Last Thursday in my local newspaper The Chico Enterprise-Record there was an editorial about saving water through bureaucracy: Editorial: Toilet police don’t want job. It was was of those “only in California” type things about a new law with good intentions, but eye rolling implementation that only policy wonks could dream up.
I agreed with the complaint about bureaucracy part, but the editorial came off as saying water use and water conservation wasn’t all that important an issue, and that gave me cause to introduce the PDO to local readers as well as something I learned about toilets in Australia when I visited there, adopting for my home and office, and wrote about in A green product worth recommending. Here’s my letter to the editor, where I crammed as much into the 250 word limit as I could, and following that, the reaction from the editor.
Chico Enterprise-Record Posted: 01/11/2014 09:52:52 PM PST
I read your Thursday editorial on the “toilet police” with amusement, but also with concern. Saving water is an important issue, especially since the Pacific Decadal Oscillation flipped to cool phase in 2008. We are now seeing effects manifested as cooler, drier, winters, with little rainfall; yes, drought.
Visiting Australia in 2010 (where low rainfall is much like California), I noticed that all toilets were “dual flush” with two buttons; number 1 and number 2. Number 1 uses 50 percent less. Seeing drought coming here, I’ve since retrofitted my home and office toilets to dual flush. It’s easy to do, and under $25 at any home improvement store.
The value to dual flush toilets is not only saving water, but also saving on your water bill. Since California Water Service Company seems hell bent on raising rates to cover pensions (because we’ve used less water, providing lower revenue), here’s your chance for payback by reducing water consumption even more.
Since California greens routinely challenge more reservoirs, and state government planned poorly to meet growth, this next drought will likely be harder than the big one in the 1970s, the last time the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was in cool phase for an extended period. In 1977, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation switched to a warm phase, and the drought eased, but 1985 to 1991 saw another drought.
Here’s your chance to get ahead of the bureaucrats before the “toilet police” come knocking. Meanwhile, pray for El Niño in fall 2014.
— Anthony Watts, Chico
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Here’s the reaction from the editor – he made it his Sunday column.
David Little: Save water without toilet cops
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For those of you that want a dual flush toilet retrofit, here is what they look like.
The kit is pretty simple, and assembles without any need for tools. Pictorial instructions in English and Spanish are provided.
Price? Less than $20, and at that price it will pay for itself in a few months, depending on usage. This system is guaranteed for five years, so I’m pretty sure I’ll not only get my investment back, but a significant return on it. Plus, my kids like it and they were fascinated watching dad replace this thing and now having a pushbutton 1/2 instead of a handle.
Want one? Available here at Amazon Get it, highly recommended.
Update: For those that like the traditional handle rather than the button, see this model.
And finally here’s everything you ever wanted to know about the Pacific Decadal Oscillation: http://wattsupwiththat.com/tag/pacific-decadal-oscillation/
And the WUWT reference page for that and other oceanic oscillations:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/ocean-pages/oceanic-oscillation/
Hopefully, per this ensemble NINO 3.4 SST Anomalies Forecast, we will be out of La Niña soon:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Climate Prediction Center – Click the pic to view at sourceDiscover more from Watts Up With That?
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I had a new ADA toilet installed last year & it had the dual flush already installed Anthony. Lift up the handle for 1 & push down for 2. Great idea & it still works great. By the way it’s a Jacuzzi brand toilet.
It is amazing how the ecoloons’ militancy against building new dams has spread throughout the western world. The idea is that this is supposed to conserve water – as with most ecoloon arguments I could never figure out the logic: if the water is not saved in the dam, it will flow out into the ocean – so how is that conserving anything?
In the southern UK, the building of five major dams was announced a few years ago to ensure the adequacy of future water supplies during drought periods, and then along came the ecoloons and so, no dams. Lots of rain there over the past two years, so no problem until at least the summer of 2015.
The ten day forecast for Chico shows no rain, the 25 day forecast shows rain on the 29th of this month and on the second and third of February. However, that far forward is just a wild guess, like most official climate predictions.
Have a happy drought in California, doubtless climate change/global warming/whatever will be the cause most quoted by 97% of ‘climate scientists’.
In Ireland we have had these for 2/3 years as standard. Good idea!
I am somewhat bemused that you don’t have these already as standard. In the UK I remember seeing my first one over 20 years ago. As more people have installed water meters the savings of the dual flush system become obvious;
Mind you it would be a useful step forward if ‘grey’ water could be used for toilet flushing. UK water is cleaned to a very high standard and it seems a shame to flush it down the toilet
tonyb
I have e-mailed this post to my technical friends and will do a blog post on it.
I recently had to replace the toilet – the tank on the back broke and would no longer hold water.
Since the old versions are no longer available, I tried one of the new low flush versions. It uses much higher velocity to empty the bowl. So much higher that it sucks water out of the other toilet on the same floor. Apparently, the internal (in the floor) plumbing in new homes uses different connections to prevent this. But older homes that uses the old fixtures have this problem with the new toilets.
I am sure that this is just another government “unintended consequence”, but government regulations should not require you rip up the floor and have new plumbing installed if you just need a new toilet!!!
Anthony, I live in the Northeast, I can’t imagine living in a state where the legislators are loons, taxes are high, red tape abounds, regulations are Byzantine, and there are droughts, floods, earthquakes, mudslides, and fires. More power to you for living there but why not try one of the nearby states? I mean for crying out loud, Jerry Brown got elected governor, again!
These fittings have been standard in UK for some time now. One word of caution though, the old style ballcock and siphon cistern when it got old would start to overflow and would thus show it needed a new washer fitting. These new fangled gizmos, when they fail, let a steady stream of water flow into the pan. This can easily go unnoticed and result in the loss of a lot of water until you notice it in higher water bills.
David Little wrote …
When your words are immortalized by a printing press, I must admit that many times I wish I had a do-over.
He could start by cutting his latest by about 2/3s. Diarrhea of the keyboard.
Curious, why is my last comment in moderation? Thanks,
Never mind, I see it.
Like many technologies, this one was introduced before it was ready. Too many low-flush toilets failed to work with high-flush colons.
well as an Aussie I can tell you most public toilets that DID install them have disabled the one flush, and now just use the one larger volume of water
why?
because it wasnt enough water to FLUSH the dam paper.!
thats multiple brands in multiple public toilets I ve used all over the state, in the last couple of years. and we really DO know about drought:-)
for home users its just far easier to not flush for urine for 3 or 4 uses.
if you cant tolerate the smell or are overly fastidious..too bad.
easy enough to get the washing machine water into buckets and use over 2 or 3 days as required anyway.
what clothes wash water you dont save to buckets should be going onto the garden anyway,
so should shower water, if you have any above ground connector you can divert to yard use.
bugger the council etc you just do it n dont tell anyone
Be sure and read ALL the one star reviews on this turkey of a flush controller before buying it.
Burned in AZ
REPLY: Not sure why that would be. Mine work great. – Anthony
“it is amazing how the ecoloons’ militancy against building new dams has spread throughout the western world. The idea is that this is supposed to conserve water – as with most ecoloon arguments I could never figure out the logic: if the water is not saved in the dam, it will flow out into the ocean – so how is that conserving anything?”
If there’s no water you can’t use it, therefore, rationing , therefore it is “conserved”. You aren’t supposed to point out that any civilised area with a coast line has no excuse to lack cheap, plentiful water. God, let the proles lose faith in “water poverty” and there’d be no end to the green bullsh1t they’d stop believing in….
Dual flush here in Oz for last 20+ years. Ours isn’t as sophisticated as the one illustrated above, and probably not as robust. My sons managed to break ours on a regular basis, now moved on to breaking their own. Then the flush has to be operated by pulling the lid off, or the whole thing starts to leak and gets turned off at the wall. End result is the same – improved water conservation.
The blog post: http://classicalvalues.com/2014/01/low-flush-toilet-retrofit/
Funny, a recent article on here said that there’s plenty of water and that it’s all just a UN scare tactic to control population (or something).
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/01/water-is-replacing-climate-as-the-next-un-environmental-resource-scare/
That ensemble NINO 3.4 SST Anomalies Forecast has been calling for an El Nino for the last year or so. The metrics it uses do not seem to be able to cope with the large cold pools that have developed in the mid-Pacific. I expect that when the PDO reverts back to warm the ensemble NINO 3.4 SST Anomalies Forecast may start to work as intended.
Here in South Africa we also have droughts . Dual flush is about 10 years old , but older flush systems used a float to hold the flush valve open . About 20 years ago , I simply punctured the float , so now you hold down the lever as long as you wish to flush . Releasing the lever stops the flushing , short or long as necessary , and costs zero .
At its heart, this is a story about water shortages and government failure. Readers might appreciate this from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal …
To this day, the Hetch Hetchy System is a headache for the city. In 2002, after the system’s maintenance had been largely neglected for six decades, San Franciscans were pressed by the city to authorize $3.6 billion in bonds for repairs and modernization. That debt rose quickly to $4.3 billion.
The environmental fight also goes on. In the 1980s, encouraged by federal studies, President Reagan’s Interior Secretary, Donald Hodel, wrote: “Maybe, with imagination, good will, and perseverance, we will be able to reclaim the national park land under the water of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.” As if channeling James Phelan, then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein objected, proclaiming Hetch Hetchy to be San Francisco’s “birthright.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304020704579278122571412150?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304020704579278122571412150.html
Time to go drop a deuce…..
I flush away to my heart’s content. I harvest rainwater from my roof. Lots of it around lately.
As a fat Aussie I usually have to use the big flush, regardless of the nature of my ablution – my wife complains if I don’t! 🙂
I am all in favor of not wasting resources and being efficient, but it is tricky with toilets and sewage systems. The pipes are all designed with a certain amount of flow in mind to make sure it all “flows”, and when you cut down on the water, you end up with blockages that can be VERY expensive to repair. And it is VERY expensive to change the plumbing to deal with lower flow rates. I have read of several European cities where the sewage people have to run a lot of water from fire-hydrants into the sewers on a regular basis to avoid blockages. They don’t save much water at all, when you consider the need for external flushing, and they just make people miserable with the imposition of lo-flush toilets that don’t work well.
Also, many water systems are loathe to spend money on infrastructure improvement/maintenance projects to deal with water loss from leaks, because of the high cost and disruption, so the loss of supply in older systems can be a significant factor driving water conservation efforts. I believe that these situations just put off the inevitable and fool people into thinking that they don’t have to do the hard work.