• First of all, repair any and all visible leaks right away. Even the smallest leak point can result in large amounts of water leaving a pool… and depending upon the location of the leak that runaway water could potentially erode the ground under your pool causing all sorts of other problems.
• Should your pool pump’s operating pressure rise by about 10 psi (pounds per square inch), clean the filters elements (fingers, cartridges, etc.) or backwash the system. Take care NOT to allow wash water or backwash water to run into a storm water drain, stream or other natural body of water.
• Warmer water will evaporate faster than cooler water so keeping your pool water temperature around 78 degrees Fahrenheit will make it pleasant to cool off in and less likely to evaporate.
• Increased wind over a pool’s surface also increases the evaporation rate so if possible, plant trees and shrubs around the pool to protect it from blowing winds. Just make certain not to plant anything that drops leaves, berries or other things that would wind up in the pool.
• Use of a solar cover to insulate the water in the evenings will help to reduce evaporation. Worried that you can’t get the cover on and off? Solar cover reels install easily on most pools and make moving solar covers easy enough for one person to do the job.
• This last one takes the heart of a lion, we admit: Discourage excess splashing of water out of the pool… if possible. Kids WILL be kids and cannonballs ARE fun (even for us adults!) but if conserving water is the goal, cutting back on the cannonballs will have to happen. 🙂

In short, swimming pools offer a wealth of fun in the sun (and after dark if the temperature stays right!) and keeping them running right and doing our best to reduce water loss comes as part of the package. Another part of the package involves safe, responsible use and disposal of the chemicals used to keep pools operating safely and cleanly. Have FUN in the pool, definitely, but try to keep the water and chemicals where they belong: In the pool.

Every swimming pool situation has its own unique twists, but the California Urban Water Conservation Council put together a list of water saving strategies that pretty much every pool owner should keep in mind:

• Use some sort of pool cover to slow down the evaporation rate — especially in the evenings when the air temperature can drop far below the water’s temperature — and potentially drop your water loss due to evaporation by as much as 30 percent.
   
• Fix and and ALL leaks in the pool as well as in its accompanying filter system. Small drops lost here and there can add up to large losses over time.
   
• OK, so no one really likes jumping into a frigid swimming pool (except those weird polar bear club members…), but keeping the water temperature from rising too high helps to reduce the evaporation rate since cooler water evaporates at a slower rate.
   
• Swimming pool fountains look beautiful and for those with waterfall features, well, those are even MORE beautiful (in our humble opinion)… but with the added beauty comes increased evaporation since aeration causes increased evaporation.
   
• No one we know has ever REALLY wanted to clean their swimming pool filters by hand, yes we know, but did you know that the average swimming pool backwash cycle can use hundreds of gallons and possibly a whole lot more depending on the size of the pool? Manually cleaning pool filter elements uses far less water.

Though located out in California and intending for their advice to reach local residents, the San Diego County Water Authority offers a number of resources that we feel could apply to residents from other areas, as well, on the following web site: www.WaterSmartSD.org.

Millions of gallons of perfectly good, clean water winds up getting sent into waste water treatment plants unnecessarily because of leaky faucets, dripping spigots, running toilets, and old, worn out seals and gaskets.

One thing a lot of people forget: Once we run out of fresh, unused water, we will have no choice but to seriously consider turning to greywater as a source of drinking water.

For those not aware of what the term greywater means, quite simply greywater contains the water coming from common, everyday activities such as doing laundry, washing dishes (by hand) and bathing. Mmmm… Sounds appealing, right?

Yuck, and worse, yet, once we run out of greywater we will have to turn to… using recycled blackwater as a source of drinking water.

That REALLY does not sound all that appealing to us. How does it sound to you?

In Florida some officials in areas potentially facing a water shortage have decided to alert the public to the amount of rainfall in the region recently and the importance of making sure no one wastes water through leaky or malfunctioning sprinklers, pipes or other irrigation devices.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board voted today to declare a Phase I water shortage for the district’s entire 16-county area, including Manatee County beginning Dec. 1.

The Phase I alert is intended to raise the public’s awareness of dry conditions, and to direct water utilities and their local governments to prepare for worsening conditions. Under Phase I, residents are asked to check their irrigation systems to ensure they are working properly. This means testing and repairing broken pipes and leaks, and damaged or tilted sprinkler heads. Residents should also check their irrigation timer to ensure the settings are correct and the rain sensor is working properly in accordance with state law. ( source )

So… Why did we bother posting this article? We want more people to start focusing on keeping track of the amount of water they may waste on a daily basis.

This may sound a bit backwards coming from us since this site advocates more testing and turning to greywater and/or blackwater would mean a definite need for more testing, but come on… do you think WE want to drink or bathe in greywater or blackwater if we can help it?

As we said before, “Yuck.”

Therefore, if you take ANYthing away from this article, please remember to check your faucets, lawn sprinkler systems, outside spigots, etc.

Water preservation helps all of us… and for those not concerned with the greater good, conserving water will reduce your monthly water bills. Who doesn’t like to save money?