1A
In my hometown of Niles Michigan, water is pumped from city-owned wells being drawn from aquifers deep in the ground. They pump anywhere between 2 and 4 million gallons of water. This water travels through pipes to the many homes and businesses in the city. Many improvements have been made over the last 5-10 years including the construction of an iron filtration plant and an intermediate water pressure district. There are also five water tanks and wells that have back up generators in case of power outages. All of the wastewater is sent to the Niles Wastewater Treatment Plant, which cleans and then recycles the water.
1B
Shower and Brushing Teeth (10 minutes) – 50 gal
6 Water bottles (16.9 oz) – .8 gal
Flushing toilet (5 times) – 1.6 gal each = 8 gal
Washing hands (3 times) – 1 gal
My daily water usage is 59.8 gal of water.
1C
Living on two gallons of water a day would be extremely hard. As I said in part B, I usually use about 60 gallons of water a day. In order to cut this down to two gallons I had to cut down on my shower use as well as flushing the toilet as these were my two main uses of water. When doing this experiment I decided to allow myself about the same amount of drinking water, as this is essential. I decided not to shower because every minute uses 5 gallons and I was not allowed that much water. I also decided not to flush the toilet throughout the day, which probably didn’t make the other people who use the communal bathroom on my floor too happy. I decided to quickly rinse of my hands and used a very minimal amount of water to brush my teeth. I was able to keep my usage of water under two gallons but it was far from hygienic. From this experiment I learned how unsanitary it is to live on two gallons of water a day and realized how big of an issue water is in other countries. Geography matters to water use as there are some countries that have an abundance of water and overuse it and there are also countries that do not have enough water.
Hey Peter, I noticed that your water usage was much lower than the class average. I also noticed that you didn’t include washing dishes into your daily water usage. Do you use paper products, or did you just not wash dishes on that day? My water usage would have been lower if I hadn’t done a load of laundry on that day. You definitely hit the nail on the head with your comment about how living on two gallons of water is possible, but not hygienic. Other than drinking water, nearly all of the other uses of water are for hygiene. Feel free to check out my post to see how our water usage compares.
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/10/jared-mummert-water-usage/
Hello Peter! I’m Alisha, a BFA Stage Management Major who is a sophomore and transfer student at PSU University Park! The link to my blog is http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/10/alisha-tyler-lohr/.
I really enjoyed reading your blog entry. I admire you for keeping yourself hydrated through the day, because I sure can’t! I loved reading about your town’s pump system and how it makes a huge impact in their footprint! I really do believe that it has been an as of this past 10 years that anyone has really started caring about what should be changed in our lifestyles to help the environment. Great entry!