I've written about Portland's water bills in the past (see Post 28). In short, Portland's Water Bureau charges its customers X dollars to bring metered water to a house, but charges 2X dollars for what leaves the house. Obviously, with no metering of what goes out, the Water Bureau must guesstimate. The thinking is if people are not watering their lawns and gardens during the winter months, unlike summer, then 100% of the water brought in will also go out. Thus the winter quarter usage (Water Bureau bills are quarterly) decides the sewer charges for the other three quarters of the year.
The message is, If you can afford it, December through March would be a nice time to take a vacation. If you can't do that, an alternative is Extreme Water Conservation (see Posts 151 and 154).
There are a number of rules to help conserve water. One toilet flushing one I heard, popular during Capetown water rationing, went like this: If it's yellow, Leave it mellow. If it's brown, Flush it down. In past winter quarters, I've timed my showers to two and a half minutes. And wash dishes every other day, not daily. Never leave a tap running.
This year I decided to make it simpler. Because showers are where I see water visibly going down the drain, I've cut back my two and one-half minute showers to twice weekly. The other days, I'm a fan of sponge baths. They're simplicity itself.
A small plastic tub for one of the basement wash basins. Standing over it, I get my hair wet with a hose attached to the basin tap. Then towel off. Gives me the feeling of a wet shower and wet hair to be combed. Next, fill the tub with hot water. In goes a sponge and I have soap at hand. Then I splash warm water on my face and soap up and then rinse off with water from the tub. Next take the sponge to my underarms, then the soap, then sponge rinse.
I take the tub of warmish, soapy water and move it to my bathroom sink and its mirror. I use the same soap and water to get my face wet, soapy and proceed to shave. After toweling off, the water left in the tub gets emptied into the bathroom toilet to help out what my extreme water conservation should guarantee are limited outflows there.
So that's extreme water conservation made simple: Just flush less often and take sponge baths!
Image credit: forestgrove-or.gov
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
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