Water Conservation is for all of us

Now the National Weather Service has come out and said that over half of the country is in a drought I really think we all need to be thinking about water conservation, not only at the golf course but also in your personal life. How many times have you seen the following scenario: it rains over night and the next morning you driving to work and you see homes and businesses running their irrigation systems? It happens all of the time and it really bothers me that we can be so obtuse and ignore water conservation.

I am not saying that you can't operate your automatic sprinkler system at home. What I am saying is that you have to be aware of how you are running your system. I operate mine at home whenever the turf needs some water. I have a smart controller that measures several different climatic conditions and then applies the correct amount of water that the turf needs to survive. I trim around my sprinkler heads to make sure they operate correctly and I make sure they are adjusted correctly so they do not water the street. I also have a rain switch on my system that turns my system off it we do get some precipitation. Yes it costs me a little bit of money and time, but I know that my system is operating correctly when it does run and this does save some water.

Do you ever think about how much water you use in a day? Do you do your part to try and conserve a little bit of water? On average here is what people use to do the following:

Taking a bath - 40 gallons
5-minute shower - 10 gallons
5-minute power shower - 20 gallons
Brushing teeth with tap running - 2 gallons/min
Brushing teeth with tap off - .25 gallon
One toilet flush - 3 gallons
Other water use (drinking, cooking,etc.) - 7 gallons
Washing machine - 40 gallons
Dishwasher - 10 gallons
Washing car with bucket - 4 gallons
Hose/sprinkler - 140 gallons/hour

So lets look at just one little thing, turn off the water while you brush your teeth. If you brush your teeth 2 times a day you are saving 1,260 gallons of water per year. If all of the 1,500 members of DMGCC did that we would save 1,890,000 gallons per year! It can add up quickly if you try and do your part.

Water is a precious commodity and we all need to do our part to try and conserve it for the short term and to make sure we always have some. We can not survive without it. Water conservation is for all of us.