Down The Drain - Part One

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a wedding of a friend in Traverse City, Michigan. Following yet another international move back to the states and a few months of hard work and settling back in, I was looking forward to spend a weekend in an exciting vacation location. A day after we arrived to Traverse City we decided to head out and explore the area, focusing on Old Mission Peninsula. Our first stop was the Mission Point Lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. The lighthouse was built in 1870 to mark the gate point to Grand Traverse West Arm and East Arm bays.

The one thing that caught my attention when we got to the lighthouse was how far inland the lighthouse has been. A second glance made me realize it wasn't that far out, it was the lake that was receding from the original shoreline.

Lake Michigan and with it Lake Huron have been losing water to the ocean, to evaporation and to human consumption in great amounts in the past 20 years. Lake Michigan lost 6 feet from its average water level. A small chart in one of the rooms in the lighthouse showed the fluctuations over the past 150 years and the continuous drop at the end.

I chatted with the caretakers of the lighthouse briefly about this. Lake Michigan is one of the biggest sources of above ground sweet water in the world. Its water serve most of the Mid West. The lower the water level drops, the lower the quality of the water drops and the more scarce drinking water will become in the area. All these call for better care of the Lakes water and better conservation of it.

The honest truth is – whether we are from the Mid West or not, we can all do better to conserve water. The United States doubled its population in the past 50 years and 36 states are now facing water shortages. By taking a few small actions we can save up to 30% of our water consumption at home without making big lifestyle changes. Here are the first two steps to take to prevent some of our drinking water from going down the drain:

1. Install aerators in your faucets and showers – Low flow aerators help increase your faucets and showers' water pressure while lowering water waste. The science behind it is pretty simple, the aerators are built in a way that mixes air into the flow of the water. You will feel like you're using a lot of water while you'll be saving about 30% from what you used before. Aerators are relatively cheap and very easy to install. Spending these few dollars and two minutes of installing can save you tens of dollars and gallons of water every year.




2. Refit your toilet – Dual Flush – this is a trending change in the south west, but other countries, like Israel and Jordan have a long tradition of dual flush toilets. Dual flush valves allow you to choose the amount of water you want to use after using the toilet. You can choose the full amount for solids or 0.5-0.7 of the amount for liquids. Given that an average flush sends about 1.6 gallons of water down the drain, you can save up to 3 gallons of drinking water every day by using the dual flush valve. The prices for dual flush valves varry based on the type you need for your toilet (you might want to get a new toilet altogether). Either way, very much like the aerator it will save gallons of water and lower your water bill significantly.

What tips do you have for water conservation at home?