Water Conservation

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• Make sure your toilet is an ultra-low flush model, which uses only one and a half gallons per flush. 
• If you're taking a shower, don't waste cold water while waiting for hot water to reach the shower head. Catch that water in a container to use on your outside plants or to flush your toilet. Saves 200 to 300 gallons a month. 
• Check toilet for leaks. Put dye tablets or food coloring into the tank. If color appears in the bowl without flushing, there's a leak that should be repaired. Saves 400 gallons a month. 
• Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Saves three gallons each day. 
• Turn off the water while shaving. Fill the bottom of the sink with a few inches of water to rinse your razor. Saves three gallons each day.

• Replace your old washer. Energy star washing machines use about 40 percent less water than a regular washer. Bonus: because high-efficiency models spin faster, the clothes need less drying time. 
• Pick the appropriate water level setting—often small, medium, large—for the load if that’s how your machine works. Front-loaders and most he top-loaders have auto-load sensing, and a few of the latest agitator top-loaders have it, too. 
• That feature automatically determines the load size and the amount of water needed.  
• Measure laundry detergent and use he detergents for he top-loaders and front-loaders. Regular detergents are too sudsy, and using too much can cause high-efficiency washers to use more water by extending the rinse cycle.
• Do only full loads but don’t over stuff. Using cold water whenever possible helps save on energy costs.  
• Pick the right soil setting for the load. Choosing the heavy-duty setting can use more water and extend wash time. The normal setting works for most loads.

• If you wash dishes by hand—and that's the best way—don't leave the water running for rinsing. If you have two sinks, fill one with rinse water. If you only have one sink, use a spray device or short blasts instead of letting the water run. Saves 200 to 500 gallons a month. 
• When washing dishes by hand, use the least amount of detergent possible. This minimizes rinse water needed. Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month. 
• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. This beats the wasteful habit of running tap water to cool it for drinking. Saves 200 to 300 gallons a month. 
• Don't defrost frozen foods with running water. Either plan ahead by placing frozen items in the refrigerator overnight or defrost them in the microwave. Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month. 
• Don't let the faucet run while you clean vegetables. Rinse them in a filled sink or pan. Saves 150 to 250 gallons a month. 
• Use the garbage disposal less and the garbage more (even better—compost!). Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.​

• Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants. Chunks of bark, peat moss or gravel slows down evaporation. Saves 750 to 1,500 gallons a month. 
• If you have a pool, use a pool cover to cut down on evaporation. It will also keep your pool cleaner and reduce the need to add chemicals. Saves 1,000 gallons a month. 
• Water during the cool parts of the day. Early morning is better than dusk since it helps prevent the growth of fungus. Saves 300 gallons. 
• Don't water the lawn on windy days. There's too much evaporation. Can waste up to 300 gallons in one watering. 
• Cut down watering on cool and overcast days and don't water in the rain. Adjust or deactivate automatic sprinklers. Can save up to 300 gallons each time. 
• Set lawn mower blades one notch higher. Longer grass means less evaporation. Saves 500 to 1,500 gallons each month. 
• Have an evaporative air conditioner? Direct the water drain line to a flower bed, tree base, or lawn. 
• Drive your car onto a lawn to wash it. Rinse water can help water the grass. 
• Tell your children not to play with the garden hose. Saves 10 gallons a minute. 
• If you allow your children to play in the sprinklers, make sure it's only when you're watering the yard—-if it's not too cool at that time of day. 
• Xeriscape—replace your lawn and high-water-using trees and plants with less thirsty ones. But do this only in wet years. Even drought resistant plantings take extra water to get them going. That'll save 750 to 1,500 gallons a month. 
• When taking your car to a car wash, be sure it's one of the many that recycles its wash water. 
• Dispose of hazardous materials properly! One quart of oil can contaminate 250,000 gallons of water, effectively eliminating that much water from our water supply. Contact your city or county for proper waste disposal options. And don't flush prescription medication

Water is an essential ingredient in most manufacturing operations. Especially for those one billion of us in the high-consumption class, cutting down on our purchases of material things—from clothes and shoes to paper and appliances—conserves and protects water supplies as effectively as installing a low-flush toilet does. As with so many natural resources, as long as prices in the marketplace fail to reflect full social and ecological costs, voluntary changes in consumption patterns will play an important role in the quest for sustainability. 

• We rarely think about water when we see an automobile, for example, but producing a typical us car requires more than 50 times its weight in water (39,090 gallons)!   
• Choosing a fuel-efficient model will help—it takes 44 gallons of water to refine one gallon of crude oil and 1,700 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol.   
• A kilogram (2.2 lbs) of hamburger or steak produced by a typical California beef cattle operation, for instance, uses some 20,500 liters (5,400 gal.) Of water.  
• Producing one pound of bread requires 500 gallons of water. 
• Producing one serving (8 oz.) of chicken requires 330 gallons of water. 
• Growing one cotton t-shirt requires 256 gallons of water (Source: The King of California, by Arax and Wartzman). 
• Manufacture of one pair of organic cotton jeans takes 48 gallons (Source: Patagonia, 2011). 
• Producing one egg requires over 100 gallons of water. 
• Producing one serving (8 fl. Oz.) of milk requires 48 gallons of water.  
• Producing one serving (2 oz.) of pasta requires 36 gallons of water. Producing one serving (4.6 oz.) of oranges requires 14 gallons of water.  
• Producing one serving (4.3 oz.) of tomatoes requires 8 gallons of water.  
• Producing a typical American Thanksgiving dinner for six people requires over 30,000 gallons of water. 

(Information below from Last Oasis, by Sandra Postel, and California Water Facts, by the Water Education Foundation)