Save Water, Save Money
The average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water
and sewer bill. By making just a few simple changes to use water more efficiently,
you could save about $132 per year. If all U.S. households installed water-efficient
appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water
and more than $17 billion dollars per year! Also, when we use water more
efficiently, we reduce the need for costly water supply infrastructure
investments and new wastewater treatment facilities.
Save Water, Save Energy
It takes a considerable amount of energy to deliver and treat the water
you use everyday. American public water supply and treatment facilities
consume about 50 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—enough electricity
to power more than 4.5 million homes for an entire year. For example, letting
your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a
60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.
By reducing household water use you can not only help reduce the energy
required to supply and treat public water supplies but also can help address
climate change. In fact:
• If 1 out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient
fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year—avoiding
75,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That is equivalent to removing
nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year!
• If 1 percent of American homes replaced an older toilet with a high-efficiency toilet (HET), the country would save more than 38 million kWh of electricity—enough to supply more than 43,000 households electricity for one month.
Water Efficiency, Human Health and the Environment
Depleting reservoirs and groundwater aquifers can put water supplies,
human health, and the environment at serious risk. Lower water levels can
lead to higher concentrations of natural contaminants, such as radon and
arsenic, or human pollutants, such as agricultural and chemical wastes.
Using water more efficiently helps maintain supplies at safe levels, protecting
human health and the environment.