So in Grove City Pennsylvania our towns water supply is supplied by large freshwater springs. Throughout our town we have small buildings that that are pump stations that sit over the various springs and draw water and pressurize it to go into local residences and businesses. The used water and sewage is then pumped to our local water treatment plant the recycled back into the water system. At my house we have our own well which we use a closed electrical pump system that draws the water then pushes it through our water softener that uses salt and filters to remove minerals and metals from the water so it is safe to drink. Our used water then enters our septic tank where the solid waste materials are collected and broken down. The water from our septic tank then moves into our leech field where it is filtered through rocks, sand, and dirt before it settle back down into our well to be used again.
February 9th
Shower: 10 minutes 2X=80 Gallons
Toilet: 5X= 8 Gallons
Washing Dishes: 5 minutes 1X= 20 Gallons
Brushing teeth 2 minutes 2X= 8 Gallons
Cooking: Boiled water for Pasta= 1 Gallon
Drinking= 1Gallon
Laundry: 1 load= 27 Gallons
Total= 145 Gallons
So basically I had to just examine the essentials that I needed for the day. As a wrestler I knew I was going to have to consume my usual gallon of water being that I normally loose about 8 pounds a practice, a vast majority of that was sweat. I also knew for the sake of my classmates I still needed to keep some daily personal hygiene rituals going so I did that. So those were my basic areas I focused on that I needed water for. The drinking their was just no way around it I needed the same amount of water so I wasn’t able to cut down in that area. The hygiene though I did well with as I only had the water on for about 5 seconds while brushing my teeth. The shower I reduced to only one shower that day and again used very little water. I was able to succeed in my try to use only two gallons of water, but the fact is i could not sustain it. Eventually i would need to do laundry or wash my dishes and there is just no way for me to do that with only two gallons. I think it is evident in the map for our learning activity that their is a direct correlation between the availability of water and the water consumption of those countries.
Hi Wesly, great post. My shower head and water pressure must really suck compared to yours! I like how you identified the eventuality for laundry. I didn’t consider that in my post, and I assume it would’ve taken my daily usage up drastically. I’ve always lived in very arid environments and the idea of people using hundreds of gallons each day is very hard for me to grasp. Good luck with the rest of the course! Here is a link to my post:
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/10/gunderson-mod-4/
Hi my name is Ryan Daley. I thought it was interesting, and impressive that you successfully completed a day with only two gallons of water. Especially impressive when you drank one of those gallons. I was also successful in living off of the two gallons, but I did so by going camping so I couldn’t use a toilet or shower. In the end I agree with you when you said it isn’t sustainable because it definitely isn’t, unless we reused some of the water.