Learning Activity: Water Tracking & Usage

Part 1-a: The water source for my hometown of Tyrone, Pennsylvania starts out on Sandy Ridge Mountain, where there are limestone springs and a well. This water is run into the filtration system and has a minimal amount of chlorine allowed by the state added. They do not add any other components to the water at this time. From there, it is pumped into a storage tank on Sandy Ridge mountain and goes into the pipeline gravity feed off the mountain into the intersection of 350 and Business Route 220. It feeds the various homes on the way down the mountain and all are metered and documented by pressure control gauges. At the intersection, one pipeline goes north and the other goes south and feeds all residential and businesses. All waste and excess water by drains goes into the Northern Blair County Regional Sewer Authority lines to the sewer plant below Tyrone in the Nealmont area. The waste water is then processed and returned into the Juniata River for further usage.

Part 1-b: 


 

Activity                                                        Amount of Water Used


 

 

Brushing Teeth (x2)                                      2 quarts = 0.5 gallons

Using Toilet (x4)                                           12 gallons

Hydration (Drinking)                                     1 gallon

Cooking (x2)                                                 1 gallon

Washing Dishes                                           4 gallons

Hand Washing (x4)                                      4 gallons

Laundry (1 load)                                           7 gallons

Shower (15 minutes)                                    20 gallons


Total Usage                                                49.5 gallons


 

Part 1-c: Living on two gallons of water a day would require me to change my current water usage drastically. First of all, I would not be able to complete my daily activities of washing dishes, doing laundry in the washer, showering, etc. I would need to cut down my water usage to the basic daily needs. I would need to set aside some water strictly for my own hydration. I would also set aside some water for basic sanitation such as brushing teeth and washing my hands. Hygiene is very important for me, so setting aside a small amount of water for that use would be beneficial to maintaining my health. The rest of the water that I would have remaining would go into the use of cooking. My style of cooking takes up quite a high amount of water, so having as much left of my two gallon limit a day would be a great impact. I believe that I could make live successfully on two gallons a water each day; however, it would take me a bit of time to adapt to such little use. In any given area, you will have a certain amount of expected rainfall or water delivered by subterranean surfaces. There is a maximum amount of water given to any geographic area with farming, industry, recreational use cannot exceed what is available in supply. Blatant waste, failure to recycle, and other factors result in a diminishing amount of activities that can be completed with water usage. Such examples include Los Angeles and New York City.

4 thoughts on “Learning Activity: Water Tracking & Usage

  1. Hey Samantha,
    I enjoyed reading about your daily use of water and how you use it. It would be very difficult to live on only two gallons of water each day, especially since you drink 1 gallon. That’s a lot of water! Thankfully we don’t have to live off of only two gallons, but we can still do our part to minimize the amount of water we use, and hopefully you will continue to do that. You can check out my blog here: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-brx
    Rachel

  2. Hi Samantha,

    After reading your post, I found a few things to be very interesting. In your response to part c, you stated that you would not be able to complete your daily activities on this amount of water. I understand that things like the washing machine use a lot of water and so does washing your hands a dozen times a day. But if you think about it, you could have gotten around these issues. For example, what if you used one wet paper towel to clean 5 dishes. This just requires a simple wash and dry action, not too much water needed. For washing your hands, get some Purell. This way you won’t need to waste water every time you wash your hands.

    My point is not to bash on your experiment, I am just simply trying to help you think of other ways to save water in your everyday life. If you need to use so much water, these ideas may help. I really enjoyed your post.

    Best,
    Chase Sandler

    By the way, here is a link to my post: http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/02/10/chase-sandler-module-4/

  3. It seems that our hometown has a similar method to deliver water to homes. Although in my neighborhood, we use ground water because my hometown is not near enough of great body of water to supply enough water to all the homes. It is nice that you use a water efficient laundry machine.

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