1a. Coming from a small town, my family and I have a well in which we get our water from. The well is tapped into an underground stream and pulls straight from that into our house. Our neighbors around us also have wells and use the same body of water for their houses as well. The water we use to drink that comes out of the faucet, we use to shower with, and to wash our clothes and dishes with comes from our well and is pumped into the house when needed. Whenever we use the water and it goes down the drain, it goes into our sewage tank that is underground outside and every couple of years, we get that sewage tank pumped. The water is then taken to the sewage plant where it can be disinfected and all the bacteria and scum in it is removed. The water is then released back into a stream, and the water cycle will continue.

1b.

1c.If I lived in an area where water was restricted and I could only use 2 gallons of water a day, the first thing I would do would be to go to the bathroom outside. That would eliminate completely the water I use to flush the toilet. That would also help me to save water from washing my hands after going to the bathroom. I would rely heavily on the nearby stream for water like being able to bathe, do dishes, and do laundry. If for some reason that didn’t exist or the water source was far away, and I carried the 2 gallons of water back home every day, I would really only use the 2 gallons of water to drink and cook with. The priorities would be to have water to drink and to have water to cook with. Everything else in my graph wouldn’t be a priority so I wouldn’t use water in those areas. Geography matters to water use because the closer and more accessible water is to you, the more you can use it for.

1a: My hometown is Souderton, PA. When I went to find out about the water system/route I reached out to my municipal building for help. However the receptionist was not sure about the details and said she would call me back in a day or so with the answer. I waited to hear back but have not. I tired calling when I got home from work and class today but they had already left. So I plan on tracking down the answer and uploading a post for this part/section tomorrow.

For now my best guess for how the water runs through my town is that we obtain in from a watershed, pump it into one of the water storage tanks that has the township name on it. From there it is released into pipes that run underground to the different pipes that lead to houses and from houses to sewage systems.

1b:

Face wash (2x)
Hand wash (20x)
Teeth brush (2x)
Water glasses (4x)
Shower (1x 20min)
Dishwashing (6x)

Total gallons used: 212.24gallons

That’s a scary number. I picked a day when I was working at Noodles and Co. to keep track of my water usage. It’s scary how much water I use.

1c: If I had to live on only 2gallons of water a day, I would make it work because it would be what I was used to. However since I don’t, it was quite an adjustment and I ended up failing this experiment. I’m not used to keeping track of my water usage and was surprised how quickly I ran out without even realizing it. I decided to skip brush my teeth and showering to save water to wash my hands and face because I can’t stand going through the day with a gross oily face. I tried to stay under 4 glasses of water but was unsuccessful because my throat was dry and I kept coughing. I had to go into work and ended up washing my hands and doing the dishes several times for 2hrs so that placed me over the 2gallon limit quite quickly, along with using water to wipe down the tables after customers were finished eating and to clean the counters. I also needed to use the restroom so that caused me to go over my 2gallons.

I think geography is important when it comes to water use because when you are used to having an endless supply of water you abuse it and it is very hard to wrangle it in to an appropriate usage amount. However in countries, like those in the middle east it is easier for them to maintain a decent water usage because their water is rationed so they don’t have a choice. They have to savor the amount they have and use it wisely.

1-a – Hometown Water Supply Chain

In my hometown of Ronkonkoma, NY, water is sourced from groundwater. The water is then gathered in wells present in aquifers and from there it moves to a filtration station. After the water is filtered, it is then sent to a holding tank where it stays until it is needed for use. Next when it is needed for use, it gets sent to a main distribution pipe where the pipe then branches off into more pipes to distribute water to homes. After the water is used, it goes down the drain and then sent to an underground sewage system.

1-b – Computing Daily Usage

Shower for 10 minutes = 40 gallons

Toilet = 20 gallons

Sink = 20 gallons

Hand washing dishes = 40 gallons

Dish washer = 10 gallons

Drinking = 1 gallon

Cooking = .5 gallon

Total = 131.5 gallons

1-c – Living on Two Gallons of Water

Compared to people in countries such as Mozambique and Haiti who can survive on two gallons of water a day, I would not survive on this amount of water. Water is used for many reasons ranging from cooking, to bathing, and drinking and compared to what I currently consume, I would not be able to drastically decrease my intake of water to survive. I tried to decrease the amount of water I use in a day and I failed miserably. Even trying to shorten my shower was a hard task. Since showering and washing the dishes use the most water, it made sense for me to try and cut down on these activities, but I failed once I finished my shower as there was no way for me to take a shower and use less than two gallons. Compared to the daily usage described in part 1-b, I did use fewer gallons of water but it still does not compare to those who live daily on two gallons of water. Although I live in an area where water is readily available, water shouldn’t be consumed at such a high rate. I do think there is a connection between geography and water use. For example in places where there are droughts and water is not as readily available, people have to restrict their water usage so that there is water for everyone. In addition, there are places where water is not clean or sanitary to use or consume and in these places, people have to rely on other sources of water or drastically change their use of water so that they can use water and not harm themselves.

1-A) I live in a town called Wyckoff, located in Northern New Jersey. Our water is serviced by a company called Ridgewood Water. The Township of Wyckoff along with three other neighboring towns (Borough of Glen Rock, Borough of Midland Park, and the Village of Ridgewood) is serviced by Ridgewood Water. Ridgewood’s Water source is primarily groundwater from wells. Wells in New Jersey range from about 15 feet to 2,000 feet deep. The company owns and operates fifty-five active deep wells which are located throughout the four towns. They also purchase water from United Water NJ and, during summertime demands, water from the Hawthorne Water Department. Each source is tested regularly and treated appropriately to insure that it remains in compliance with all state and federal water quality standards. The groundwater is stored in underground areas called aquifers that is then pumped upwards to our tap. After the water is used it than drains into a pipe that leads to our township sewer system.

1-B) February 7th, 2016

Shower– 2 times (10 minutes)- 100 gallons

Using the Bathroom- 5 times- 8 gallons

Brushing my teeth- 2 times- 2 gallons

Drinking Water- 1 gallon

Wash Hands/Face- (7 times)- 7 gallons

Total: 118 gallons

1-C) After tracking my water consumption Sunday, I was really surprised that I used a total of 118 gallons. Yesterday, I tried to live on only 2 gallons, and it was really hard. I went through my whole daily routine and tried to limit the amount of water I used on each activity. My top priorities on my list were mainly daily hygiene activities like, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and washing my face and hands. I tried to save water by only showering once and by limiting my shower to only 5 minutes. However, by cutting down my shower time by half and only showering once in one day, I was already way over 2 gallons. By tracking how many gallons of water I use in one day, I was able to reduce my water usage. I don’t think I’ll be able to reduce my water usage to under 2 gallons but, I can definitely try to limit the amount of water I use throughout my daily activities. Geography plays a huge role in water use because if there isn’t constant flow of water near your area than you are going to have to limit your consumption. Also, as a whole we need to come up with a collective plan to use less water in our daily activities.

1.a

I live in a small town called Delran in Burlington County in Southern NJ. The households in this township are supplied by subterranean water wells, like most South Jersey townships, which are extracted by local water utilities and stored in water towers to be distributed. Excess and waste water from households enters the sewers through household pipes, which is sent to one of two water treatment facilities. The New Jersey Pollution Discharge Elimination System is in charge of purifying the water through a myriad of facilities used to discharge water back into the system. The water sent there gets purified by one of these facilities where it reenters the water supply. I thought this was interesting because I always thought we retrieved our water from the Delaware river and/or the Rancocas Creek, both of which are close by (Even Delran’s name derives from these two rivers.)

1.b

1.c

On Sunday, I attempted to use only two gallons of water for the whole day. I woke up and decided I had to skip a shower to get anywhere close to two gallons. I used the bathroom and washed my hands, realizing I had practically used up my daily allowance in one go. To only use two gallons of water a day, I’d probably need to completely forfeit any hope of using some for personal hygiene. If I drank less than one gallon of water a day and nothing else, I would be able to flush my toilet just once. So if I were to retry this task, I would first eliminate my use of many sanitary options. No toilets, no showers, little to no amount of water to wash out my mouth after brushing my teeth, use paper plates instead of reusable plates, only one or two glasses of drinking water and only wash hands before preparing a meal. In theory it sounds doable, in practice it is much harder to grasp how much water I use. Thinking about how much water I get to enjoy on a daily basis makes me very thankful to live in a country where this water usage is the norm. To live off only two gallons a day sounds like such a foreign concept to me.

In my hometown of State College, PA, the water supplied to the town is retrieved from a few different areas. The Shingletown Reservoir is probably the largest source, as rainwater and mountain runoff all run directly into this reservoir. Seven well fields are also utilized in the area, and a six million gallons per day water treatment plant is located in the town itself. Water used throughout the town is recycled, as part of an effort by the town to try and limit the footprint that it has on the water supply. From these sources, water is transported to one of the 13 main storage tanks located around an area that services 75,000 people per day on average. Over 270 miles of water lines helps transport water from the reservoir and treatment plant to these storage tanks, and from the storage tanks to everyone’s homes. Once used in the home, the water follows a path back to the treatment plant, or out into the ecosystem depending on the use of the water. All information for this portion of the activity was retrieved from the State College Borough Water Authority’s webpage (http://www.scbwa.org/about.php).

For the experiment part of this activity, I decided to set my priorities as such; water for drinking was paramount (necessary to live), bathroom usage and handwashing was next, while brushing my teeth was last. Showering, along with the other things in this list could be put off a day for the sake of the experiment. As I attempted to go about my day without using more than two gallons of water, I realized how impossible for my lifestyle this was. Drinking water, as well as cooking with water, do not use up a huge portion of the two gallon budget, however even 0.3-0.4 gallons was ~20% of my budget. The biggest challenge was presented by the fact that a single flush of an old toilet (which is what my apartment uses) uses between three and four gallons. Because of this, my experiment failed. Too many of the ways I use water are essential for every day life, such as dishwashing and flushing. I think in my current living situation, it is impossible for me to use live off of 4% of my average daily water usage (from part 1-b). Geography matters because if you are in an area located by a large source of water, such as a reservoir or lake, then you have to be less strict with your usage. I am lucky that State College is located near several water sources.

Part 1-a:

In my hometown of Greencastle is supplied by springs and wells. We use 3 wells currently their names are 1, 2, and 4. There was a well 3 but it has been abandoned. Personally I like how we get some of our water from springs. We use Eshelman-Spangler springs as well as a spring called Ebberts Spring. There is also a third spring called Moss Springs but it is at the site of our water treatment plant. If there is any drought or emergency Greencastle does have a reservoir to use. This reservoir also is treated at the water treatment facility in the middle of the whole area. All the water that is used is transported by pipes to the centrally located treatment plant. The reservoir, which is located on a farm, is only transported to the plant when needed, and is not used at all during normal conditions. All in all, I am pretty happy that my town takes water from natural sources and treats it, rather than having to do treatment plans like other major cities.

Part 1-b:

a. Drinking Water: 3 glasses of water x 8 oz. per glass =24 oz.
b. Shower: 2 gallons per minute x 10 mins = 20 gallons
c. Teeth Brushing: 10 oz.
d. Washing Clothes: 28 gallons (newer standard model)
e. Toilet: 5 gallon per flush x 3 flushes = 15 gallons
f. Hands/face washing: 1 gallon
g. Dishwasher: 1 load per day x 15 gallons per load = 15 gallons
Total: approx. 79 gallons 34 oz. per day
http://www.csgnetwork.com/waterusagecalc.html

Part 1-c:

If I lived in an area that has water restriction, I would defiantly try to save as much water as I could when doing daily activities. I would use the two gallons of water I have to cooking food, showering, brushing my teeth, and drinking water. I would use about two cups of water to use for cooking throughout the day. By using two cups I would try to stretch out my food to last for about three days so that I can preserve more water to use for other things. I would then drink about 4-8 ounces of water per day to keep fluids in my system. To brush my teeth I would use about 2 ounces or less of water. Next I would use most of the water I have left to bathe myself with. I would try not to use the rest so that I could keep extra for an unexpected thing that I might need it for. I never really noticed how much water I used before, and if I were to restrict the water that I uses I defiantly would

Coming from the country, my family and I have always been mindful about the amount of water we use on a daily basis. Since we are not connected to a public water system we have to use a system known as a drilled well. The well was dug with a rotary style drilling machine so that it could make a hole several hundred feet down in the ground to reach the water bed. Rain water seeps down into the ground to replenish the well, which in turn is brought into my house through the use of an electric pump. We use this water for everything: drinking, bathing, going to the bathroom, and doing the dishes. My family has to make sure we conserve as much water as possible so that the well doesn’t run dry and we aren’t left without water. Any excess water that we use goes straight into a septic tank that is buried in the back yard. Any waste material is broken down in the tank by bacteria and the water flows out into a drain field where it is filtered trough gravel and absorbed by the ground again.

Going from using 65 gallons of water per day to using 2 gallons was challenging even though it was only temporary. My primary focuses were to use the water for hygiene and consumption. I did take a shower but rather than keep the water running I only used it to rinse off which took about 30 seconds meaning that I had used approximately half a gallon already. I used about another half gallon to brush my teeth once, leaving me with only one more gallon left and it was only 9am. The rest of the day I was very careful with how I used my limited supply of water. I avoided flushing the toilet which for us here in the U.S. is unsanitary but for someone in Mozambique or Haiti is a luxury just to have indoor plumbing. I also drank about half a gallon of water throughout the day which did suffice since I am a relatively smaller person and don’t need to consume as much. I avoided washing my hands, substituting the water for those small disinfectant sheets you would put in a travel bag or maybe take camping. During the evenings I usually go to the gym but avoided it for this experiment so that I did not need to take another shower. Overall the day was long and difficult without using the amount of water I am accustomed to; I was able to do it but I was cutting it close to 2 gallons. I have a greater appreciation for people living in developing countries who do not have the same resources that I have. I now see the importance of conserving water and how vital it is to the preservation of life and the environment.

1.A)

Lindenhurst (my home town) gets its water supply from the Long Island aquifer. To obtain this information I talked with my family and found information on line for some specifics. This aquifer is a combination of groundwater and a little mix of surface water. There are 3 main aquifers and Lindenhurst gets its water from the Magothy Aquifer. Now from the source it goes through a plant which filters any waste out of the water and then from the distribution pipe to you house. Then the water is used for what ever use the person chooses. After that the water gets drained into a waste water pipe which then leads to another plant which then filters out most of the waste so that the water can be used again. This system helps make it possible to reuse any wasted, non-used water.

1.B) During my day I use water when I…

Shower(5 minutes)= 25 gallons

Brush teeth(twice)= 2 gallons

Drink water= 3 gallons

Flush Toilet= 3 gallons

Wash my face= 1 gallon

1.C)

Personally, I found this experiment very difficult. It was interesting to see how hard it was to live while only using 2 gallons of water. The areas I used water was when I showered, brushed my teeth, drank water, and flushed the toilet. I failed this experiment mainly because it is difficult for me to only shower for one minute. I shower everyday so a possible way I can cut down on my water use is by maybe not showering every single day and maybe every other day. One area where I was easily able to limit my water use was when brushing my teeth. It was easy just to turn off my faucet while brushing my teeth and then only using water to rinse out my mouth. For this experiment I put my main priority in drinking. I feel it is more important to be drinking the water than to be using it to wash yourself. This experience compares to 1.b because it shows just how much water I use on a daily basis. The day I recorded my water usage didn’t even incorporate the day I wash my clothes. Lastly, Geography may affect your usage if where you live has an abundance of fresh water readily available. Also, there are many areas in the world where people mainly value water for drinking and not so much cleaning themselves. This is understandable and I believe if it comes down to the people In the U.S. to cut down drastically on our water consumption, this would be the best way to do so.

Unlike many of my classmates, a majority of my home town, including my family, relies on well water for their household needs.  Our well goes down to the aquifer running under our home.  We have the Muncy Creek, a branch of water splitting from the Susquehanna River running near our home and are fortunate to sit near a high water table and yet away from the flood zone.  Our well was drilled in the 1980s and needs regular testing for bacteria and other contaminants.  We must be careful with pesticides and fertilizer so that they do not infiltrate the well.  We have a filtering system inside of the house but it is unlike the commercial systems most towns have for their residents.  When this water is flushed, it goes into a septic system in our backyard.   We have yet to have it pumped but according to West Branch Regional Authority, most of the sewage ends up in a water treatment plant.  This waste water eventually ends up in the Susquehanna River after the treatment.

I did not even know where to start trying to live on two gallons a day.  I had used 115 gallons the day before and I had eaten out all day so did not even use water for cooking.  Looking into a life of a Haitian, it appears as though animals are brought to a water source which I could not imagine doing with three dogs, four cats, 10+ rabbits, 30+ chickens, and several flocks of ducks.  To make up for using 15 gallons to give water to everyone, I decided to apply deodorant heavily and forgo the daily shower, thereby saving 40 gallons.  My husband and I then got lax on the toilet flushing and forewent the dish and clothes washer.  Unfortunately one pot of tea plus the hand washing and teeth washing was non-negotiable.  Obviously the experiment of living on two gallons failed.  If I had to redo the experiment, I may have attempted to re-use the water.  For example, the water that is used to boil things may be then used to shower with and then used to flush the toilet.  I still think I would have had a hard time going down to anywhere near two gallons.  It is no wonder that United States uses so much more water than they have freshwater availability – it is far too easy for Americans to use water without any thought or planning.  If developed countries had to plan out their water usage like many other areas of the world do, our water usage could be better controlled.

Part A

I live in Little Silver, New Jersey. To begin my research I looked up my water company’s website to find my local water sources. New Jersey American Water gets its water from one groundwater source, and a number of surface water sources. The Potomac-Raritan-Mogothy Aquifer is a large aquifer that includes portions of New Jersey and Maryland, and is the sole groundwater source for NJ American Water. Their surface water sources are more numerous; they include: the Glendola Reservoir, the Manasquan River and Reservoir, the Shark River, and the Swimming River and Reservoir. Water is pumped throughout these reservoirs in order to meet local water demands. My local wastewater treatment plant is the Two Rivers Water Reclamation Authority, which is located in Monmouth Beach NJ. Water that is treated in this plant is brought to my house via the main line below the street and travels throughout the house in copper and PVC pipes, depending on the application. Wastewater is then brought back to the plant in Monmouth Beach to be treated.

Part B

Like most others, there was no way I could live on two gallons of water in a day. I go to the gym every day so I absolutely need to bathe at least once a day. Even a short shower will obviously top the two gallon limit. I normally try to drink about a gallon of water a day, though I had to cut this way down to get close to my goal, shower excluded. Although it is debatable exactly how much water one should drink every day, I definitely did not feel comfortable drinking less than a half gallon for the day. I used disposable plates for the day to avoid using the dishwasher, and ate out most meals. I also did not drink coffee like I usually do.
Further, I do believe that geography plays a large role in water usage. Some areas of the country have limited access to water, while other areas have plenty of water. This is further complicated by the varying water demands of each geographical location. In my case, I am lucky enough to live in an area with wide access to water, which includes numerous sources. This is exemplified in Part A.

Hometown water supply

My hometown is Beaver Falls, Pa. The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority is in charge of maintaining the water supply for 23 municipalities. All of our water comes from the Beaver River, which is formed by the meeting of the Mahoning and Shenango Rivers near New Castle. There are also several smaller tributaries, including the Connoquenessing Creek, Pymatuning Creek, and Brush Creek, that feed into the watershed that supplies our water treatment plant. We have two conventional rapid sand/mixed media water treatment plants that include chemical treatment, rapid mixing, flocculation/coagulation, primary/secondary settling, filtration, and disinfection. From the treatment plant, the water moves to the storage tanks. The storage tank in my township holds 1,500,000 gallons, which would be enough for roughly one U.S. citizen to survive for 26 years, according to the data from the module. The water moves through pipes from the storage tanks to my house. When the water is discharged from my house, it moves to the Brady’s Run Sanitary Authority plant, where a series of tanks is used to settle out the waste from the water and uses an all natural biological process utilizing a trickling filter to remove the fine solids from the water. The final result is an exceptional quality of water being discharged from the plant.

Water usage for one day

Flushed toilet 2 times: The average water usage is about 5 gallons per flush for older toilets, so I will use that amount, although I don’t think the toilets use that much water here. Since I flushed the toilet 2 times, that was 10 gallons of water used.

Took a 10 minute shower (included brushing teeth in shower): Penn State uses High Sierra showerheads, which approximately lets out 1.8 gallons per minute. My 10 minute shower was about 18 gallons.

The amount of water I personally used was about 28 gallons.

I indirectly used water through eating in the dining commons because they needed water to cook and clean. I am not sure how much water they use so I cannot include it.

Two gallons for one day

The areas of use for water include cooking, drinking, and cleaning. The priorities I set for water usage in this experiment are drinking and cleaning. Unfortunately, I cannot keep track of the amount of water used for cooking in the dining hall, so I will set aside a gallon for cooking and cleaning dishes. There are 128 ounces in the gallon I have left. In order to stay hydrated, I will use 24 ounces for drinking water, which is about 3 glasses of water. I will set aside another 24 ounces of water for cleaning (washing my face) and brushing my teeth. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take a full shower with only two gallons of water. I have 80 ounces of water left and I will use that to save for the next day so that I can clean myself a little better. In a real situation, I would not be able to use a toilet to go to the bathroom, but since it is not appropriate to go to the bathroom elsewhere, I will continue to use the toilet. Other than going to the bathroom, I succeeded in using less than 2 gallons of water. I did not shower, but I used a minimal amount of water to wet a rag to wash my face. I also used a very small amount of water to brush my teeth. I wet my brush real quick and then washed it off real quick. I only drank 2 glasses of water, so I even saved some water in that area. For this experiment, I really didn’t do anything different than what I normally do, except for the showering. Typically, I shower once every other day anyways, so I wasn’t missing out on a shower. Geography is very important to water use. The location you are in determines how much water you have available and you need to be able to limit your water use based on that location. For example, the United States uses much more water than is available. Americans waste a lot of water because we take advantage of the fact it is provided to us very conveniently. We don’t think about it because it just comes out of a faucet. Other countries have to work for their clean water and therefore use a lesser amount because it requires a greater effort to acquire fresh water.

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.

1-A.

In my hometown, Cherry Hill, which is southern part of New Jersey, uses a subterranean water well. While each household doesn’t have its own water tank, each neighborhood uses 3 common water tanks. In basements of all houses has a jet pump to pump the water throughout the houses. To conserve energy on the supplier part, the water tanks are relatively built on higher grounds to allow gravity to use its energy to send water to the pipelines. After the used water gets drained, it goes to the sewer. From here on, it goes to one of the two waste water treatment facilities that is regulated by the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authorities (CCMUA). CCMUA treats about 58 million gallons of water on a daily basis at Delaware No.1 Water Control Facility, located in Camden, and Winslow Water Pollution Control Facility. Once the water has been cleaned and purified, it repeats its cycle throughout the day.

1-B.

1-C.

The areas of water use was only in drinking. I have had decent amount of experiences in parts of the world where water is not available on a daily basis. Because of this experience I have had an easy time managing this experiment. If only 2 gallons of water is given, the highest priority is to put in consumption. It has been possible for people to survive for about 3 weeks without food. However, many predict that people can’t go longer than a week without water. In the cases for sanitary, toilet, laundry, dishes and sanitizing, is something that I did not care about. I realized that even without these necessities, it was possible to live. The strategy I took was to prioritize that absolute necessities in a day-to-day living. I concluded that drinking was my only priority. This experiment was a huge success to me. I think spending couple of weeks in Haiti during summer has helped me finish this experiment with a success. Because I was eating and drinking less, I did not use the bathroom in comparison to my regular routine. This experience is not comparable to my daily routine. Normally, I spend about 135 to 160 gallons of water. I had to cut down on mostly sanitary. Although it was a bit uncomfortable for a day, I realized how valuable is to have water whenever I need it. Geography is an extremely important factor. Because if there is a limited source of water, most peoples daily lives will change.

1a.     I live in a small town in Lackawanna County PA, called Old Forge. The sewer line is gravity fed, which means that the water runs however gravity flows, which is downward. There are pipe lines under every street. When the water flows from the house, it travels downward through the pipes then meets under main street and runs down that pipe. The water then empties into bodies of water. The two particular bodies of water in this case are St. Johns Creek and the Lackawanna river. The water flows to these places because creeks and rivers are the lowest spots, where gravity leads. From the creek or river the water goes through an interceptor pipe and then travels to the sewer authority. The water is then treated at the Lackawanna sewer authority. Then the cycle reverses itself with the treated water. It starts at the top in the pipe system then flows downward through our pipes, down the drain, then down the pipelines under the roads to the river or creek.

1b. water consumtion chart ( I hope this link works, it wouldn’t let me attach it as a picture)

1c.     Well, after realizing how much water I use a day, this is going to be quite difficult. I would say the top two priorities for me are hygiene and eating/drinking. Now, when I eat, I typically don’t make things that involve water. Mainly, because I’m a college student and I’m lazy (in terms of cooking) and poor and have no time. I would try and stay hydrated which would require about 80 ounces of water, this leaves me 1 gallon and 48 ounces left. Whatever I choose to eat will either require no water or an extremely limited amount. In terms of hygiene, I would probably wash myself with a bucket of water and a sponge. Also, I leave the water running when I brush my teeth, which I would not be able to do if I were living off of two gallons. So, I would wet my toothbrush, brush my teeth and then rinse it off quickly. Using the least amount of water possible. I would absolutely fail at this, if it were an option. If it weren’t- well, I’d have to make it work. This experiment is 2 gallons of water compared to the almost 200 gallons I use a day. Geography matters in water use because it dictates the amount of water used. Developing countries has less access, therefore they cannot use as much as developed countries. It also matters in the way that water is transported. We have a good sewage system with pipelines transporting water by gravity. Whereas other areas have no developed such things, thus resulting in less access which means less water use.

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.

1A – I am from Morrisville PA, which is just 20 minutes north of Philadelphia. Since my home is in such close proximity to a major city, such as Philly, we get our water supply from the same place. There are two water processing plants that produce the water for the great Philly area. The first water plant is the Belmont and Queen Lane plant. This plant takes its water from the Schuylkill river and treats the water for bacteria and other harmful contagions. All of the water treated at this plant is sent into the city. The second one is the Samuel S. Baxter plant, which takes water from the Delaware river and processes it to a usable quality. After all of the water is cleared of all debris, bacteria, etc… it is then pumped out to the city and surrounding suburbs. One of the destinations is the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, who test the water again and send it into the county. Once the water is finished being used at a residence/business it travels through sewers back to the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority.

1B – February 8, 2016

15 Minute Shower = 75 G

Brush Teeth = 0.5 G

Bathroom = 6 G

Hands/Face Wash = 1 G

Drinking Water = 0.25 G

Total = 82.75 G

1C – I am proud to say that I was successful in living a day with only two gallons of water. That being said I am not so confident that anyone would have wanted to be around me while I completed this challenge. My main tactic for conserving water was to cut out my morning shower out of my day completely. this alone drastically reduced my water consumption, but still not enough to bring it down to two gallons. My second tactic, which really helped me, was to go camping the day I was reducing my water consumption. It may sound crazy, since its the middle of February, but my roommate and I were well prepared and up for the challenge. Since I was camping I didn’t have to use a bathroom for my personal needs and basically all of my water consumption was used for drinking and some washing. Even though I was successful in living a day with only two gallons of water, It was difficult and I would not like to do it everyday. It was evident in my experiment that water consumption is based off of availability and lifestyle. Just because we live in a p[art of the world where water is readily available to us doesn’t mean we should keep consuming water a the rate we are.

1A.

Water Supply in Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs’ water supply starts out mostly as snow pack but also consists of rain and mountain springs. There are also several wells tapped into major aquifers around the state. The majority of the water supplied to the city is snow pack though. Once the snow starts to melt it ends up in reservoirs. The city’s water begins its long journey from these reservoirs on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It’s transported via pipelines, pumping stations and several other reservoirs before it enters into the city’s water treatment facility and then into the water system that feeds residences. From the tap the water drains into the sewer system where it is transported to the city’s wastewater treatment facilities. After the wastewater is treated it flows into Fountain Creek, a tributary to the Arkansas River. The Arkansas River is a major tributary to the Mississippi River which will eventually flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

1B.

20160209- Water Usage for the day.

1000: Washed hands and Flushed toilet @3gpf≈ 3.5gal

1010: 16oz used for cooking breakfast and 16oz glass of water with breakfast≈32oz

1130: Filled water bottle≈48oz

1230: Showered for about 10:00 @2gpm≈20gal

1240: Brushed teeth≈4oz

1330: Made coffee ≈18oz

1530: Washed hands and Flushed urinal @.5gpf≈1gal

1630: Washed hands and Flushed urinal @.5gpf≈1gal

1800: Meal that required ≈ 16oz

2030: Washed hands and Flushed urinal @.5gpf≈1gal

0030: Washed hands and Flushed toilet @3gpf≈ 3.5gal

0035: Filled water bottle≈ 48oz

Total: ≈31.25 gallons

1C.

The single largest are of usage for me (and I suspect many others as well) is the shower. Without my shower, I only used 11.25 gallons that day. If I would’ve utilized nature and not toilettes I would’ve only consumed 3.25 gallons of water through drinking, cooking and washing my hands. I could’ve forgone washing my hands and saved another 2.5 gallons which would’ve put me way under the theoretical 2 gallon limit. I’m pretty conscious about my daily water usage and do my best to conserve as much as possible, my priorities would always be drinking and cooking if having to deal with sever water shortages. I think my experiment would be a success. If there wasn’t a requirement to interact in a socially professional environment where hygiene is important, I think I would be just fine, although I’d be at a much higher risk for disease and infections. Geography is very important when it comes to water use. In Colorado Springs, without modern technology, there would be no way to support the current population BECAUSE of the geography! Some of the alpine reservoirs are on the opposite side of the continental divide. Geography is the major component in water availability in the world.

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.

Part 1A: I live in State College, Pennsylvania, home of the University Park campus of Penn State. Here the water is mainly supplied through the run-off coming from Tussey Mountain. From there it then makes its way into the ground water table. Subsequently State College and the surrounding boroughs obtain their water through wells located in various places around the area. This water can then be stored in water towers and/or brought to one’s home through the plumping system, of course. Once the water has been used in one’s home and then goes down the drain it is taken to one of the many waste water treatment plants in the area. Finally this water, though it is clean enough to be recirculated, is instead sold to companies for various uses and for agricultural purposes.

Part 1B: For this section I recorded data for an average weekend day where nearly all of the household tasks need to be completed in my house. I chose to gather information for Saturday, February 6^th, 2016.

1 shower (~15min)………………………………………………………………….. 5 gallons

1 dishwasher load………………………………………………………………… 10 gallons

1 hand dishwashing load…………………………………………………… 20 gallons

2 clothes washing loads……………………………………. 25 gallons each => 50gallons

7 toilet flushes……………………………………………..  3 gallons each => 21 gallons

8 8oz water glasses………………………………………………….. 8 oz. each => 64 oz.

12 hand washings……………………………………………… 1 gallon each => 12 gallons

1 teeth brushing……………………………………………………..…… 1 gallon

Total……………………………………………………………….. 119 gallons and 64 ounces

Part 1C:

We use water in cooking, washing clothing, dishes, taking baths, washing hands, drinking water, flushing toilets, brushing teeth and in the summer, also watering our indoor and outdoor plants and flowers. Even our heating and refrigerator use water! Unfortunately I couldn’t do much about the refrigerator or the heating; however in an attempt to live on two gallons per day, I still drank the same amount of water, as I viewed this to be a necessity. On Sunday it was not necessary to wash the clothing. Dishes were still a priority as were hand washings and toilet flushes. I ended up doing most of the same things, although I was more cognizant of how much water was being used. During the experiment, I planned when I should wash my hands to cut down on water usage. This meant that I handled all dirty items first and then washed my hands. Showers were cut down to about 5-7 minutes and dishwasher loads were completely full before running the cycle. Further water saving tactics would take more than a day to implement unfortunately. Overall, I’m sad to say that the experiment did not succeed in my household, as we still ended up using more than 2 gallons of water, however we did cut down our usage from 119 gallons (from above) to about 42 gallons. Although this was just an individual action, if we put the entire class together, it would become a collective effort to conserve our water! The trouble comes in when no one thinks about the consequences of their actions, which can lead to such problems like the Tragedy of the Commons.

Geography in incredibly important when talking about water. Depending upon where one lives, one might have access to too much water or not enough due to climate and area. This is why many older towns, especially in Europe were built on or very close to a river or water source.

1-a.) I am from a town called Kennett Square, PA where I live in a housing community called Willowdale. Since we are located above a large aquifer our community uses shared wells in order to supply water to our homes. We chose a community with shared wells, so that in the case of power loss we will not lose water. Community generators kick in to power pumps and allow water to continue to flow to houses. The way a well works is that a hole is dug into the ground, in my case that hole goes down about 25ft for a shallow well. In this hole an electric powered pump is placed in the ground. This pump vacuums the water from the aquifer and sends it to a tank for a final filtration before being pumped into our home. Once the water is used and drained, it is sent through our septic system into a septic tank. In this tank water and debris separate. The water is then treated with good bacteria and filtered into a drain field in the ground.

1-b.)

1-c.) For my day of limited water use I altered many of my daily activities. For starters I reduced the amount of water that I consumed by a large amount. I also found alternate methods to both showering and washing my hands. Instead I used wet wipes and hand sanitizer for sanitation. My priorities had definitely shifted, instead of focusing on sanitation I worried more about how I had to use the water for consumption. One strategy that I used to reduce my water footprint was only flushing the toilet when absolutely necessary since flushing uses such a large amount of water. My experiment succeeded for a single day, but I don’t believe it is sustainable for long-term use. When comparing this experience to my everyday use it becomes obvious that I am completely unware of the amount of water I am using. It also shows that I waste water on more trivial activities instead of using it for actual survival. Geography matters in water use because depending on where you are located in the world can determine the amount of water you have access to or if you have any access to water at all.

1-a: Back at home I live in a larger suburb of Austin, Texas. Because of this we have many water reserves around our area. The closest one is actually just down the road from my house. This reserve provides water for my neighborhood as well as two other surrounding neighborhoods. The water makes its way through a filtration system that is located at the reserve then flows through the pipes located at the bottom of the reserve which leads to all of the different houses that this reserve provides water for. We also have a few water towers in our area that provide water the same way. Going through a filtration process then heading to the different houses around my hometown. From what I have found the City of Round Rock pumps its water from two different sources, wells and surface water. After the water travels from the reserve/water towers we have access to water, with consistent pressure all throughout our house. The wastewater then goes to the Brushy Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant located roughly 5 or so miles from my house.

1-b: February 9, 2016

Shower – 20 minutes – 42 gallons

Brushing Teeth – 2 times – 0.35 gallons

Using the Bathroom – 5 times – 8 gallons

Washing Clothes – 2 loads – 40 gallons

Washing Hands – 7 times – 2 gallons

Dishwasher – 1 time – 10 gallons

Drinking – 26 oz./water bottle – 3 times – 1 gallon (throughout the day)

Total – 103.35 gallons

1-c: Using only 2 gallons of water for a day proved difficult, especially in the personal hygiene department. My main priority was to not use as much water when cooking. I realized that the only way I was going to be able to do that was by eating out. Having someone else provide my food, technically, means that I wasn’t the one using the water. This was one strategy I had. I also decided to take a shorter shower. This was the main problem I had. Only having 2 gallons would have meant that I couldn’t have had more then a one-minute shower. In this experiment I failed to live off of only two gallons of water for the day. Compared to my part 1 I used considerably less water since I cut out preparing my own food. I was also able to cut down the amount to time I used water for brushing my teeth, washing my hands, etc. Just by shutting off the water if you aren’t using it in between helped cut down on the amount of water I used throughout the day. Geography plays a huge part in water usage. If you live in a more secluded area it would make more sense that you wouldn’t have as much water usage as someone who lives in an extremely populated city. This is just one of the reasons why people everywhere are always trying to make new systems for water usage and trying to make drinking water available for more people.

My hometown of Marietta pa gets it water from the Susquehanna River. The town is nestled along the northeast stretch of the Susquehanna River. The water is first pumped out of the river to the water treatment plant where it is sanitized for drinking. Then it is pumped to the local municipality, depending on your water company, the water is ready at the tap in my home. After it drains it is funneled to the sewage treatment plant and dumped back into the Susquehanna River.

During one day at my home I found I used a lot of water. Between brushing teeth showering and flushing the toilet I used about 15 gallons of water. While cooking I used some water for boiling, add that to my drinking water and my dogs drinking water for the day and that was another almost two gallons. When I tried to live off of two gallons of water a day I was puzzled. I didn’t flush the toilet as often, restricted how much water was used for cooking and drinking but it was all to no avail. It is hard to live off of only two gallons of water a day, especially when you use different appliances around the home.

Where I live close to the Susquehanna River in Marietta pa we have an abundance of water. From the River itself to the many streams, lakes and tributaries that rain flows down from the north. There are a plethora of local water sources. However many people in the country, or world are not so lucky. Geography matters greatly on how much water resources you have available. Water runs down mountains and disperses through streams at the foot of those mountains, the people who live there have a plethora of water but the people who live up on the mountains are in constant drought because there is only water available during rains until it flows downward to the foot of the mountains. Geography, climate and other social economic factors all have great effect on water availability.

1A.)

In my hometown of Hatfield Pennsylvania, we get water from the North Penn Water Authority. In this system, approximately 15% of the water is treated groundwater and the remaining 85% is treated surface water from the Forest Park Water Treatment Plant located in Chalfont. The source water that is treated at Forest Park Water is from the North Branch Neshaminy Creek. The FPWTP combines conventional treatment processes with advanced techniques to ensure water safety for the customers. Upon the completion of the treatment process, water is distributed through a vast system of water main pipes, valves, fire hydrants, and booster stations that is known as the distribution system. The distribution system ensures that an average 10 million gallons per day is distributed to 30,000 customers in 21 townships and boroughs in Montgomery County. The largest distribution system is the water mains that stretch over 560 miles ranging in diameter. In addition, over 11,500 valves are placed in strategic locations to allow this water to travel to where it needs to go. This water could travel directly into the homes for customer usage, or it is stored in the water storage tanks throughout the area. Once the water is goes through the drain, it is pumped to the North Wales Water Treatment plant. The system uses gravity to drain the water out of the houses and it is carried to this physicality where it is treated and then distributed back into the North Branch Neshaminy Creek.

1B.)

Activity                                        Times a Day                                   Gallons Used         

Brushed teeth                                     3                                                 0.9

Wash Hands/Face                              6                                                  6

Shower (8 Minutes)                             1                                                 40

Toilet Flushes                                      5                                                 15

Drinking Water (16.9 oz. bottle)          4                                                 0.5                  

Total Gallons                                                                                  62.4 Gallons

1C.)

I tracked my activity for the entire day on Monday and I found that I used roughly 62.4 gallons of water. This number varies on the day, for example if I did a load of wash that day, but this is a good estimate for a typical day. Since I am a freshman living in a dorm, I do not have to do the dishes, which could bring this number down slightly from what it would be if I were living in an apartment. On Tuesday, I attempted to live on only two gallons of water and it was very challenging. To knock off the largest daily supply of my water, I did not shower. Luckily I did not do any physical activity the day before so I did not smell. The next activity that I knocked off was flushing the toilet. I only flushed the toilet one time when it needed to be flushed which ended up saving 12 gallons. I still drank the same amount of water and washed my hands the same amount of times but for a much shorter period. The same goes for when I was brushing my teeth as I only turned it on when I needed to rinse my mouth. Overall, I calculated to use only 7 gallons of water. Although this exceeds the 2-gallon mark that is being used in Haiti, I thought I did a very good job saving over 50 gallons from my typical day. I believe this was a great individual action and it can be used as a collective action if a larger population did this activity. I feel as though this mark of 7 gallons would be unachievable due to the lifestyle that we live in, I think each person can significantly lower their daily water usage. As for the North Penn Water Authority, there are over 30,000 customers and if everyone lowered their usage, there would be drastic changes to the environment. There is a limited amount of drinkable water for humans. In fact only 1% of the world’s water is safe to drink. Eventually, we will not be able to sustain this amount of water usage so cutting down each day could set a mark that can be sustained.

My hometown is Bellefonte, PA which is about twenty to thirty minutes outside of State College, PA. In my hometown we have the Big Spring, which collects raw water from rain and run-offs and then is pumped into the distribution system. The distribution system allows the water to be pumped to each residency through pipes and in some cases the water is fed from a large water tank that is located near my high school. Throughout the distribution system are small pump stations that add pressure to help the process of water flow. After the water is consumed or used by the residence of Bellefonte, then the excess water or waste joins the watershed or is recycled back to the Big Spring. Centre County is part of the Susquehanna Watershed, meaning the disposal of my water usage will end up in the Susquehanna River, which is the same watershed for anybody living in State College.

In my water usage chart I came to a total of 167.2 gallons of water for day one of my experiment and instantly realized how I could improve my individual actions. I do not do dishes every day because I rarely cook or use any dishes as well as that I do not do laundry every day, I just happened to do my laundry on that day of the experiment so for the second day of the experiment I cut out both of those things because they were already one of my lowest priorities. Also I selfishly leave water on while brushing my teeth without even realizing what I am doing, so I could cut out at least another 8 gallons of water just by turning it off. There was actually a commercial about this during super bowl 50 this past weekend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Ar0eCp6uE). In the video it showed one person brushing their teeth with the water running and other things that you could do with that water instead of letting it go to down the drain unused and I found the most effective one to be the little girl drinking the water out of her hands. On another note I decided drinking water was the highest priority and that I would never cut that out. I don’t have to shower daily and my showers could be a lot shorter. I could also flush the toilet less rather than flush it every time that I use the toilet and I personally have to be selfish and do not feel ok if I cut down the amount of times I have to wash my hands do to using the bathroom. So a day cutting back on my water I could cut back to 16.2 gallons which is failing the challenge but in the end I cut back majorly on my individual actions. I know that in some cultures going to the bathroom does not involve a functioning toilet and they have something more like an outhouse. I think we can relate our own individual actions from this experiment and think about where our water comes from and how some places on earth have it easier to live due to the sustainability of their rivers or water sources.

1a) Philadelphia’s water system is something that goes back to the days Benjamin Franklin was around. Early on, it was a process to get the clean water needed for ever day living, however, they seemed to have figured it out. Philadelphia gets it’s water supply from the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, each contributing one half of the city’s water supply. In Philly, there are three water plants that process untreated river water. The Queen Lane Plant and Belmont Plant both get their water source from the Schuylkill, and the Baxter Plant gets it’s water from the Delaware river. Once processed at one of these plants, we get the clean form into our taps at home. This treatment process consists of eight steps; natural settling, disinfection, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, final treatment, and lastly distribution. There are two types of sewer systems in Philly that collect waste water, and storm water. The combined, and separate sewer systems, and where your water goes just depends on what part of the city you live. These sewer systems take the water to treatment plants. There are also 164 combined sewer outfalls in case of combined sewer overflow that dump the access water into various parts of local creeks in rivers.

1b)

1c) Being born in a third world country, Bangladesh, showed me that it is possible for people to get by on two gallons of water. I was fortunate not to know what that feeling was like as I can imagine how tough it is. In my attempt to live off of just two gallons, I made a list of priorities. First priority for myself is drinking water. More than anything else, I need to be able to drink water, we have to survive right? Second would be cooking, third would be for toilet purposes because we do need to keep a sanitary environment if we want to stay healthy. Everything else such as cleaning, bathing would have to come after that, not by choice, but by necessity. For baths and showers, I would wet a hand towel and use that to clean myself rather than actually dumping the water on me. In this scenario, every drop counts and I believe you can still keep yourself clean to a certain extent without actually dumping the water. I am blessed to be living where I am that I don’t need to live on two gallons a day, as I drink almost two gallons as it is. The previous experiment of just counting how much water I use to this, how much water I can use, was a huge difference. Made me wonder how many things we take for granted living in the US. I’m using over 160 gallons per day and don’t bat an eyelash, and struggled with two gallons to accommodate myself.

1a: I live in Warrington, Pennsylvania and my water supply at home is from a well. The average annual rainfall is 44 inches and annual snow is 27 inches. This water from the rain and snow then goes into our well which is about 100 feet underground. Water goes from the well to a holding pressure tank in my basement then to the water softener where it removes calcium and magnesium hence making the water soft.  The water travels throughout my house to multiple locations such as toilets, tubs, sinks, the washer, fridge, outside spigots and even our heater when we have to heat the house. When I use the water out of the faucets it is already purified and ready to use. Water then goes down the drain to the sewer then finally to the municipal building. This is always an ongoing process and we have never had issues about whether or not there is enough water in our well.

1b:

1c: After seeing how much water I use, living on two gallons a day would be very challenging. I would have to shower every few days instead of every day because on the days that I would shower, I would have less water for other activities like drinking and cooking. My main water usage would be for drinking but I would have to cut down on what I typically drink now. Food is also essential for life so I would need to allocate a certain portion of water to be used in cooking every day. I could also change up what I would cook and see what foods require more water than others and this would allow me to use water for different activities. The day I did my log was my laundry day so that’s part of the reason my total is so high. I realize now that I would have two options with my laundry. The first one would be to do a very small amount of laundry every day but I would only be able to wash maybe one piece of clothing max. Option two would be to do all of my laundry on one day but that would most likely be my only water usage activity that day. It’s hard to see where I should use my water because I have so little available to me. I wouldn’t want to use more than I have because I would be taking water from other people around me which isn’t fair.

Part 1 a:

I am from a small, rural town called Montoursville which is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The water supply in Montoursville comes from four wells and the Sylvan Dell Spring. The four wells are located within the borough and drilled in valley fill deposits. Two primary use wells are located next to the Loyalsock Creek and the Susquehanna River. The two back-up wells are located in the Southwestern portion of Montoursville borough. The Sylvan Dell Spring is on the slope of Bald Eagle Mountain, which is located south of the Susquehanna River. Since I live outside of Montoursville, the water supply chain in my home comes from well water. Initially our well was created by digging into the earth until the water table was reached. Precipitation from the ground’s surface is infiltrated through the soil. The water then enters cracks in the bedrock, leading the the aquifer. Ground water is than extracted out of the underground aquifers and drawn up to the surface by a pump. A point-of-entry system was installed after the water meter to treat and filter, most of the water entering my home. A point-of-use system was also installed to filter water and delivers it to the tap. After the tap water is used, it runs into the drain. The wastewater is then transferred into a septic tank in my back yard where it seeps back into the ground.

Part 1 b:

Water Usage for One Day

(February 7, 2015)

Amount of water usage source: http://water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-percapita.php

Part 1 c:

2 gallons of water a day= 256 oz. total

Living on two gallons of water of day would be a significant change in the way I engage in everyday life. I would no longer be able to use water for materialistic things (showering, flushing the toilet, cleaning off the counters etc..). I would have to focus on what is vital for survival. Before conducting this experiment, I thought I was already consensus of the water footprint I was making. After calculating the total amount I used in a single day I was baffled. I have always turned the water off when brushing my teeth, dishes and showering but it is evident that is not enough. If I was only given two gallons a day, I would first focus on personal consumption. It is vital to stay well hydrated so I would keep at least 48 oz. a day, strictly for drinking purposes. I have two dogs and a cat so they would be next concern. It is recommended animals have 10 ounces per 10 lbs of body weight. A combined total of my animal’s weight is 110 pounds so I would need to give them a  total of 110 oz. per day. Hygiene is also very important to remain healthy so instead of showering daily, i would have to limit it to once every 2 days. On the days in between, I would use about 24 oz. to wash my face, rinse my hair and scrub my body. Although it is not desirable, it is also not necessary to flush the toilet everyday. Instead I could put used toiletry in the trash, and use the toilet solely for eliminating. If I flushed the toilet once every 3 days, it would limit water usage to 53 oz. per day. With the remaining 21 oz. I would focus on the water I need for cooking and washing my hands. Although every day is different, and water isn’t always a necessity for cooking, it is typically used on a daily basis. I could then reuse the waste water leftover from cooking to aid in flushing the toilet. By practicing these methods, I could cut down my water consumption by 85.1 gallons. Although it would be difficult to accomplish in society today, individual actions always make a difference. By learning about where my hometown’s water supply comes from, it was evident that there’s more usable water located next to bigger bodies of water. Water is also typically more abundant on the bottom of mountainous areas and deep valleys. Geography plays a vital importance in water supply and I am very thankful to live in an area with a comfortable amount of  usable water. Comparing this exercise with part 1-b helped make me aware of the unreasonable amount I was using and areas where I can cut back consumption.

Part A:  In my hometown, I live in a community called The Hideout.  Inside of The Hideout is an independent water company called Roamingwood Sewer and Water.  They operate five wells inside of The Hideout where they extract the water from.  From there, it is piped into my house where it is ready for consumption.  After being used, the water is sent back to the sewage plant, across a 40-mile network.  This network contains over 1000 manholes, and 29 lift stations, which pumps the water.  The sewage plant treats the water, and sends it back into the system for use again.  In addition, along the sides of the roads in The Hideout are culverts.  These ditches are thoroughly maintained and allows us to capture rain water which then makes its way into the sewer system and is sent to Roamingwood for treatment.  They also provide a defense against erosion and help to keep the roads intact.

Part B:  

Part C:  While attempting to live on only two gallons of water, I found that simple things like a glass of water have to be considered.  An eight ounce glass of water may seem small, but it would be a significant amount when only looking at two gallons.  I set limits for myself to reduce the amount of water I used.  I did not take a shower, brushed my teeth being cautious with the amount of water I used, and found alternatives for washing my hands (like hand sanitizer).  I suppose you can say that my day was successful, but in reality, I doubt I could repeatedly do this.  Short term, it was successful, but in the long term, I would be sure to fail.  Compared to my table of water use, many of the activities I use water for I can’t even accomplish with two gallons of water (even flushing a toilet would use too much!)  The way geography matters for water use is significant.  Probably the most significant way it influences water use is physical location.  If you are in a desert, you are unlikely to have much water to begin with, and as such, you would probably be more conscious about how it’s used.  If you lived near a river or lake, the amount of water you can use would be greater.  But this raises other issues, such as if the river or lake were to become contaminated.  Efforts would have to be made in order to protect these water sources.

I did my research on the water supply chain of Philadelphia. (I got my information from: http://www.phila.gov/water/PublishingImages/WaterDiagramPoster.jpg). Before the water can be ready for use it has to go through many different stages. First, the water is taken from the Delaware and Schuykill Rivers. Then, it is taken through reservoirs to settle the materials in it. After that, it is disinfected using sodium hypochlorite. Next, other chemicals are added to the water to make flocs. Once these flocs are created, they need time to settle again before they can be removed. Once they are removed, the water is disinfected again. Then, it is run through filters to continue removing unwanted particles. Finally, fluoride, zinc orthophosphate, and ammonia are all added to finalize the cleaning process of the water. Then the water can be passed on to the taps in each household. Once the water is used, it is collected and through pipes underground. It is then cleaned and stripped of bad substances. Then, air is added to remove any excess contaminants. Everything remaining settles and is sent to Aeration Tanks. Sodium Hypochlorite is then added to get rid of any other contaminants. Finally, the water is recycled back into the Delaware and Schuykill Rivers.

The types of water that I used were: shower, brushing teeth, flushing the toilet, washing hands, and drinking water. I have some medical issues going on right now, so I knew I had to prioritize drinking water. With that being said, I had to cut down my water usage in other ways. In an attempt to do that, I focused on the area that I used the most water, which was showering. Normally, I will let the shower run for 5 minutes to warm up and then about 10 minutes in, which totals to about 15 minutes altogether. What I did this time was only allowed myself 1 minute to let the shower warm up and then I set a timer for 5 minutes in the shower. I also did things such as turning off the water when I brush my teeth and wetting my hands and then turning the water off to scrub my hands with soap, and then turn it back on to finish washing. Overall, I think the experiment failed because I used more than 2 gallons, but I definitely think my water usage was decreased by a good amount, which was a success. In comparison to part 1-b, my eyes were really opened to how much water I use, which can help me make better decisions in the future. Geography matters to water use because the water comes from the rivers near your area, which may be in different conditions in different places.

1a.

I am from Marlton, New Jersey, which is part of the Rancocas Watershed Management Plan. The water that is used in my house, originates from the Delaware River, which merges with the Rancocas Creek. Rancocas Creek is 360 square miles, and supports 29 municipalities covering three counties. My county is Burling County, and my municipality is Evesham Township. The water from the creek is taken, and brought to the water treatment plan. My municipal township has a water treatment plant there, and the water from the creek comes through where it is then filtered, cleaned of contaminants, and the water levels are tested. Once the water has safe levels, it is dispersed throughout my township to different households. When the water is used in my house, it goes down to the drain into the sewage system where the two water supplies combine and reach the treatment plant again. Once the two sources are back at the water treatment plan, the entire process starts over again. The whole process is a cycle of recycling, and cleaning water so it can be redistributed.

1b.

Usage of Water:

1. Shower: 15 gallons
2. Teeth Brushing: 0.2 gallons
3. Toilet Flushing: 21 gallons
4. Hand Washing/Dish Washing: 8 gallons
5. Glasses of Water Drank: 1.3125 gallons’

Total: 45.5125 Gallons

1c.

For this experiment, I tried my best to only use 2 gallons of water in one day.  In order to do this, I went to the store and bought 2 1 gallon containers of water so I knew exactly how much I was using.  I figured that the most important thing I would need the water for was to drink so I set 1 gallon aside to drink.  Then, I used one gallon strictly for hand washing, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and things like that.  I poured the gallon in a closed sink, and whenever I needed to wash my hands or brush my teeth etc. I get a cup full, and use only a small amount.  This part of the experiment worked out pretty well, and I was able to use this amount for drinking, and washing my hands/teeth/dishes.  The thing that didn’t work out, and was the reason I failed the experiment, was that I had to use water to flush the toilet.  For sanitary reasons, I could not just leave the toilet unflushed and this pushed my over the daily limit of 2 gallons.  I also did not use water to cook anything for this one day in particular and this was a challenge I faced because I use water so frequently in cooking.  This challenge has taught me how I can conserve water, and take individual action to saving the amount of water we use daily.  I can save water by limiting the time I run the faucet, cut my shower time down, and just overall be more efficient with the water.  If I take individual action, maybe I can influence others to do the same, and this can lead to collective action so we can reduce the amount of wasted water.

Since I am currently living in State College and not at home with my family, our household water usage has definitely decreased some.  Although I am not at home with them, I will give it my best shot to estimate their water usage.  My home receives its water from our well next to the house, which obviously draws from the rainwater that soaks into the ground as well as normal ground water.  I also live on a slight hill, so water will run down the hill when it rains and will increase the amount of water that is introduced to the well. The well pump pumps the water through the hub in our basement, going through filters, heaters, and water softeners.  Our waste water goes in to our septic tank.  The septic tank releases the cleaner(?) waste water back into into the ground and the process will repeat itself over and over again.

Estimated water usage in a given day

Bath x1 = 36 gallons

Shower x2  = 60 gallons

Teeth brushing x3 = 6 gallons

Hand wash x5 = 5 gallons

Dishwasher x1 = 6 gallons

Washing machine x1 = 25 gallons

Toilet flush x7 = 14 gallons

Drinking water we get free water cooler jugs.

Analysis

It is actually really interesting to do cutbacks like this for a project.  I have done it once before but with technology where I couldn’t watch TV or use the internet except out of necessity and I’m sure you know how that went.

I tried to do my own personal cutbacks up here at school because I live a similar lifestyle up here as compared to at home.  I decided to try “military showers” which are about 2 minutes and don’t always include hot water.  Brushing my teeth: I didn’t leave the water running the whole time.  I would rinse once at the beginning and the end.  Instead of using the apartment dishwasher with my roommates, I would fill the sink a little bit and wash my own dishes using that water.  For drinking, I normally drink about a 1/3 of a gallon a day (i know it should be more).  And finally I have a baby face so I don’t have to worry about shaving.

I maintained my face and hand washing amounts just for hygiene’s sake.

The experiment using only 2 gallons a day didn’t work out unless I didn’t shower for that day.  When I was tracking how much water my family and I were using, it was unbelievable how fast the number of gallons started to add up.  In my own personal amount of water per day, I use on days where I do dishes and the wash add up to about 70 gallons.

1-a.

In my hometown of Pottsville, PA, the water supply chain starts in the reservoir in the Gordon Mountain. The water makes its way through the pipes at the bottom of the dam and then into a filtration system. When it enters the filtration system it is then purified. After it’s purified, the water travels through piping to each individual home. The pipe decreases in size so the pressure remains the same. The water than comes into our house through a lateral pipe (3 quarters on an inch) through the water company supply meter. Water travels through the branch lines into each individual appliance. After the water enters and goes through the house, the excess waste water goes down the drain through a trap. The trap stops the sewer gas smell from coming into your house. The waste water ends up into the Waste Water Treatment Plant located on the Pottsville/Minersville highway about 4 minutes away from my house.

1-b. Water Usage on February 9th

Shower- 15 minutes- 2 times- 74 Gallons

Brushing Teeth- 2 times- 0.25 Gallons

Flushing of Toilet- 4 times- 1.6 per flush- 6.4 Gallons

Washing Clothes- 1 time- approximately 20 Gallons

Washing Hands- 5 times- with sink running for 20 seconds- 4 Gallons

Washing Dishes- 1 time- hand washed for 10 minutes- 5 Gallons

Drinking Water-  spread throughout the day- 0.50 Gallons

Cleaning my dogs pen- 3 bucket of water- 4.5 Gallons

TOTAL-  114.65 Gallons

1-c. 

For my experiment, I tried to cut back on the amount of water I used in the shower, brushing my teeth and washing the dishes. The main areas I prioritized my water usage were in drinking water, washing my hands and cooking. My hygiene and health is very important. The largest amount of water I use is while I’m shower. I thought of several ways I could cut back on water while I’m in the shower. First, I could shower in a shorter amount of time. Second, I could turn the water off when I’m applying shampoo and conditioner. I cut back on water while brushing my teeth by turning off the water until I’m completely done. While washing dishes I filled up the sink with water and only turned the water on when I needed to rinse off several dishes. The experiment on living off of two gallons of water was not successful for me. I approximately use 114 gallons of water per day then all of a sudden I tried using only 2 gallons for a day. In my chart in 1-b I use more than two gallons just to wash my hands several times a day. Geography plays a big role in water use. We are very fortunate for the amount of water we have unlike other countries. We don’t live off of two gallons of water a day like families in Haiti. This experiment was definitely a difficult challenge.

1a: The source of water in Harrisburg, Pa comes from Clarks Creek, which is a 31.4-mile tributary creek of the Susquehanna river. DeHart Dam and reservoir collect water from Clarks creek, and is pulled into the Capital Region Water Center for processing. After the water is cleaned, tested and fit for human use, it is distributed to homes and businesses in the area using a system of underground channels. Water is used in the home for a variety of daily activities, and is disposed of through a drainage system that connects back to the city grid. The wastewater is then collected and combined with storm water from the city, where it goes to the Capital Region wastewater treatment facility. At the water treatment facility, the water goes through many processes to make it safe for the environment again. After all chemicals are removed from the wastewater, and it is sufficiently cleaned, the water is deposited back into the Susquehanna river.

1b:

1c: Before I began this activity, I established priorities for the most important uses of water with only 2 gallons. The most important uses were drinking and similarly, cooking. Personal cleanliness and showering is not a possibility with 2 gallons, other than a quick hand wash as needed. Strategies I used were trying to do things as quickly and efficiently as possible. Water I used to wash my hands could also be used to clean dishes. Another strategy I used to save water was turning off the water while I was brushing my teeth. At the end of the day, I failed in only using 2 gallons of water. This is due to flushing the toilet, and taking a quick shower after the gym. However, I realize I can use less water than in exercise 1-b by being fast and efficient when I’m using water. Geography determines the available and quality of water for human use. Many developed countries use more water than they have access to, and this is hurting developing nations. Reductions in daily water use by those in developed nations could have a huge impact on water availability in areas with dry climates, or overpopulated cities.

The water supply chain in my hometown of Harrisburg, PA in my specific neighborhood (Linglestown) comes from United Water Pennsylvania. While other homes in my neighborhood use well water as their source, my family’s water comes from the Susquehanna River, about 20 minutes from my house and with a watershed encompassing 24,000 square miles. Our water can also come from Stony Creek, which has a watershed encompassing 115 square miles. It is taken from the surface water of the river and the creek and then goes through United Water’s treatment plant at its Sixth Street Water Treatment Plant to be cleaned of contaminants. It then goes to my home for usage. After we use the water, it goes down the drain and into the sewage system. It then ends up at the treatment plant again and the process of cleaning the water and sending it to my house is repeated.

Usage of water per day:

1. Teeth brushing twice = 5 gallons
2. Face washing = 1 gallon
3. Drinking water (about 4 glasses a day x 8 oz per glass) = .25 gallons
4. Washing the dishes: 15 gallons x 3 times a day = 45 gallons
5. Shower 5 gallons/minute x 30 minutes = 150 gallons
6. 7 toilet flushes all day x 3 gallons = 21 gallons

After calculating my water usage in gallons, I found out I use about 218.75 gallons of water per day.

If I were living in an environment where I only had 2 gallons/day, I would have to cut back on water significantly (individual action). I do not use much water for cooking so I would instead use one gallon of water to bathe. The other gallon I would reserve for drinking. Realistically, I could never accomplish this. What I can do is cut back my shower time. Instead of a 30-minute shower I can use 5-minutes, making 150 gallons, 5 gallons. Because my shower is where I use the most water, cutting back would reduce my usage/day to 73.75 gallons. While this will make a small difference environmentally, I think real change would happen when people watch me reduce my usage. This might cause collective action within my friends and hopefully their families. However, water usage right now can be a collective action problem because many people want to act selfishly even though it would benefit society to reduce. Different places in the world have different resources, which affects their water usage. For example, people in Haiti do not have a large water supplier, and therefore, do not use nearly as much water as we do here in the U.S.

My family has a well as our system for water. The well is dug into the ground with a cleaning and pump system that allows for the water to be cleaned and pumped in the house. Rain and groundwater is our main source of water. We live on the side of a hill so as the water flows down  towards the creek it fills the well and restores our water supply. Our waste water then goes down the drain and flows into our septic tank. Here the water separates into three layers that includes a bottom layer of sludge, middle layer of water and a top layer of scum. The septic tank then releases the clean layer of water back  into the ground.

Water Usage for One Day

2 showers: 25 gallons

Brushing teeth 3x a day: 1/2 gallon

Dishes: 3 gallons

3 bottles of water: 1/2 gallon

Washing hands 9x: 3.5 gallons

Flushing Toilet 7x: 6 gallons

For my experiment I tried to cut back the amount of water I used in the shower, flushing the toilet, doing the dishes, and brushing my teeth. The amount of water I drank, and used to wash my hands were kept at about the same, due to simply needed to stay hydrated and to avoid getting sick. Instead if taking two showers today I only took one in the morning and skipped my shower before bed. I also only did the dishes once rather than multiple times through out the day and instead of leaving the water running I filled the sink only half way full and rinsed multiple dishes at the same time. While brushing my teeth instead of wetting my tooth brush before and after I add the tooth paste i just put the tooth paste on and only used water to rinse my brush off at the end. My personal experience of living on only two gallons of water was a complete fail. My only shower for the day even if it was shorter than my normal showers and only once a day instead of twice still used most of my allotted two gallons. This experiment made me feel more self conscious about the amount of water I was using. In the part of tracking I did not really think about how much I used, because it felt normal until I realized how wasteful I was like I did in this experiment. Geography plays a role in water usage, because if you live in an area where clean water is easily accessible you will use it, but if you live in an area without clean water you wont use it as much. 

In my hometown of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, many of the residents are on a private water system. Through this system, the rain water is filtered through a well to provide clean water for the residents. The water comes through the tap and is used. It then goes down the drain, through the pipes and into a septic tank. In this tank, the contents of the disposed water are separated. On the bottom layer, there is the heavier waste which is solid. In the middle layer is something called grey water, which is essentially just the dirty water. On the top layer is a sludge layer of oils and other things that are lighter than the rest of the waste. Since the waste just sits in the septic tank, someone has to come out and pump the grey water out. When a company pumps a septic tank for the grey water, they either dispose of it or they take it to a plant to be treated so it can be reused.

Water usage for a day:

Shower: 1 time, 15 minutes = 75 gallons

Brush teeth: 2 times = 1 gallon

Hand washing dishes: 1 time, 7 minutes = 14 gallons

Toilet flush: 5 times = 15 gallons

Wash hands: 5 times = 5 gallons

Drinking water: 10 cups = 0.625 gallons

I use approximately 110.625 gallons of water a day. This does not account for when I wash my clothes or do other things using water.

If I had to live off of 2 gallons of water a day, I think I would struggle tremendously. I drink over 25% of that in a day alone. The main places that I need to prioritize my water use are in the places where i absolutely need them the most, cooking and drinking. Those activities keep me alive so they get the most water. I would have to cut my drinking down by a lot which means I would have to monitor my diet and activity. Salty foods and activity that needs a lot of energy make me drink more water. Although I was supposed to cut down on how much water I drink, I failed to do so and drank my normal amount. I also need water for showering and flushing the toilet. I had to continue to do that. I tried showering with turning the water off when I was not rinsing. This was easy for me to do because I have had to do it before. When washing my hands, I turned off the water while I was scrubbing and while I was brushing my teeth I turned off the water while brushing, as I normally do. Overall I failed. The moment I first flushed the toilet I failed because I went over the amount of water I was allowed.

Geography is important to how much water one uses because of the amount of water that they have access to. There are many places that are in a drought and have to limit their water usage because of this. In places that do not have access to much water, they need to alter their life style in a way that allows them to survive off of what they have. For those that have access to a lot of water, they use a lot of it and do not even notice. I’ve always lived in a place that is affluent in their water supply and I never noticed how much water I used until now.

I live in California’s wonderful Central Coast but with that is the problem of California’s drought and rapidly depleting watersheds. The water source in my area through Atascadero Mutual Water Company comes from really two different sources, the deep well and the shallow well. The deep well is from the deep water basin and the shallow well comes from the underflow of what is left of the mostly dry Salinas River. The water is then treated with chlorine at the Nacimiento Water Project and distributed throughout homes in the northern part of San Luis Obispo County. As the grey and black water leaves the homes into the sewage systems it is then transferred to the Atascadero Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) where through a series of polishing lagoons and percolation ponds it is then transferred to numerous water sources, for example the man-made Santa Margarita Lake, Salinas River, and aquifers. Notably being right next to the Chalk River Golf Course, the irrigation and watering for the golf course uses a water table almost exclusively compromised of reclaimed water, so I will not be taking up golfing there anytime soon. That however is really only half of my water source, if you account for the number of hours a person spends at work, and the forty plus hours I tend to spend there I wanted to take that water source into account. Like I have previously mentioned I work at the Topaz Solar farm, located in the Carissa Plains, which is about thirty miles out from any sort of tradition water system.  The site which exclusively works on a well with installed reverse osmosis unit from the one hundred and fifty foot well. The water is then distributed to our fire tank (used for fire extinguishing) and the building bathrooms and kitchen. From there it is transferred to the leech field and then from there drains back to the watershed. The majority of the county being an interesting mix of suburban and rural actually works off of wells, especially due to the number of farms and vineyards in the county.

While trying to keep track of my own water usage I did not want to be overly considerate to the activity. I used the water usage calculator that was referenced from my local water company to put together the following list. (1)

• Morning and Night Shower – 8 minutes- 35.2 Gallons
• Brushing Teeth morning and night – 2 minutes of water each- 5.2 Gallons
• Coffee Pot- 0.15 Gallons, 2 times in the day- 0.3 gallons
• Toilet Flushing- 2.07 Gallons – 3 times – 6.42 gallons
• Bottled water at work- 9 bottles in a 10 hour work day in the Carissa Plains on a very warm day- 500ml each coverts to 0.132 gallons- 1.188 Gallons
• Nalgene Bottle at home- 1000 ml- .264 Gallons
• Dishwasher- 9.3 Gallons

All together I used 58 gallons. This is ignoring some intrinsic losses for example, the losses associated with Reverse Osmosis unit at work, which based on my work with RO units in the Navy you get about 30 percent of what you put into it and given the low TDS content from out output and the High TDS from the areas water, that seems accurate. Basically water usage at work with the RO units has losses already built into it, but may be over thinking because brine is returned to the watershed.

For trying to live off of 2 gallons of water was too much of an undertaking for my current job. It is very active and as shown in the list, I drink a lot of water at work out of necessity. That is driven by the fact that I work in the desert and can be relatively active while out in the solar fields with high irradiance and little to no shade cover. Also based on the fact that I am in an active work environment and it can get relatively muddy, dusty, or generally dirty because of work with oils, hazmat, or lubricants I would not be allowed to work without showering. The shower, as rated by the Atascadero Water Mutual site links is rated at about 2.2 gallons per minute, so that becomes tough to accomplish as well. However by showering the night before I was slightly able to cheat that, except it was an exceptionally busy day at work and I needed to shower. Things I was able to cut out of the total overall were fairly small, I removed luxury items like coffee, cut back on leaving the faucet running while brushing my teeth down to estimated 20 seconds. I hand washed my dish at lunch vice letting my dishes fall in to the collective after lunch dishwasher cycle our admin likes to do and only ran the faucet for 30 seconds. As far as toilet flushes go, I used the portable toilets in the field, so that was able to count, but sort of a cheat and not a sustainable method. Overall it was not a successful test, methods used are situational and my job and position do not allow for the kinds of sacrifices that would need to be made to be able to perform my job properly.

Overall, geography very specifically attribute to the amount of water accessible and the amount of water necessary. California’s drought driven by the lacking snow pack in the mountains and the minuscule rain we have gotten over the past decade without an El Nino has driven the county and state to invoke policies regarding water usage. San Luis Obispo County is in a strange position with a bustling farm and wine community and a drought fighting side by side. While the cities in north county are passing legislation on the control of well water by farms, most of the lakes in the county being dried up, the rivers run near dry, and the aquifers almost completely gone, California’s Central Coast and its many microclimates are an excellent example of how geography can affect water use.

1. “House Water Saver,” Accessed on Feb 8th 2016,  http://www.h2ouse.org/tour/index.cfm
2. “Water Treatment Plant,” City of Atascadero, Last modified Feb 6th 2016 http://www.atascadero.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=644&Itemid=1666
3. “Water Supply,” Atascadero Mutual Water Company, Accessed on 7 Feb 2016 http://www.amwc.us/WaterSupply.asp?sm=f

My hometown is in Hangzhou, China. Hang Zhou is a city with abundant water resources. One of the biggest rivers, which we called Qiantang River, is flowing through my city. This river is the main source of our daily water, and it is also the water source of Jinghang canal and West Lake. The origin of Qiantang River is the springs and rains from Yellow Mountain, flowing through 14 cities, and finally goes into East China Sea from Hangzhou bay. Tap water companies collect water from Qiantang River, and after purification, the water flow into everyone’s home by water pipes. Sewage goes into sewage treatment plants and at the end drains off into Qiantang River. However, because we only have this single water source, once the river is polluted, our tap water support will become absent, and we will suffer huge losses as well.

First, I will give up shower and teeth brushing. Then I will use one gallons of water to cook food and wash dishes, and I will drink the left gallon of water. Finally I will use swage to flush toilet. This is my strategy for living there one day. I think the experiment will be success, because when water is scare like this, we must sacrifice something, and the only goal is to keep myself alive. I have no sense about the shortage of water, so it is so hard for me to image living in a place where only have two gallons water can be used. Comparing to my table, I feel like I waste a lot of water everyday. I think geography is the most important factor of source of water. People live in areas with water scarce will treasure water, but people livein areas with water abundant have no sense about water usage. That is why my country have “south-to-north water diversion” project so that people in north of China with shortage of water could get more water source from south of China.

In my hometown, we get water from a public water supply. This water comes from groundwater that comes from rain and snow. Water wells are used to harvest the groundwater, and it is treated and sent through a filter. Then it is pumped into pipes and tanks, then into our homes, then through the tap. After water is used or goes back down into the drain, it is carried by gravity through sewer lines and pumped into a treatment plant. Here the water is retreated to be used again.

Here is my average water usage:

Flush toilet: 4 times = 12 gallons

Wash hands: 10 times = 10 gallons

Take shower: 1 time, 15 minutes = 75 gallons

Drinking water: 8 cups = .5 gallons

Brush teeth: 2 times = 1 gallon

Wash dishes by hand: 1 load = 20 gallons

Wash laundry: 1 load = 30 gallons

I use approximately 148.5 gallons of water per day. I may not do my dishes or laundry every single day, but this does not account for other things I might do in a day like water plants, wash fruit or use water for other food preparation, or give water to pets.

Two gallons of water seems like a very crazy amount of water to live off of per day, since I am spoiled with the almost 150 gallons that I use everyday. I did try to cut down on my water usage though, and my priorities included washing my hands, brushing my teeth, and drinking water. In all types of washing, it is important to turn the water off as much as you can. I had never really had to do this before, and it was a challenging thing to remember to do. As soon as I got my hands wet to wash them, I turned the water off while I scrubbed my hands with soap. Then I turned the water back on to rinse. I also turned the water off while brushing my teeth and as much as I could while I showered. I tried to use only half of a gallon of water for drinking purposes and food preparation. I pretty much failed at using only two gallons of water in one day right away. It was pretty much impossible for me to use so little water, mostly because I use the bathroom, and flushing the toilet takes a lot of water.

Geography is important in water use because depending on where you live, you may have a lot less water to use than other people. Water in some places in the world is not as clean as it is here. It is not as readily available as it is to me, and some people have to travel very far on foot to retrieve it. I am very fortunate to live in a place where I don’t have to worry about getting water, I just have to turn the tap on. Although, this spoils me, and I am not as conscious about my water usage as others are.

1-a:

My hometown is in Lanacster, PA. It’s right against one of the biggest rivers in PA, the Susquehanna. The Susquehanna River treats most of Central PA, and this is where 60% of Lancaster’s water comes from. The Conestoga River is a more local river that mostly only provides water for Lancaster. The Conestoga accounts for the other 40% of the water. All this water that Lancaster uses gets pumped into the city’s two water treatment plants. The water can then be used for sewage or consumption. Sewer water is pumped separately into homes. In these plants the water is purified and tested. The tests on the water are more frequent and extensive than the tests ran for bottled water. After purification the water is pumped into the city and surrounding area with pipes that run into developments and then to houses. All the water runs into the house from a pipe, which includes with a meter that gauges how much water is used by each house a month. After the going through the gauge the water filters off into different parts of the house for use.

1-b:

Water Use:

Water Consumed: 1 gallon

Showers: 25 gallons

Brushing Teeth: .5 gallons

Shaving: 1 gallon

Toilet Flushing: 10 gallons

Washing Hands: 2.5 gallons

Total: 40 gallons

USGS: 47.36 gallons

CSG Network: 110 (includes laundry) gallons

1-c:

On a daily basis I use water for drinking, showering, brushing my teeth, washing my hands, going to the bathroom, and for shaving. I would make sure consuming water is my #1 priority as that is what would keep me alive. I’d drink 0.5 gallons of that a day. I would use 1 gallon of water to try and clean my self each day. If it were allowed I’d use 2 gallons of water to shower every other day. The rest of the 0.5 gallons would go towards cooking so I could make proper meals for myself. So that makes up the 2 gallons, and that life would be very rough compared to what I am using now. I would have to go to the bathroom outside, my hands would only be washed when I took a 1-minute shower, and I wouldn’t have much to brush my teeth.

The geography of a town makes an incredible difference to how much water is consumed. First of all, how wealthy the town is makes the largest difference. In places like Mozambique and Haiti, they can’t afford water treatment and mass consumption, even if Haiti is a small island. Also, where the town is compared to a water source matters. The farther they are away, the more expensive it is to get water, which in turn limits water consumption. There are many other geographical reasons but these are the biggest two in my mind.

Part 1-a

The water source in my hometown, Barnesville, Pennsylvania, is from a well that is 185 feet deep.  A submersible well pump gets the water from the underground water table.  This well pump travels down a tube that is connected via wires from it to my house’s electrical box.  A rope is attached to the pump and is enclosed in the tubing too.  The rope is attached to a metal bar that is down a pit to keep it from falling totally into the water table.  The pump never touches the bottom so only water is pumped up with no dirt.  The pit is covered by a well cap.  There is a small holding tank in my basement.  When I turn on a faucet or flush the toilet, the holding tank gives the water the initial pressure to get the water through the pipes.  The electricity turns the pump on and pushes more water through the pipe and refills the tank.  After the process of using the water, it is then disposed of by going down the drain or toilet bowl with the use of gravity and water pressure.  It then goes through pipes which leads to the township sewer system.

Part 1-b             

                       Amount Used Per Time               Times Per Day             Amount Used

Shower:             5 Gallons Per Minute                        1 at 7mins                     35 Gallons

Teeth Brushing:  1 Gallon Per Minute                         2 at 1/2min                       1 Gallon

Hand Washing:                 1/2 Gallon                           6                                     3 Gallons

Toilet Flush:         3 Gallons Per Flush                          6                                   18 Gallons

Dishwashing by Hand:       8 Gallons                          1                                     8 Gallons

Glasses Drank:          8 oz. Per Glass                          8                                          64 oz.

                                                                                                            Total: 65.5 Gallons

Part 1-c

When living on two gallons of water daily, I consumed one quart and used one quart to brush my teeth and wash my hands and face.  I wiped clean any dishes I could and reused them a few times.  I separated two quarts into two pans to wash and rinse the dishes. I used the other gallon to wash my hair and body.  I continually saved all the used water.  This 1 3/4 gallons of saved, used water was used to flush the toilet.  I used a quart each time, dumping it directly into the bowl so I got seven flushes.  I washed the dishes and took a bath every other day.  On the opposite day, I used the water I allotted for these to wash my clothes.  This experiment was a success but very hard to do considering the water I calculated that I use on a regular daily basis.  Having an ample, clean water supply affects how people use water.  When people have more than they need, they take it for granted and waste more than they realize.

Part 1-a:

I’m from West Chester Pennsylvania, more particularly East Bradford township. Our municipal water company is Aqua America – Pennsylvania. This company serves around 1.2million people around the Philadelphia area, 420,000 water connection, and 12 water treatment facilities. This is a large company which covers a lot of land, therefore I focused on the water treatment facility closest to my home. The Downingtown Municipal Water Authority has a treatment plant on Marsh Creek, a large lake near me. Each day 1.5 million gallons of filtered and purified water water passes through the plant into homes around mine. My house has a personal septic tank which is cleaned out annually, but for the rest of West Chester the sewage is immediately sent to Goose Creek plant. This plant receives around 1.6 million gallons of waste each day.

Part 1-b:

Shower – 80 gallons

Brushing teeth (2x) – .5 gallons

flush (6x)- 30 gallons

Drinking water – .59 gallons

Washing hands (7x)- 7 gallons

Total: 118.09 gallons

Part 1-c: 

To start off the two-gallon water challenge I prioritized drinking water as most important, closely followed by water needed for cooking. However, because I live in Pennsylvania and have a consistent water supply, I could potentially eat out and avoid using water for cooking myself. The other water components are all hygiene related. Brushing teeth, washing hands, flushing, and showering, are all part of my normal daily routine. However, I was able to wait 24 hours to shower and tried to use as little water possible brushing my teeth. I evidently failed the two-water challenge because I live in a dorm, therefore I flush for the sake of others and wash my hands because a lot of people are sick right now. This experiment forced me to consciously realize how much water I use daily, and then how insanely much my community, and the world use each day. Water is the backbone of life, therefore the conservation and sustainability of the earths water is so important, and often overlooked.

1A.

Just a quick introduction, my name is William Graf and my hometown is Pompano Beach, Florida. The water and sewer in my area are provided by Pompano Beach Utilities department. The drinking water in this area come from the Biscayne Aquifer. There are 25 wells in Pompano Beach. The water is pumped from the aquifer from different sites to a water treatment plant. The water is then softened, filtered, fluoridated, and disinfected before it is sent to distribution. There are two water treatment plants for these operations. There are also different labs to monitor bacteria and other compound concentrations in the water. Our house used to use a septic tank for some wastewater operations. However in the past decade, these septic tanks are being replaced. The process for wastewater in Pompano now is to pump the collected wastewater to a water treatment plant in the center of Pompano Beach. This system uses gravity to drain the water out of houses, and then a pump to force the water to the treatment plant.

1B.

Brushed teeth 3 times (<1 gallon each)

Washed Hands/Face 6 times (6 gallons)

2 5 minute showers (50 gallons)

7 toilet flushes (3 gallons each, 21 gallons)

12 glasses of water (1 gallon)

1 Dishwasher Load (10 gallons)

Total Water Usage: Approximately 95 gallons

1C.

My main areas of water use in the experiment tend to deal mostly with hygiene and cleaning. While I do drink a fairly decent amount of water during the day if I am exercising my highest areas of consumption are the showers. This is followed by toilet flushes. If I had to prioritize my water use I would put drinking water and water used for cooking at the top of the list. I think this is followed by brushing teeth and washing hands. The bottom of this list would include the shower, toilet flushes, and dishwasher loads. A couple strategies to reduce water consumption include using more paper plates and plastic silverware. These can be discarded after they have been used and do not need to be cleaned in a dishwasher. Also some toilets have an eco-friendly option that use less water to flush. I could also only take one shower a day and cut down on time in the shower. My experiment cut down my water consumption, but I still used around 20 gallons of water in the day. I still drink almost a gallon of water per day and it is almost impossible to survive off only 2 gallons in one day. Geography matters for water use, because geography dictates how much water is available in an area. For example, Pompano Beach sits on top of an aquifer allowing for easy access to water.