Penn & Teller BS, The Truth about Bottled Water. NSFW (Swearing)

Here’s an article about a greener way of staying hydrated in the Arizona desert.
A greener way to hydrate

Cafe Scientifique
Arizona’s Water Resources — How We Manage Water and Growth
Jim Holway
March 6, 2008
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm
Location: Connections Café, Tempe Public Library, Southwest corner of Rural and Southern), Tempe
Associate Director of Solutions, Global Institute of Sustainability; Professor of Practice, Civil and Environmental Engineering

http://sustainable.asu.edu/giosmain/events/index.htm

Who doesn’t love taking a dip!? Maybe you like to take a refreshing swim in the backyard or or perhaps a nice relaxing bath before bed. Ever wonder which uses more water a year? This is my totally unscientific battle of Bath VS Pool! In this battle we’ll figure out on average which of these uses the most amount of water a year here in the desert.

After poking around the internet very unscientifically I found that most sites say the average size bath is 40 - 60 gallons (1/2 filled) and that the average sized residential swimming pool holds around 20,000 gallons.

Lets assume the pool is already filled and not count the 20,000 gallons it took to fill it the first time. Being that it’s so hot and dry here a pool loses almost it’s entire volume of water a year to evaporation. Not looking good for Pool because that’s 20,000 gallons of water a year so far.

The battle isn’t over yet though because bath likes to slow down and unwind every night which means bath is using 50 gallons of water a night times 365 days a year equals a whopping 18250 gallons! Uh oh, all of a sudden it’s a tight contest.

I don’t know, do we have a winer here? Bath wins by a slight 1,750 gallons, but since this isn’t very precise.

Winner: Bath

Considering we should all bathe and having a pool is a luxury it was a unfair contest to start. I was curious how many gallons of water each might take a year, so I found out and thought I’d share. I’d probably say not having a pool would be best and instead head down to the local community or public pool. If you do have one installing a pool cover significantly reduces the amount of water that evaporates especially in the summer. You also don’t need to use as many chemicals if all your water isn’t evaporating.

As far as baths you can take fewer of them or substitute in a shower with a low flow shower head.

Here’s some water saving tips from the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

This house being built in Bellemont, AZ is one of only four Leed platinum certified homes in the U.S. It will produce more energy then it consumes and gets 100% of it’s water from rain and snow melt.

The heart of this is an automated system that controls conditions inside the home. It monitors indoor and outdoor temperature and opens or closes windows to keep the inside comfortable. It monitors humidity and keeps it at comfortable levels as well. It keeps track of power production and use from it’s solar panels and wind turbine and can give the homeowner a rundown of their energy usage.

This house also is not connected to any public water or sewer lines. All of it’s water is collected from rain and snow melt and can store up to 35,000 gallons of water which should be enough to keep the house going for 2 years. Gray water is used to water a on site apple orchid.

Check out the many other features this house has at the link below.
http://www.aeapower.com/green-architecture/leed-pilot-home/

Northern Arizona cities like Prescott, Payson, and Flagstaff could have little to no water left in 50 years.Unlike Phoenix, Northern Arizona only has one source for their water supply, an underground aquifer.

Due to rapid population growth, more wells are being drilled, all tapping into the same water supply.

Read story and see video at abc15.com.