GEOG 030: Module 4: Learning Activity: Water Tracking and Usage
Part 1-a: Water: Where It Comes From, Where It Goes To.
I live in the Township of Nutley, New Jersey, located in the northeastern section of the state. Nutley purchases most of its’ potable water from the Passaic Valley Water Commission (PVWC) which has its main facility, the Little Falls Water Treatment Plant, located about 10 miles away in Wayne, NJ. The PVWC secures most it is water from the Passaic and Pompton Rivers, both of which run through this part of the state. This water is treated, disinfected and filtered at the Little Falls plant. Other, lesser, sources of water are the Point View Reservoir in Wayne, NJ and The North Jersey District Water Supply Commission’s Wanaque reservoir. A United States Geological Survey (USGS) water quality monitoring system is located just upstream of the Little Falls plant and just downstream of the confluence of the Passaic and Pompton Rivers. Water from these sources is mixed at the PVWC’s main pumping station and then flows to Nutley, through underground pipes, to four “intake pit areas” – main connections, after which it enters the local distribution system. There is a small area of Nutley which purchases water from the City of Newark, New Jersey, that water coming from the Pequannock Reservoir.
The Nutley Water Department operates solely on revenue generated from the revue it collects from its’ users, and not upon tax dollars. One might consider the system a ‘collective’ approach, organized through government regulation, to the problem of supplying clean, safe water to the Township.
Wastewater from the Township flows into a 100-mile sanitary sewer system and through one main pumping station, which serves the entire town, to a regional treatment plant at the Passaic Valley Sewer Commission, located in Newark, New Jersey. This waste water is treated and then returned to the Passaic River. In addition to this system, Nutley also has a storm water sewer system which collects storm water runoff (unprocessed and unfiltered) from streets and directs it to several streams and rivers – The Third River runs through the entire length of the Township.

Part 1-b: Keeping Track of the H2O!
Water Usage: Michael Evangelista

Number of Person in the sample: 1
Amount of Water Usage per
Activity Occurrences Duration per Occurrence Activity / Gallons
Toilet 3 1.6 gals / flush 6.0
Brushing Teeth 2 1 minutes 1.0 gals / minute 2.0
Shower 1 6 minutes 2.0 gals / minute 12.0
Washing Dishes 1 4 minutes 2.0 gals / minute 8.0
Shaving 1 1 minutes 1.0 gals / minute 1.0
Tea 3 0.4 gals 0.4
Hand washing 4 1 minute 1.5 gals / minute 6.0
Dish washing 1 4 minutes 1.5 gals / minutes 6.0
Cooking 1 1.0 gallon 1.0
Clothes washing 1 25 gallons 25.0

Total 67.4
Part 1-c: Initially, I wanted to title this segment “Wow! Am I Thirsty!” but after going through this experience and considering that other people have to live on this little water all of their lives, I should title it “Wow, am I lucky!”
Lucky enough to live in a geographic landscape that affords easy, plentiful access to water.
I made an honest attempt to reduce my water usage and live on as little as possible. I live alone, in a rather small apartment with no dishwasher and no other water-guzzling appliances. However, I found that I failed miserably at reducing my usage to two gallons per day. My approach to the effort was as follows: concentrate water usage on drinking, bathing, brushing my teeth and dishwashing; reduce the water used for bathing by taking a “Navy shower” (get wet, then turn off water, lather up, turn on water and rinse) which would limit the shower time to about one minute. I tried to limit the water used for washing dishes by using a pan to soak the dishes and then rinse. I only had one cup of tea. When shaving, I turned on the faucet only to rinse the razor and tried to keep this to a minimum. I did not cook anything that required water. I calculate that I used approximately not less than 7.5 gallons, a far cry from two gallons.
Though this was only a one-day experiment, I did give me a little insight into the struggle that the rest of the world experiences with water usage. The EPA calculates that approximately 1% of the world’s available water is potable. Areas of the world where geography and landscape severely limit the availability of water must, of necessity, drastically alter the behavioral patterns of the people who live there in order to for them live with just the water available.
Our little experiment in using less water might amount to just an individual action of each of our parts, in a situation which can easily fall prey to the Tragedy of the Commons. However, if enough of us take this approach, and advocate that others do it as well, it’s possible that someday using minimal water resources could become a social norm.