{"id":1446,"date":"2009-05-29T14:32:07","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T22:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2009-05-29T14:32:07","modified_gmt":"2009-05-29T22:32:07","slug":"navigating-the-urban-water-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/29\/navigating-the-urban-water-jungle\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating the Urban Water Jungle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/dt>\n
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Follow Gretchen’s radio journey to cut her own water use by 20%. Her story<\/a> aired May 29 on <\/em>The California Report weekly magazine.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Gretchen
Photo: Gretchen Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/dt>\n
Saving water when you live in an apartment isn’t as hard as it might seem.<\/dt>\n<\/div>\n

I know the motivation might not be there to take shorter showers when you see your neighbors watering their lawns in the middle of the day or local restaurants hosing down the sidewalks, but cutting back on your water use (or at least feeling less guilty about those long showers) can be as simple as swapping out your old shower head for a lower-flow model, screwing some aerators onto your faucets, and, for the sufficiently motivated, talking to your landlord about installing higher-efficiency toilets.<\/p>\n

For me, the\u00a0first and last stop was calling my utility company, San Francisco Public Utilities<\/a>.\u00a0 They sent out a water expert armed with free devices for my flat, and in less than an hour we’d outfitted the kitchen and bathroom to be much more water efficient.\u00a0\u00a0 Save our H2O<\/a>, a website sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources, has tons of conservation resources including a rebate finder <\/a>and a list of the state’s local water agencies.<\/a><\/p>\n

But since I know not every utility offers free devices to customers, last night I dropped by The Home Depot<\/a> in Daly City, to see what’s available.\u00a0 I have been inside one of these orange megabox retailers exactly three times in my life and it’s always a bit of sensory overload. \u00a0There must have been close to 100 shower heads to choose from, but it wasn’t easy finding one with a low-flow (1.5 gallons per minute) rating.\u00a0 No matter the price or the size, every model I picked up was either 2.5 gpm, or I couldn’t find the flow rate on the packaging.<\/p>\n

\"Gretchen<\/p>\n

\"Faucet<\/p>\n

I finally asked a salesman who at first couldn’t find one either.\u00a0 But eventually, he found one tucked in among the others: the Delta Water Amplifying Shower Head<\/a>, for $12.75.\u00a0 It’s actually 1.6 gpm, and it looked kind of \u00a0small and cheap, \u00a0although it may work fine.\u00a0 I felt a little disappointed that this was my only option.<\/p>\n

Hoping for better luck, I wandered over to the aerator section one aisle over.\u00a0 There I found\u00a0aerator aficionado heaven.\u00a0 Once again, the selection was a little overwhelming.\u00a0 There were probably 40 aerators to choose from–aerators<\/em>, no less.\u00a0 Low-flow, 1.5-gpm models like the kind the SFPU gave me ranged in price from $2.99 to $17.39 for the upscale brushed-nickel variety.<\/p>\n

Across from the aerators were the toilets<\/a>.\u00a0 I scanned the high shelf and saw several low-flow models (1.6 and 1.28 gallons per flush) that were priced between $90 and $128<\/a>.\u00a0 Taped to the toilet shelf was a sign reading that San Francisco residents may be eligible for a $125 rebate on a low-flow model, which\u00a0could\u00a0basically mean a free toilet.\u00a0 Other\u00a0cities and counties\u00a0in California have\u00a0similar\u00a0rebates.<\/a><\/p>\n

As I turned to leave the toilet\/aerator aisle, I bumped into a large box sitting on the floor.\u00a0 There, far from all the others, was the shower head I’d been looking for:\u00a0 a 1.5 gallon-per-minute WaterPik EcoFlow<\/a> with five different pressures, including something called “Powerspray.”\u00a0 Touting a 40% water savings, these puppies were on sale for $44.95.<\/p>\n

\"Gretchen
Water Pik Eco Flow Shower Head Photo: Gretchen Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rick Soerhen, the Deputy Director of Water Use Efficiency for the California Department of Water Resources<\/a> told me that people living in apartments most likely already get “gold stars” for water conservation because they probably aren’t watering lawns and gardens.<\/p>\n

So, flat-dwellers, be proud. But if you really want to be as water efficient as possible, devices like these can make a big difference on your total usage — without requiring three-minute showers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saving water when you live in an apartment isn’t as hard as it might seem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[135,162,654],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water","tag-conservation","tag-dwr","tag-water"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nNavigating the Urban Water Jungle | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/29\/navigating-the-urban-water-jungle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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