The Water Challenge Chronicles – Alex, Week 2

I’m a few days into Food & Water Watch‚ own Water Challenge, and I can report that my life isn’t really drastically different so far. I haven’t been flushing my toilet as often, and I’ve had fewer beers at happy hours. I already take pretty fast showers, so I’m not sure I could really reduce the time spent in the shower without offensive results. Ive been careful to really pack my dishwasher before running it, and Ive been washing pots and pans by hand since they really take up a lot of space in the dishwasher.

So what does all of that really add up to? The “If it’s yellow, let it mellow” plan, for example, probably averages out to about three fewer flushes per day (the restrooms in my office building have automatic-flushing toilets, so I cant follow that rule when I’m at work). Since each flush is 1.6 gallons of water, that means a savings of 4.8 gallons a day, which is 33.6 per week and 1752 gallons over the course of a year. That sounds like a lot, and I suppose if everyone did this, it would add up to something significant.

But that still doesn’t seem like a very big deal. If at the end of this experiment my only real change was that I flushed less often, drank fewer beers, and was more careful about washing my dishes, have I accomplished anything important?

In Jon‚ first blog, he linked to this site, which lists 111 ways to save water. I looked through these tips, and it seems like at least half them arent applicable to my current lifestyle. I dont have kids, a lawn, garden, swimming pool, patio, fountain, compost pile, a car to wash, or even houseplants to water.

So what can I do to really make any difference? I’ve decided that at least to start, I’m really going to work on getting my apartment building to replace its old, crummy clothes washers with modern, water-saving models.

I had originally planned to speak to my building manager, but then I realized hed probably just give me the brush off, since it’d just be an extra hassle for him with nothing to really gain. So I wrote a letter to the property management company. I told them about my participation in this challenge, and how it would be the right thing to do for the environment. But I also told them it wouldn’t just be altruism – they’d save money over the years, and even better, they could tout the building as being greener than others. That’s no small thing in D.C. People like to feel like they’re making a difference, and many will choose to live in a building that has efficient appliances over one that does not.

I worry (and kind of expect, really) that the rental company will be myopic, and only consider the immediate cost of replacing the machines. But if they surprise me and do make this change, it will save far more water than I ever could by any changes I make in my daily life. According to the Multi-housing Laundry Association (there really is an association for everything), an apartment building washer will be used an average of 950 times a year. There are 10 washers in my building. Older washing machines use 40 gallons of water per load; newer efficient models use about half that.

I know blogs containing multiplication are extra boring, but seriously, let‚ do the math: 950 times 40 is 38,000. Half of that is 19,000. Ten washing machines means 380,000 versus 190,000 over the course of a year. That means 190,000 gallons of water saved each year, which is a lot more than my several thousand gallons saved by reducing flushing.

I will keep you posted on what sort of response I get from the rental company, but in the meantime, if you live in an apartment building with older appliances, maybe you could write your own letters. Imagine if thousands of other apartment buildings replaced old machines with efficient ones- then were looking at millions and millions of gallons of water saved each year.