CA Water Rationing: Use No More Than 55 gals/day by 2020

[jukk0u]

All of those HUGE homes with fancy landscaping, and bathrooms... showers with multiple shower heads, GIGANTIC soaking tubs...

What do you figure the weekend's laundry loads use? 40? 50 gallons?
A 15 minute shower with a 2.5 GPM shower head uses 37.5 gallons. Let's see momma take less than 1/2 and hour shower. Ha! Listen lady: get wet, turn off the shower, lather up, rinse (fast). I guess short hair on women will become the prominent coif? (sigh - I love long hair)

So, no flushing the toilet or bathing on laundry day. Forget about watering the lawn. Washing the car? pfft!

And think about the industries that rely so heavily on residential water use (not water the businesses use, but the water they anticipate users of their products will utilize)... bathtub/shower manufacturers.... swimmy-pool builders/maintenance/toys/furniture... landscaping products suppliers... What other industries do you think will be affected?

http://www.oann.com/calif-water-ration- ... -same-day/

[PMB]

That is going to be very tough for a lot of the pampered ones.

There is a very good book by Marc Reisner called Cadillac Desert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert
https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert- ... 0140178244

This is not a dry book. heh It's a good read that will likely blow your mind at how terrible the .Gov has been throughout our US history in planning and keeping rogue agencies on the right track.

I occasionally luxuriate in a long shower... Love them. But I was also in the USN and out to sea, so learned early on how to get washed up clean with a 30 second shower. I had short hair, as jukk0u mentions as a factor.
I expect that women with long hair will just wear a shower cap.

In Malaysia and Indonesia after the Boxing Day Tsunami I had occasion to take "showers" with cold bottled water. The west coast of Sumatra had its infrastructure completely destroyed... and it didn't have much to start with. I've washed with one bottle, but two is better.
I'm a big fan of composting human waste. I have built 3 composting toilets and they all worked most excellent. One of the toilets must have impressed somebody- a thief stole it out of our cabin on the treefarm.

As our population rises like the TseTse Fly I expect things to get even more interesting.

[jukk0u]

When I was building a cabin for my friend down at his rural CA property, I looked into constructing a solar/composting toilet. Interesting device. Never got around to building one though as the project went "hinkey" shortly after the cabin was complete....

How onerous is the task of emptying the hopper once the process is complete?
Did you have two facilities so one could be placed "out of service" for cleaning/emptying?

I put your book suggestion on the library wish list. Looks good.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/homeste ... ing-toilet

[delliottg]

That is going to be very tough for a lot of the pampered ones.

There is a very good book by Marc Reisner called Cadillac Desert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert
https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert- ... 0140178244

This is not a dry book. heh It's a good read that will likely blow your mind at how terrible the .Gov has been throughout our US history in planning and keeping rogue agencies on the right track.

I occasionally luxuriate in a long shower... Love them. But I was also in the USN and out to sea, so learned early on how to get washed up clean with a 30 second shower. I had short hair, as jukk0u mentions as a factor.
I expect that women with long hair will just wear a shower cap.

In Malaysia and Indonesia after the Boxing Day Tsunami I had occasion to take "showers" with cold bottled water. The west coast of Sumatra had its infrastructure completely destroyed... and it didn't have much to start with. I've washed with one bottle, but two is better.
I'm a big fan of composting human waste. I have built 3 composting toilets and they all worked most excellent. One of the toilets must have impressed somebody- a thief stole it out of our cabin on the treefarm.

As our population rises like the TseTse Fly I expect things to get even more interesting.

I lived in San Diego for about 20 years, got used to water that was "too thick to drink, too thin to plow" and abbreviated showers. Joined the USN, and learned about saltwater showers (evaps don't work so well when you're in body temperature water like the Persian Gulf, so fresh water was severely restricted, you could have all the salt you wanted, but you only got about thirty seconds to rinse with fresh). Then I moved up here and brought my water conservation habits with me, much to the amusement of one of my girlfriends (who grew up here in the abundance of water, so shutting off the water while showering was completely foreign to her). I remember being amused (still am) that people actually water their lawns up here. It never occurs to me to water our lawn, maybe some of our plants occasionally when it's been dry for weeks and weeks (how often does that happen?).

The boat I'd like to retire onto only has a 36 gallon holding tank for fresh water, which has to last you weeks out at sea if you're passage making.

Like you, I now love a long hot shower, and with our flash water heater, taking a shower all day long (or filling the hottub with hot water), is a possibility. Weekends I tend to just stand under the hot water with it aimed at all the aching spots (you get lots as you age in my experience). No idea how much water we go through on a daily basis, but up here, I don't care. If I were still down in SD, I would.

[TechnoWeenie]

1. It's per person, so, not an issue when you have 8 people living in each room....

2. Smart meters will narc on you, no need for a complaint.... you'll get a fine in the mail with your water bill.... Watch to see them make wells illegal/cost prohibitive...

[leadcounsel]

The pampered and rich won't be impacted. They can buy a solution. The hardest hit will again be the poor and middle class.

This highlights the fact that there is a market and there should be better water salvage design planning into homes.

* On demand exact temp water to reduce waste
* Salvage tanks that reuse sink and shower water to flush toilets or wash clothing or etc. How many gallons are wasted warming up the shower or sink faucet? Or flushing toilets?
* Rain water collection off roofs should be encouraged for landscaping.

I saw an innovative design that is a sink on the back of a toilet that allows you to fill up the tank of the toilet with the water you use to wash your hands after you go to the bathroom, saving a gallon of water basically. Multiply that by tens of millions of people using the bathroom several times per day and that alone is significant water savings.

[PMB]

How onerous is the task of emptying the hopper once the process is complete?
Did you have two facilities so one could be placed "out of service" for cleaning/emptying?

Mine had two chambers, and a flap/diverter for switchout. The flap was the weak spot in my design. Required some cleaning and scraping to get the operation correct.
Cleaning was simple- each chamber had a water and air tight door about 3' x3' with a large enough spot for a garden/tractor cart, and flat shovel it into the cart.
Modern day Americans are much more squeamish about human waste (on the average) than is normal throughout history. We've been spoiled by such a disconnect between our poop... It should be composted back to nature, not flushed into our rivers and oceans, often untreated.

I put your book suggestion on the library wish list. Looks good.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/homeste ... ing-toilet

I've got a copy. Get your SA visa and pick it up here, or I can mule it up to you.

[Guntrader]

Joined the USN, and learned about saltwater showers (evaps don't work so well when you're in body temperature water like the Persian Gulf, so fresh water was severely restricted, you could have all the salt you wanted, but you only got about thirty seconds to rinse with fresh).

Seawater showers? Thought that was just a joke you played on people with the NBC decon system sprinklers.
The rusty brown shower. Hahahaha

We always had fresh water, even in the Gulf.
Except when some Seabees ran a causeway section into the LST during rough seas.
Punctured one of the water tanks, was weird to see water pouring OUT of the ship.
Then we were restricted to quick showers, ya about 30 seconds total. Water on, water off, soap, water on to rinse....Had an LPO timing people.


The emergency evap on an LST is right below port aft troop berthing.
Deck was so hot you had to wear socks or you would be hopping around as to not burn your feet when that thing was running.
I actually went down to look at it.

[delliottg]

Joined the USN, and learned about saltwater showers (evaps don't work so well when you're in body temperature water like the Persian Gulf, so fresh water was severely restricted, you could have all the salt you wanted, but you only got about thirty seconds to rinse with fresh).

Seawater showers? Thought that was just a joke you played on people with the NBC decon system sprinklers.
The rusty brown shower. Hahahaha

We always had fresh water, even in the Gulf.
Except when some Seabees ran a causeway section into the LST during rough seas.
Punctured one of the water tanks, was weird to see water pouring OUT of the ship.
Then we were restricted to quick showers, ya about 30 seconds total. Water on, water off, soap, water on to rinse....Had an LPO timing people.


The emergency evap on an LST is right below port aft troop berthing.
Deck was so hot you had to wear socks or you would be hopping around as to not burn your feet when that thing was running.
I actually went down to look at it.

If I remember correctly, LST's were diesel? My destroyer was steam powered, so about 90% of the water from our evaps fed the boilers. When we were under water restrictions, there wasn't a whole lot to go around, especially in warm water.

[Guntrader]

Yup. 6 Alco V-12 cylinder diesels totaling 16,500 SHP
Locomotive engines about 10 feet long.
(Alco is American Locomotive Corporation)

Fumes were horrible on deck.

[vic_b]

Reverse osmosis is a great system. I ran two on a Pathfinder class ship. Had so much fresh water I had to run it over the side or shut it down.

[Guntrader]

Reverse osmosis is a great system. I ran two on a Pathfinder class ship. Had so much fresh water I had to run it over the side or shut it down.

Reverse osmosis was a new technology when I was in the Navy.
Didn't start becoming widespread in civilian water districts until at least the early 80's.

Plus it usually takes the .Gov 10-20 years of studies before they put a better mousetrap into use.

Surprised they aren't still using sailing ships.

I took a DHS class a year and a half ago that was still using Windows XP and Server 2003.
Takes years and years to get new course material approved.
Probably have a few thousand people involved in the process of approving a revision.

[DGM33]

I saw an innovative design that is a sink on the back of a toilet that allows you to fill up the tank of the toilet with the water you use to wash your hands after you go to the bathroom, saving a gallon of water basically. Multiply that by tens of millions of people using the bathroom several times per day and that alone is significant water savings.

Japanese toilets do this. We had them in our off-base house. The only problem was the bowl was super small and the water was frigid. But they work and the trade off was that the toilet seat was heated.

[bigzdawg]

Ok, here is a radical idea for Cali.


There are these things called "rivers". They have water in them. The water is fresh, drinkable water that literally falls from the sky, or melts from snow in a mountain.

There are these things called "dams". They are usually made of concrete and steel, and they block the water flowing down the river.

The dam backs up the water, forming these things called "reservoirs". Reservoirs fill up and store the water, that comes from the sky during "rainy season". Then, during "dry season", the water is slowly drawn down and used by functioning humans.


Believe it or not, this radical idea is currently being used, in countries north of the Equator, and also south of the Equator. It is true that even countries of different governing methods, get this, all use the same concept of collecting water and then using it.


So what is the actual problem? There are these group of people that call themselves "Democrats". They have cancelled plans up to 50 years old to create enough reservoirs to be able to support their population's water needs. Even worse, these "Democrats" have cancelled required maintenance for their largest existing dam, and in fact it nearly collapsed last year.

Democrats in California are against the concept of people creating enough water storage to survive. Instead, they pass laws to hurt and harm people and make them needlessly suffer. Unless you make obscene amounts of money or are in the entertainment industry. Then you can do what you want to.

Yes, it is this simple.

[PMB]

Ok, here is a radical idea for Cali.


There are these things called "rivers". They have water in them. The water is fresh, drinkable water that literally falls from the sky, or melts from snow in a mountain.

There are these things called "dams". They are usually made of concrete and steel, and they block the water flowing down the river.

The dam backs up the water, forming these things called "reservoirs". Reservoirs fill up and store the water, that comes from the sky during "rainy season". Then, during "dry season", the water is slowly drawn down and used by functioning humans.


Believe it or not, this radical idea is currently being used, in countries north of the Equator, and also south of the Equator. It is true that even countries of different governing methods, get this, all use the same concept of collecting water and then using it.


So what is the actual problem? There are these group of people that call themselves "Democrats". They have cancelled plans up to 50 years old to create enough reservoirs to be able to support their population's water needs. Even worse, these "Democrats" have cancelled required maintenance for their largest existing dam, and in fact it nearly collapsed last year.

Democrats in California are against the concept of people creating enough water storage to survive. Instead, they pass laws to hurt and harm people and make them needlessly suffer. Unless you make obscene amounts of money or are in the entertainment industry. Then you can do what you want to.

Yes, it is this simple.

Bigz, read the book that I mentioned above. Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner.
It's really truly not as easy as you think right now.
If you read it and still feel that way, let me know where the logic in the book failed.