Comment by aidenn0 2 days ago
I'm somewhat astonished at the per-capita household use of water per day. I assume it must mostly be for watering lawns?
We have a swimming pool that leaks (we were quoted $125k to fix it since the deck will need replacing, and with interest rates being what they are, borrowing to fix it would be rather painful), and we use only 51gal/person/day at our home. I estimate that if fixing the pool would save another 10.
Toilets (1.5 - 2.5 g per flush), then showers (2.5 g per minute), then clothes washer (about 15 - 20 g per load) are the big 3.
Lawns use such an incredible amount of water, particularly people maintaining them in deserts, like in Arizona and parts of California. It boggles my mind that people go out of their way to put so much effort and resources just into having grass in front of their house that they mostly don't use.
> Honestly, if you're maintaining a lawn in places that don't get year-round rain, you need to water it.
Only if you want to grow non-native species and always have it looking like a magazine cover.
My house is sitting in a five acre clearing covered in whatever flora decides to grow there, with minimal "curation" (tend to avoid cutting beautiful native flowers to encourage them to spread, do try and deal with removing things like poison ivy).
When it rains, everything greens up, grows quickly, needs lots of mowing. If it doesn't rain for a few weeks while the sun cooks it, some things will go a bit brown and lifeless. Then the next rain comes and it all perks right back up. When winter comes, it all sits under the snow for months and months and when the snow melts it picks right back up where it left off.
Most of these plants were here before we were and they'll be here after. They don't need my help.
> If it doesn't rain for a few weeks while the sun cooks it, some things will go a bit brown and lifeless. Then the next rain comes and it all perks right back up.
You're right that "only if you want to grow non-native species" because of course a "lawn" in an area where it will die in the summer is by definition non-native.
But you're missing the point about climate, because not raining "for a few weeks" is not the same as living in a place as "wet" as the northwest where it still doesn't rain a drop for 3-4 months in the summer.
I haven't investigated it because I don't have kids, but I think whatever comprises a typical domestic lawn is a better play/recreation surface than any kind of plants that are native out west.
I think the alternative is artificial surfaces which of course have benefits and drawbacks.
I'm hoping to replace my lawn with low/no-water alternatives soon, but, hey, landscaping is expensive.
yeah, our small suburban house in silicon valley can easily use 400 gallons per day on days where we water the small front and back lawns and drip irrigation, but on a non-watering day, we can use as little as 50 gallons for 2 people.
While this is "a lot" of water, when we've had an irrigation leak in a zone that runs for 5 or 10 minutes, the number can balloon to 900 gallons in a day.
The amount of water used by people who actually don't closely monitor and track their usage, with big properties, lots of plants and lawn to irrigate, must be truly mind-boggling. I wouldn't be surprised if tens of thousands of gallons per day was pretty common at a lot of houses.
> I'm somewhat astonished at the per-capita household use of water per day. I assume it must mostly be for watering lawns?
I'd assume so. Would be interesting to see the water usage comparison between city dwellers and suburbanites.