Water Saving Ideas That Work From Our Customers

We've asked our customers for some of their water saving ideas, and have been impressed by what we've seen so far.

Let us know how you're saving water, and we'll spread the word.

+++++++++++

"We have cut down our water use by 50 percent. We replaced our entire lawn with drought tolerant plants. We flush all toilets with water collected from showers. We replace bed linen less often, take shorter showers and reuse dish water to irrigate some plants. We collect rain water. Cover the pool to reduce evaporation and stress plants so they become less water dependent.

"We feel passionately about conserving water all the time, not only in drought years."

Ilana...Walnut Creek

++++++++++

1. Heavily mulched all gardens
2. Collecting rinse water from washing machine to use in garden.
3. Collecting rinse water from kitchen & bathroom sinks.
4. Collecting water from shower until warm water starts flowing.
5. When working in yard, shower off with hose to cool down, clean up and water grass.
6. Only flush toilets when solid material present.
7. Fix leaks in sprinkler system and adjust sprinkler heads so no water goes on sidewalk.
8. Cut back lawn and garden watering to minimum required to keep plants alive.
9. Shut of water in shower and in sinks when soaping up. Never let it run.
10. Used CCWD Smart Car Wash coupons to have car washed instead of washing the cars myself.

"The coupons worked fine. The attendant recognized the coupon and the process was smooth. I’ve made additional copies of the coupon so that I can go to that car wash on a regular basis in the future."

Bryan...Concord

++++++++++

"The biggest way we've saved water is by detecting and fixing a faulty timer on our irrigation system. CCWD was very helpful in ruling out a leak on its' end, thanks. Also, we have your shower timers in every bathroom, and we are all getting good at limiting scrub-downs to four minutes.

"We've actually reduced our usage by half since last year according to our bill (mostly because of fixing the irrigation timer).

"My husband and I paid closer attention to how our sprinklers were running and discovered a solenoid valve was running for hours instead of the mere minutes we'd programmed. Since we replaced the faulty valve and wiring our sprinklers shut off like they're supposed to and there's no more puddles in the street.

"Since responsible irrigators time their irrigation in the very early morning, we are not always awake to notice problems like this. It might be worth reminding customers to check on their systems during real-time runs to make sure problems don't go undetected for months (as ours unfortunately did). We only figured this out by getting up at 3-4 a.m. to check!

Jennifer...Walnut Creek

We have more correspondence from our customers and we'll publish them in the next installment of the blog, and we'll put them on our website at www.ccwater.com.

Watch "Water Matters" on NBC 11

We're excited about a television show that will be aired locally on saving water.

"Water Matters" was shot here in the Bay Area and features a number of local water districts, including CCWD.

The show not only discusses our water situation, but also many ways to save water, including visits to local homes where there have been dramatic water savings.

Here are the air times:

Thursday, July 9 11 a.m.
Friday, July 10 11 a.m.
Sunday, July 12 9:30 a.m.
Sunday, July 19 3 p.m.
Saturday, July 25 11 a.m.
Sunday, Sept. 13 9 p.m.

++++++++++

Secrets of Irrigating Unveiled

CCWD Water Conservation Specialist Bob Eagle will speak to the Clayton Valley Garden Club Wednesday, July 8 at Diamond Terrace Retirement Community in Clayton at 7 p.m. Everyone is invited.

Bob will talk about the secrets of irrigating gardens successfully in Contra Costa County.