Posted on 10.14.21 by Harney SWCD

There isn’t as much water in the Great Basin as there used to be.  Here are some low tech ways all of us can conserve water the year round.

Make sure your toilet is functioning well.  Put a few drops of food coloring into the toilet tank.  If the color bleeds into the bowl without flushing, the toilet has a leak, which could be wasting up to 100 gallons of water per day.

Stop using your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket. The only thing a toilet should be used for is human waste and toilet paper.  Other types of paper, feminine products, wet wipes, or dental floss can clog a city sewer system, which is something The City of Burns experienced earlier this year.  One toilet flush can use five to seven gallons of water, so discard the cigarette butts or tissues another way.

An inexpensive way to use less water is to take a plastic liter bottle, weighed down with  sand or pebbles and put in the toilet tank, away from the operating mechanism.  If it’s a big tank, you might be able to install two bottles.  This could save five gallons of water per day that could fill the municipal swimming pool or watering your flowers next summer.