Category Archives: Drought & Conservation

Drought & Conservation, General

Save Money, Save Water

Fixing at home leaks can be quick, cheap, and easy.

Taking a few minutes to fix small leaks in your home can prevent costly water bills. Household leaks can waste almost one trillion gallons of water per year nationwide. Some common household leaks are dripping faucets, worn toilet flappers, leaking valves, and irrigation systems. You can fix many of these leaks without having to call a professional. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsors Fix a Leak Week annually to encourage leak detection and water conservation. Here are a few of the EPA’s leak repair tips:

Faucet Leaks

Your dripping faucet could be wasting more than 3,000 gallons of water per year. Check out this drip calculator from the AWWA to see how much water you could be wasting at home!

Once you know which part of your faucet is leaking (spout, base, etc.) you can purchase a single replacement piece or a faucet repair kit. Video tutorials like this one can take you from DIY to drip-stopping pro in under three minutes!

To ensure you purchase the right kit or replacement part, it’s best to research your current faucet or disassemble your faucet and take the pieces that need replacement with you. Once you have the necessary replacement parts, simply swap them out and test the faucet for leaks.

Toilet Leaks

A worn-out toilet flapper can silently waste thousands of gallons of water per year. Toilet leaks can be some of the sneakiest leaks in a home. Luckily, replacing a toilet flapper only takes a few minutes and the parts are inexpensive. The easiest way to figure out if your toilet is leaking is to perform a dye test.

Make sure to carefully examine your old flapper before tossing it to ensure you buy the correct replacement. This simple swap can prevent you from flushing hundreds of dollars down the drain.

Outdoor Leaks

In-ground irrigation systems, hose connections, and pools can also be sources of leaks that can skyrocket your water bill. It’s important to monitor your water bill when you water your lawn or during pool season to ensure you’re not missing a leak. Here are some outdoor leak detection tips:

  • Check your irrigation system for damage from freezing temps before you use it each spring.
  • Check your irrigation system for faulty sprinkler heads.
  • Check your hose connections regularly for pooling water or drips between uses.
  • Consult a professional if you suspect a pool leak.

If you need assistance fixing a leak, please contact a professional. If you receive a high bill and are unsure of what to do next, check out this video for next steps.

Charlotte Water can assist you with your outstanding balance from a high bill after your leak is repaired. To get help with your outstanding balance, please dial 311 or 704-336-7600.

Drought & Conservation, My Water

Outdoor Water Conservation: Smart Irrigation & Other Useful Tips

One sprinkler running for 10 minutes can use up to 170 gallons. Think about how many sprinkler heads you have, how long they run for and how many days/week they run? It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where you are using almost 40 ccfs (30,000 gallons) per month.

Our pricing structure is designed to encourage conservation. The more gallons you use the more a gallon costs.

Customers call requesting that we inspect the meter for inaccuracies but most of the time, it’s a leak or irrigation. That doesn’t mean that equipment problems don’t occur though so,  if you don’t think its a leak or your irrigation system causing the high bill, call 311 so Charlotte Water can investigate.

Smart Irrigation:

Smart irrigation technology uses weather data and soil moisture data to determine the irrigation needs of a landscape. These generally include the use of sensors and controllers to effectively manage your landscape irrigation.

You can incorporate smart irrigation technology with best practices below. However, you can always incorporate these ideas of efficient irrigation with a current system you already have.

  1. Seasons change, so should your system. Familiarize yourself with the settings on your irrigation controller and adjust the watering schedule regularly to conform with seasonal weather conditions.
  2. Evaporation is highest in the afternoon. Avoid irrigating between noon and 6 pm.
  3. Play “zone” defense. Schedule each individual zone in your irrigation system to account for the type of sprinkler, sun or shade exposure, and the soil type for the specific area. The same watering schedule rarely applies to all zones in the system. Make it a date.
  4. Inspect your irrigation system monthly. Check for leaks, broken or clogged heads, and other problems, or engage an irrigation professional to regularly check your system. Clean micro-irrigation filters as needed.
  5. Get your head adjusted. Correct obstructions in sprinkler heads that prevent sprinklers from distributing water evenly. Keep water off pavement and structures.

Other Outdoor Water Conservation Tips

  1. Water your lawn slowly. It is difficult to get water to soak into the soil in Charlotte. If you notice water running off the lawn or pooling, stop the sprinkler and give the soil time to absorb the water.
  2. Be mindful of how much water you are using for your lawn. Lawns only need one inch of water, including rain, a week.
  3. Consistently remove water-hogging weeds.
  4. Mulch to retain moisture. Mulch around trees, shrubs, and flowers to help the soil retain moisture and prevent weeds.
  5. Wash Fido outdoors in an area of lawn that needs to be watered. You’ll have a clean dog and a watered lawn. Be mindful of the dog shampoo you use, because the soap will soak into your lawn with the water.
  6. Plant more trees! And then more trees. Eventually you’ll have less lawn. Turfgrass is not native to Charlotte. Which means it needs water, usually more than provided by Mother Nature. Converting lawn to native trees and shrubs cuts back the need for outdoor watering substantially. And don’t forget the mulch!
  7. Leave lower branches on trees and shrubs and allow leaf litter to accumulate on the soil. This keeps the soil cooler and reduces evaporation.

Useful Links

Drought & Conservation, My Water

16 Ideas for Indoor Water Conservation

Since 2001, water consumption for an average family of four in Mecklenburg County has gone down from 11 Ccfs (8,228 gallons) per 30-day billing cycle to 7 Ccfs (5,236 gallons) per 30-day billing cycle. We attribute this to increased water conservation measures as well as the installation of more efficient appliances and irrigation systems.

So problem solved right? Well, not exactly. We can always do more and who doesn’t like a challenge? So besides the usual stuff like not running the tap while brushing your teeth or taking shorter showers, what other ways can we conserve water? If you can’t think of any, not to worry! We’ve got you covered with ideas for your bathroom and your kitchen.

Bathroom Conservation Ideas:

  1. Update your showerheads and faucets. Water-efficient showerheads and aerators for faucets can significantly reduce the amount of water you use. In fact, installing a water-efficient showerhead is one of the most effective water-saving steps you can take inside your house. Go to the EPA’s WaterSense website for more information. 
  2. Take shorter showers. If everyone in the United States shortened their shower by one minute every day, we could save 85 billion gallons per year.
  3. Place a bucket in the shower to collect the water while it is heating up. Use the water on plants or to refill a flushing toilet.
  4. Toilets are not trash cans, only flush the toilet when necessary. This helps conserve water and helps reduce sewer overflows. 
  5. Don’t leave the water running when brushing your teeth or shaving.
  6. Fix that leak! A faucet drip of two tablespoons a minute adds up to 105 gallons a week of water wasted. Question on fixing or checking for a leak? Check out our tips on fixing at-home leaks.

Kitchen Water Conservation Ideas

  1. Cook food in as little water as possible, this also helps retain foods nutrients.
  2. Run the dishwasher only when it is full and during off-peak hours for maximum savings.
  3. Dry scrape your dishes, the dishwasher will take care of the rest
  4. Use your disposal sparingly, it wastes water and puts stress on our sewer system
  5. Don’t forget an aerator for the kitchen faucet!

Laundry Water Conservation Ideas:

  1. Use the lowest water level setting on the washing machine for light or partial loads whenever possible.
  2. Use cold water as often as possible to save energy (which uses water) and conserve hot water for uses that cold water cannot serve.

General Home Ideas:

  1. Chuck the melted ice from your lunch to-go cup in a desk plant or house plant. [Not the soda, the melted ice. A little bit of sweet tea will be okay]
  2. Temporarily move houseplants outside in the rain. Water from the sky is free!
  3. Insulate hot water pipes to save energy and water. Remember water is an integral part of creating energy, and energy is necessary to treat drinking water. Conserving water conserves energy and vice versa. Check out our Energy and Water Nexus article for more information.

Have any other creative ways you conserve water? Let us know in the comments section and we will share them on Twitter.

Thanks to the Water Use It Wisely website for the tips.

Drought & Conservation, My Water

Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake: Source Water Protection

Charlotte Water provides an average of 117.54 million gallons a day to over 1.1 million people. Our drinking water sources are Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman, which are both parts of the Catawba-Wateree River Basin.

Taken by Cam Coley, employee City of Charlotte, Charlotte Water

Charlotte Water staff partner with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services to sample source waters Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake.  Multiple locations from both sources are monitored. Sample results and monitoring techniques can be found on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services website.

The Catawba-Wateree Water Management Group (CWWMG) which Charlotte Water is an active member of is a member organization for all large water users on the Catawba-Wateree River Basin.

CWWMG members meet regularly to formulate strategies and projects to help understand and address the Basin’s water challenges. This includes monitoring the river basin, assessing conservation locations for maximum benefit to the water supply, and working together to ensure that the region has a lasting and high-quality water supply for years to come. These recommendations are then implemented when feasible by water users and related partners across the region.

Visit the CWWMG website for project results.

The North Carolina Division of Water Resource, Public Water Supply Section is responsible for implementing the Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) for all public drinking water supplies in the state. A source water assessment is a qualitative evaluation of the potential of a drinking water source to become contaminated by the identified potential contaminant sources (PCS) within the delineated area. PCS includes permitted industries, urban stormwater runoff, and other non-point source contamination sources like agriculture and land clearing activities. (from ncwater.org)

Additional Partners and Organizations Working to Protect Local Source Waters are: