Submitted by David Groenfeldt on Sat, 05/17/2008 - 2:08pm.

What can you do to save water at home so we can have more water in our river?  The first and most important thing to do is make sure the City is committed to allocating your saved water to our thirsty river.  The Santa Fe Watershed Association is working hard to shift the City's priorities and policies in that direction.  But the next most important thing is to use less water, and to use our water to greater effect.  This is where many small individual actions add up to big savings in overall water use. 

Using Less Water.  The simplest way to use less water is simply to use less of it!  Turning the faucet on slowly, and off quickly, and being mindful or water use, can have big effects.  Residents of Santa Fe have become skilled in the art of using less water without much new technology other than low-flow toilets.  Our individual water behavior will contine to be vital to saving water, but some technological fixes can also help,  The low-flow toilet program has been a success in promoting more sensible toilets, although none of those water savings has gone to the river!  What else can we do?  Here is a short list of priority improvements:

  • Low-flow faucet and shower heads.  For just a few dollars, you can use significantly less water with little deterioration in the showering experience.  Water use can be cut up to 50% with a high performance faucet or shower head.
  • Switch to a front-loading clothes washer.  Although expensive, you can save a lot of water.  An old top loading washing machine can use up to 40 to 45 gallons to wash an extra-large load. A new front loading washing machine can use as little as 15 gallons or less for a full load. The most efficient models may cost more initially, but most families can save enough water and energy in two years to pay for the entire cost of the washer.  The City of Santa Fe is offering $100 rebates on front-loading washers.  Click here for details.
  • Instant-on hot water, and/or recirculating hot water.  In an average house hold a recirculating pump can save up to 16,000 gallons per year per household.  The City of Satna Fe is offering $100 rebates on recirulating hot water systems.  Click here for details.
  • Dishwashers.  A new water efficient dish washer can use less than 5 gallons per load on the normal wash setting, while older models can use up to 15 gallons per load
  • Drip Irrigation.  Landscaping accounts for a huge proportion of our total water use in Santa Fe.  Our water rates reflect this fact: In winter, the ceiling for cheap water is 7,000 gallons per household per month, but in summer it goes up to 10,000 gallons per household.  That means you can use an extra 3,000 gallons per month for the garden before we start paying higher rates for the additional water.  Replacing sprinklers with drip or even controlled "basin" irrigation (especially good for trees) can easily easily yield water savings of 50%
  • Xeriscaping.  Using desert-adapted plants, or simply avoiding high water intensive plants (like grass!) can also have big water-saving effects. 

New Sources of Water.  Are there untapped sources of water that can save our river?  The short answer is, Yes!  The longer answser is that much of the big water dividends will come from stormwater management and wastewater infiltration technologies, both big-ticket items which the City and County need to take more seriously.  But there are also steps that we can take as individuals in our homes.  The biggest one is roof-top catchment to harvest rain and snow.  Until a few years ago, it was illegal to harvest rainwater from our roofs in New Mexico.  That has now changed.  You can harvest roofwater, but there are still legal problems in harvesting water off the land, or even off parking lots.   Once the water hits the ground, it is claimed by the State, and who are we to argue?  But there is plenty of opportunity awaiting just making use of the water that hits our roofs.  Richard Jennings of Earthwrights Designs has lots of interesting suggestions on his website, regarding passive and active systems for capturing water and putting it to use in gardens, or even bringing it back into the house (check local laws first).

Reusing greywater.  After water is used once, say for the dishes, or a bath, it can be used again, though preferably for a different purpose.  You can take the dishwater out to the garden and use if for irrigation.  Better yet, you could run the clothes washer water out to the garden, or the bathwater.  Finding ways to use and reuse water is not only an art; increasingly it's also a science, and there are lots of ideas out there.  A report by Richard Jennings of Earthwrights Design covers some innovative ways of reusing water.  Click here to download the Earthwrights Design report on greywater.

Reusing blackwater.  With the right equipment and the right local ordinances, even blackwater (the kind you flush down the toilet) can be reused.  Click here to downlead the Earthwrights Design report on reusing blackwater.