had one summer of moderate drought since we lived here. Normally, our problem (and many homes here) is too much water.

[ansel12]

I meant redirecting your washing machine water to some safe area on the ground, to take a load off of your septic tank.

[Kickass Conservative]

I live in Orange County.

The Sewage is treated to a degree. All solids are removed and the Treated Water is actually used to Irrigate the Fauna in nearly all the Public Greenbelts, including Plants and Trees along the local Highway Medians.

Water not needed for Irrigation is pumped into the Aquifer.

If there is a Purple Reclaimed Water sign, it’s not a good idea to sip the Water from the Sprinklers.

[ansel12]

If there is a Purple Reclaimed Water sign, it’s not a good idea to sip the Water from the Sprinklers.

A buddy and I got stranded in a village in Mexico for about 10 days, sleeping sitting up in his little 2 seater Fiat Spider. We frequently drank water from a hose about 20 feet from the car, but on our last day there, an English speaker told us that the water from that hose was not for drinking, I think the problem was that it was not fully treated, but I'm not sure. I never got sick from being in Mexico,

[PA Engineer]

I meant redirecting your washing machine water to some safe area on the ground, to take a load off of your septic tank.

Were good with that. We have two five hundred gallon tanks. Winter would create a problem. We were below freezing for 90+ days this winter.

[Kickass Conservative]

You drank bad water and you were driving around in a Fiat and you’re here to tell the Tale?

I’m not sure, but I think you had better go buy a Powerball Ticket. It might just work out for you. LOL

[ansel12]

Actually it wasn’t a village, it was two bars across the road from each other, with some kind of a small rivalry between them.

I also made a very lucky guess at that place that may have saved me some great trouble, back then I used to arm wrestle for drinks and cash, and when I was doing it on a Saturday night at one of the bars and beating all of the studs, they all wanted me to take on a burly older man.

Even though I was well into my cups and really into the pumped up crowd, something about the guy made me think that I should put on a show to make him look good, and let him win, that really goes against my type, but I did it, in an epic battle, I almost beat him but slowly let him get the better of me, in a show that had the studs all cheering him as the one guy who could beat me.

It turned out he was a retired federal cop, not only was he so happy with me that he took us to his home and fed us and was extremely friendly the rest of the time we were there (which gave me prestige), near the end of our stay, two uniformed federal cops showed up and were so scary, and studying my friend and I so hard and with such cold eyes, that we did our best to avoid them the entire evening that they were there although we kept an eye on them, my take on the evening was that my gut feeling to throw that arm wrestling match, saved us from something very bad, because the retired cop who they were visiting protected us.