Really stupid question about water

[On Our own]

I know we are all being encouraged to conserve water and I understand the whole planet concept of water conservation. But, locally we are above normal water and have been for some time.

And we have a well/septic system. Our well goes into an underground stream with a huge flow. This is per the well people and the people who tested our water.

If I am using water and draining through the septic, as long as I keep out anything toxic and keep my septic system healthy, am I returning it or do I need to really conserve??

I really don't mean to sound ignorant or stupid I get why we should conserve, but aren't we returning most of the water to the same place it came from??

 

[MorelCabin]

You have a good point...and ours comes from a lake...goes back out 200ft from the lake and makes it's way back down there eventually
Okay so SS people don't have to worry so much about conserving water...

 

[annmarie]

While it sounds like you may not need to worry about running out of water, we all have to be concerned about running out of clean, safe water. In your situation, the reason to conserve water would be to prevent returning large amounts of contaminated water (even if you use non-toxic products in your house and on your body, any used water contains bacteria so it's still contaminated). If you're dumping (or flushing, draining) a large quantity of water into your water table you're going to have a much harder time keeping your water supply clean and safe, versus only dumping small amounts of contaminated water into your water table. That's why even those of us with a good reliable quantity of water still should be mindful of our water usage. It's not so much that we have to worry about using it all up, but making sure it remains usable.

(And you don't sound ignorant or stupid at all!)

 

[Farmer Kitty]

There's also the fact that one day you may not have the rainfall to replace what is used and not returned or evaporated. As someone who has to play "the game" with my house well, believe me it's not a game you want to play.

 

[enjoy the ride]

Also being free with water might mean using lots of heated water too- cost to heat. Over irrigation causes nutirents to wash into where they shouldn't go from where you want them. Washin the car in the drive floods the area with the products used to clean it, using wassteful applicances uses more energy than needed, etc etc

I think the goal is not to waste water- like using a sprinkler long enough to have run off or simply forgetting the hose running or growing many ornamentals or lso much lawn.................

If I use just what I need to do what I need, then that's not wasteful at all.

Beside thinking of the people and animals down stream, who may not have enough if too much is used upstream (even underground streams, encouraging conservation means that someday you may not have to wonder who is using all the water upstream............

I think this was a good question too- made me think more.

 

[patandchickens]

locally we are above normal water and have been for some time.

And we have a well/septic system. Our well goes into an underground stream with a huge flow. This is per the well people and the people who tested our water.

If I am using water and draining through the septic, as long as I keep out anything toxic and keep my septic system healthy, am I returning it or do I need to really conserve??

Any aquifer that is safe/prudent to drink from takes a long (often LONG !) time to recharge from surface water... so you are not returning the water very directly at all. There is a time lag of years to centuries.

Also, just because there is plenty of clean wellwater available (don't confuse groundwater and aquifer water, btw) where you are and at this moment, doesn't mean it will always be that way in the future and everywhere in your area.

After all, look at most of the places that ARE having serious aquifer problems (either losing the aquifer or having it contaminated by pollution or saltwater)... most of THEM are places where in the past everyone figured there was plenty of capacity and why worry...

Finally, as ETR says, most of the ways that water can be wasted tend to involve contaminants of one sort or another getting washed into streams and oceans, to the complex detriment of all.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[FarmerChick]

water is a renewable source and it isn't.
I just saw a show about the Colorado River and it is 14 ft below what it should be and feeds many states and its people.

Weather is changing and not replenshing sources like before. Ice glaciers are disappearing etc. All goes to back to "where water comes from"

More people and animals means more usage that will not go back into the ground for later.

So at some point, if less rainfall happens, less reliable sources from glaciers etc. starting the water source on its way, etc. etc.....yea we sure could be caught short.

And without water, we are done for!

 

[Beekissed]

I read somewhere once that the earth has the exact same amount of water that it started out with, as it is still in our atmosphere in some form or another and cannot escape the earth's atmosphere. The article also said that, yes, we have the same amount of water as always, but less and less is potable, or clean enough to sustain aquatic life.

I don't worry about my water usage in the sense that I'm afraid that I am not returning what I am using back into the environment....I do, however, tend to conserve it in little ways "just because" and "what if". It was drilled into me as I was growing up with running water~and then, when we went off-grid and had to haul our water in buckets to the house from a spring or hand pump, I became very much aware of the value of water and how to skimp on its usage.

I think most SSers do what they can to eliminate toxic substances in our daily lives. My mother won't even put any TP in her septic system! She starts fires with it....I know that sounds gross, but its sort of like the composting toilets, in a way. It gets recycled for another use.

 

[Wifezilla]

We GAIN water on a regular basis....from SPACE.

Water, at least in the US is cleaner now than it has been in a long time. From the Industrial revolution until the 70's all kinds of waste and garbage was dumped in to rivers and streams. As a kid I lived near the Wisconsin River and it was a cess pool. By the time I was an adult, it was clean enough to eat fish out of.

 

[enjoy the ride]

Surface water has been improved in some places- aquifers and ground water have deteriorated.
Depending on the population, water wells around the country have to be deepened- lots of old source of ground water are not safe due to aricultural contamintion.
And- the last biggie - there are soooooo many more people after the same amount of potable water. And becasue they feel that they can turn on the tap and out it comes, they are unaware of how much scrambling there is in various parts of the country to keep those supplies coming.

We have one river here that was huge- now it meanders through the gravel bars as so much of that water has been taken by the people in Central California- they just cut it off up river and diverted it through a tunnel to the San Franciso area. Lost the fishery from there.