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California to require stingier showerheads


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2015 Aug 13, 5:28am   7,468 views  23 comments

by tvgnus   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=28865

The commission predicts that the new standards will save more than 2.4 billion gallons of water in the first year and 38 billion gallons after full stock turnover in 10 years. The commission also voted to change the start date for the recently adopted standard for lavatory faucets.

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1   zzyzzx   2015 Aug 13, 7:44am  

tvgnus says

also voted to change the start date for the recently adopted standard for lavatory faucets.

So you will now have to flush 3 times in CA instead of twice?

2   Bellingham Bill   2015 Aug 13, 8:32am  

"The standard for showerheads will change to 1.8 gallons per minute maximum flow rate starting July 1, 2018"

Nothing a drill press can't fix . . .

I didn't have kids so I'll take double my water allotment from the state, thanks.

3   HydroCabron   2015 Aug 13, 8:43am  

Bellingham Bill says

I didn't have kids so I'll take double my water allotment from the state, thanks.

Since the most resource-conscious thing you can do in life is not have kids, you are entitled to that and more.

You should leave your refrigerator door open all year, and drive nothing with an engine smaller than 5 liters. You earned it.

4   MisdemeanorRebel   2015 Aug 13, 8:47am  

Great, now if California added stingy crop sprayers, that would actually works towards the #1 source of water usage by far.

5   Entitlemented   2015 Aug 13, 9:00am  

Most of the rain falls at the foothills of the Sierras and LPNF.

Think we ought to build a new Reservior every year for the next 10 years?

Regards,

John

6   Bellingham Bill   2015 Aug 13, 1:15pm  

I guess I was unfair to parents, since as a society we do need ongoing generational replacement every 18 years.

We're not particularly under or overcrowded, so I guess 2.1 kids per couple should be the standard allotment with no brownie points for 0 kids.

I'll have to cutback in other areas to enjoy my 3.5gpm showers . . .

mebbe get a composting toilet. with negative air pressure models, you can't even smell it!

7   curious2   2015 Aug 13, 9:37pm  

Entitlemented says

Think we ought to build a new Reservior every year for the next 10 years?

The existing reservoirs have extra capacity and not enough water. What would we fill new reservoirs with? The suggestion to build more reservoirs sounds like somebody whose checking account is overdrawn deciding to solve the problem by ordering more checks.

8   zzyzzx   2015 Aug 14, 7:44am  

curious2 says

The existing reservoirs have extra capacity and not enough water. What would we fill new reservoirs with? The suggestion to build more reservoirs sounds like somebody whose checking account is overdrawn deciding to solve the problem by ordering more checks.

Ummm....when the rain cycle returns if you have extra storage capacity you can have more water during your next drought cycle. Kind of like having a bigger battery in your phone...

9   RWSGFY   2015 Aug 14, 8:47am  

curious2 says

The existing reservoirs have extra capacity and not enough water. What would we fill new reservoirs with? The suggestion to build more reservoirs sounds like somebody whose checking account is overdrawn deciding to solve the problem by ordering more checks.

The water authorities are saying that if "Godzilla El-Nino" indeed brings heavy rainfall this winter they will have to drain excess water into the ocean. Extra capacity would've come handy if we had it.

10   RWSGFY   2015 Aug 14, 10:14am  

Call it Crazy says

If the rain cycle had been there over a bunch of PAST years, those reservoirs wouldn't look like they do now...

The mistake is to think about rain cycle as one-year long. Apparently, it's much longer.

11   RWSGFY   2015 Aug 14, 10:20am  

Call it Crazy says

Straw Man says

The water authorities are saying that if "Godzilla El-Nino" indeed brings heavy rainfall this winter

That's a BIG "if"...

At this point this "if" is not really big. For Southern California that is. Unfortunately, most of reservoirs are in the North.

12   zzyzzx   2015 Aug 14, 10:44am  

Call it Crazy says

Tell you what, we've had tons of rain over here

Same here too. It's as if the rain that normally would fall on CA has been falling on other parts of the country.

13   curious2   2015 Aug 14, 12:21pm  

zzyzzx says

when the rain cycle returns if you have extra storage capacity you can have more water during your next drought cycle. Kind of like having a bigger battery in your phone...

That's a good point in general, but California would need decades of rain to replenish what has already been depleted. In addition to the reservoirs, even the aquifer is being exhausted and might collapse. There are whole other stories about water stored in the ground, water rights traded as "paper water," etc. The bottom line though is California needs to improve efficiency and/or increase supply, including via solar desalination.

14   curious2   2016 Mar 15, 4:23pm  

Straw Man says

curious2 says

The existing reservoirs have extra capacity and not enough water. What would we fill new reservoirs with? The suggestion to build more reservoirs sounds like somebody whose checking account is overdrawn deciding to solve the problem by ordering more checks.

The water authorities are saying that if "Godzilla El-Nino" indeed brings heavy rainfall this winter they will have to drain excess water into the ocean. Extra capacity would've come handy if we had it.

Events have now happened as you predicted:

"Sacramento-area residents – typically among the state’s heaviest water users – have faced some of the stiffest cutbacks under the mandates. Most water agencies in the region are under orders to cut usage 25 to 33 percent over 2013.

Area water officials have been saying for weeks that the state should ease those restrictions given that recent storms have filled Folsom Lake – a primary source of the region’s water – to the point that dam managers had to make releases to ward against floods."

These reports reminded me of this thread, so I went back and Liked your comment, and several others.

Entitlemented says

Think we ought to build a new Reservior every year for the next 10 years?

Yes. When you first posted your comment, I failed to see the need, because the existing reservoirs were empty and I had overestimated existing reservoir capacity. I haven't seen exact capacity numbers, but recently reported graphs and percentages suggest the existing reservoirs add up to only around one year of average rain and use.

"Rain fills reservoirs, but California still suffers drought’s effects

"Northern California reservoirs inch toward capacity"

Straw Man says

Call it Crazy says

If the rain cycle had been there over a bunch of PAST years, those reservoirs wouldn't look like they do now...

The mistake is to think about rain cycle as one-year long. Apparently, it's much longer.

Yes. The state should have sufficient reservoirs to store several years of rain and use. I thought that was already true, but I see now it isn't. I count this lesson among the many I've learned from PatNet.

zzyzzx says

Ummm....when the rain cycle returns if you have extra storage capacity you can have more water during your next drought cycle. Kind of like having a bigger battery in your phone...

Thanks, you are right. Mea culpa. I apologize for overestimating the state's current reservoir capacity. I've gone back and Liked your comment and others that I should have Liked when they were first posted.

Bellingham Bill says

I'll have to cutback in other areas to enjoy my 3.5gpm showers . . .

Most of California's developed water goes to animal agriculture, while only 20% goes to households. A single burger requires more water than a month of showers. Becoming a vegetarian would thus reduce your total H2O consumption by more than half. Also, a horizontal axis washing machine can reduce your household H2O consumption by more than half compared to vertical axis. Also, shower runoff is grey water, which you can use to water your garden. Enjoy your showers.

The state should still improve the efficiency of agricultural use, including solar desalination, and tax extraction from the aquifer, which might never recover from recent depletion. Also, some local building codes should divert shower runoff and other grey water to lawns, instead of the sewer system. These measures would complement increasing reservoir capacity, and make much more sense than limiting people's showers.

15   Tenpoundbass   2016 Mar 15, 4:29pm  

The rich have roman walking showers with 10 independent pinpoint massage shower heads.

By rich I mean those who can afford a progressive zipcode.

16   Heraclitusstudent   2016 Mar 15, 4:36pm  

tvgnus says

California to require stingier showerheads

I'd have to switch to baths.

17   NDrLoR   2016 Mar 15, 6:47pm  

This was what the Wall Street Journal was talking about today that Hillary is one who loves regulatory authority instead of getting laws passed by Congress:

https://cei.org/10KC

18   Bellingham Bill   2016 Mar 15, 7:16pm  

curious2 says

A single burger requires more water than a month of showers.

wow so getting a single instead of a double-double means I can take showers again???

19   Strategist   2016 Mar 15, 7:24pm  

curious2 says

Most of California's developed water goes to animal agriculture, while only 20% goes to households. A single burger requires more water than a month of showers. Becoming a vegetarian would thus reduce your total H2O consumption by more than half.

Don't blame me.
90% of what we eat is now plant based.
I drive electric cars.
Solar power is coming to my new home.
We recycle.
We conserve water.

20   Tenpoundbass   2016 Mar 15, 7:24pm  

And we're to believe they just unsaramoiously toss the rest of the cow away, and wrap up 1/3lb hambruger.
You're throwing out the cow with bath water there.

21   curious2   2016 Apr 21, 12:44am  

Reservoir update: Calaveras Dam project should restore enough capacity for 300k people by 2020, with option to add capacity for 1.5 million more people in future

"In a significant step for the largest reservoir project in the Bay Area in 20 years, workers have finished building the spillway -- a massive concrete channel as wide as eight lanes of freeway and a quarter mile long -- at Calaveras Dam near the Alameda-Santa Clara county line.

The $810 million project to replace the old dam with a new, more earthquake-proof version has been beset by delays and cost overruns, due to the discovery of ancient landslides and other difficulties in the years since work began in 2011 that have made the project more complicated.
***
Because of the threat, the state ordered the reservoir drained to no more than 40 percent of capacity, losing enough water storage for 300,000 people a year.
***
The dam's clay core will allow it to be built higher one day so that the current reservoir, at 96,000 acre feet, could hold four times as much water.
***
The project's finish line has moved several times. In 2009, the project was expected to cost $409 million and be completed in 2015. Now the cost is $810 million, with a completion date of 2019.
***
The project is the last big part of a 15-year, $4.8 billion effort to bring the Hetch Hetchy System in the Bay Area up to modern seismic standards. The work included building a massive water tunnel under the bay and upgrading water treatment plants and pipes."

22   Dan8267   2016 Apr 21, 9:58am  

tvgnus says

California to require stingier showerheads

Because that's what California needs, smellier hippies.

23   Ceffer   2016 Apr 21, 11:36am  

This is a covert effort to make everybody go vegan, because a single, meaty, non-vegan dump with the newest low flushers will plug up the toilets.

Next, they will have cams on the shower heads. As soon as you have swiped your pits and ass with a little soap and rinse, they shut down for two hours.

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