We used 66,000 gallons of water last year. As the chart in my last post shows, a lot of homes used less. Our use works out to 90 gallons per day per person (we are a 2-person household). We actually used more water over the past few years.
This water use trend excludes water wasted from a couple of leaks we’ve had, because we’re focusing only on how much we can do through conservation. We’ll do a more detailed analysis later to show the “water cost” our leaks have created.
We’ve been working at getting our water consumption down. We used 124 gallons per day per person in 2019, 115 in 2020, 97 in 2021, and 90 last year. Helping us is we have mature desert landscaping that we water only 4-5 times a year for 1.5 hours each time. Hurting us is we have an irregular shape pool – so no option for a cover. Helping – we have recirculating hot water.
We’ll keep trying to improve. I keep a running 12-month moving average, making it a game of sorts. Here’s our water use trend.
I posted this information on Nextdoor and someone commented, “We went from 60K in 2021 to 51K in 2022. New house more visitors in 2021 than 2022 and conservation. But again, more visitors use more water just in our homes. Keep fighting to stop the short-term rentals because they wouldn’t be even close to 51 or 60K a year with short term rentals.” Good point. And although Patty and I haven’t tried this yet, here’s an idea to try if you have a lot of guests.
Please share your comments on this topic and tell me about
other Ivins issues I have not addressed in recent posts.
Email me at Mike@MikeScott4Ivins.com.
Recent “Water” posts
- Our New Water Shortage PlaybookPDF đź“„Washington County is one of the hottest and driest regions in Utah, and one of the fastest growing. Because nearly all of our drinking water comes from the Virgin River basin, we are vulnerable to drought, climate change, and interruptions caused by infrastructure failures, earthquakes, or system repairs. To prepare for these challenges, the…
- Water, Fairness, and Ivins: A Smart Take from Wayne PenningtonPDF đź“„Here’s an article by Wayne Pennington that I think you’ll appreciate. He’s running for City Council, and one of the many things I value about him is that he doesn’t just skim the surface, he does the homework. When the Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD) released its draft drought plan, officially called the…
- Shocked and Dismayed: Still No Drought PlanPDF đź“„Back in April, the Washington County Water Conservancy District’s (WCWCD’s) Administrative Advisory Committee finally voted to recommend adoption of a Water Shortage Contingency Plan. That should have been the breakthrough moment. Instead, here we are in September, and now we’re told the plan may not be finalized until the end of 2025. That’s after…
- My Take on Growth, Roads, Water, & MorePDF đź“„Robert MacFarlane, an Ivins resident who pays a lot of attention to local issues and hosts the 435 Podcast sent a questionnaire to all city council candidates in the county. I wrote detailed responses to all seven questions, but they were too big and blew up his online survey form. So I redid those responses as…
- Closer To a Drought Plan?PDF đź“„Today, the Washington County Water Conservancy District’s (WCWCD’s) Administrative Advisory Committee (AAC) voted to recommend adoption of a long-overdue Water Shortage Contingency Plan, but there’s a twist. (Download draft plan) (Download presentation explaining the plan) Collectively, they agreed that the action steps in the plan need to be modified, but individually it appears they…