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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” Lance Hilpert says:January 12, 2014 at 5:15 am
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 ”
A lot of it comes down to bowl and escape path design. I know what Lance means. I got a new toilet for $100 and with the proper bowl design it works great. A lot of the old bowl designs don’t work on low flush. Mr Watts got lucky and Mr Hilpert didn’t it sounds like.
Water policy is badly mismanaged by the California and Federal governments, which shouldn’t be a surprise to WUWT readers. The Independent Institutes book Aquanomics discusses key issues in water economics http://www.independent.org/store/book.asp?id=96 . Cato Inst. and other studies note the distortions caused by vague and non-transferable water useage rights in California, from growing rice in the desert outside Sacramento to sending 50 billion gallons of water a year off to China as alfalfa to feed their cows. California and other homeschool debate students have marine natural resource policies as their national debate topic this year and I’ve been posting here:
http://astoundingideasmarineresources.blogspot.com/2013/09/water-for-what-california-oysters-or.html
Ocean policy will be the national topic for public school debaters next school year.
In the Mid west US, water is used, and reused. Sioux Falls takes wter from the Big Sioux River, uses it, cleans it, and puts it back. The Big Sioux joins the Missouri River, Sioux City takes water from the River, uses it, cleans it, and puts it back. The same for Omaha, Memphis, and many other cities before the water reaches the Gulf.
On the Coasts, San Francisco takes water from the moountains, uses it once, sorta treats it and puts it in the ocean. Similar with Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and many other coastal cities. If those coastal cities want to economise on water, start using the water more than once.
Although toilets are the largest residential use of water, low flush devices will be of little effect. Until the coasts start using water more than just once, there will be a water shortage on the coasts. Until then, keep those low use devices to yourselves. THe central states don’t need the added problems.
Yabbut, sewers require a certain flow volume to move the sewage. Some cities in Germany have to direct huge flows of fresh water to try and combat backups caused by trickle-flow toilets. Does no good on the small feeder pipes, of course, so they back up and stink The higher status the neighbourhood, the more likely the shortage of flush-flow. Ironic.
Gunga Din says:
January 12, 2014 at 2:05 pm
David, UK says:
January 12, 2014 at 1:33 pm
I keep my water bills low by pissing in the sink and running the tap a bit after. Probably use about a pint of water per piss (1 pt/ps).
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Yes, I know it all goes to the same place, but where do you brush your teeth? 😎
Err… the bathroom. What’s your point?
Does #2 automatically flush twice? Ever since we started to “save” water with low flow toilets I’ve needed that feature.
David Little sort-of admits he was wrong, offering more excuses than I have heard from any student about why the lab report stinks or the homework isn’t done.
Gregory Rehmke says:
Greg,
You need to do a little fact checking on your 50 Billion gallons of water to China as alfalfa hay. Your number of 50 billion gallons would weigh in at 400 billion pounds of water at 8 pounds to the gallon. Since alfalfa will self combust at anything over about 22% moisture, I will use 20% and call it 1 trillion pounds of hay to hold that 400 billion pounds of water. Divide by 2,000 to get to tons of hay and you end up with 500 million tons of hay to hold that 50 billion gallons of water. Bogus info from somewhere…The USDA website says that the US only produced 52 billion tons of alfalfa in 2012 (Last year with production figures). Your figures leave no alfalfa for all of the dairy, beef and horse operation in the whole US, and none for the past nine years to boot. Not buying that one. Must have dropped a zero or two somewhere.
pbh
A zero here a zero there and pretty soon we’re talking about lots of real water…
I am guessing that most of the water evaporates, but the 50bil. is expended for the exported alfalfa. Here is the quote and link to WSJ oped: “In 2012, the drought-stricken Western United States will ship more than 50 billion gallons of water to China. This water will leave the country embedded in alfalfa—most of it grown in California—and is destined to feed Chinese cows. The strange situation illustrates what is wrong about how we think, or rather don’t think, about water policy in the U.S.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444517304577653432417208116?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10000872396390444517304577653432417208116.html
Coincidentally, I just learned that the old toilet system does have two flush capacity. That is, you can flush and use one gallon, or two gallons, depending on how long you hold down the lever.
The way I discovered this is by turning off the water to the toilet. I was experimenting with a grey water system to re-use bath water. It is not inconvenient or difficult at all. My kids were ribbing me, and asking me why I was doing it. It only saves about seven gallons a day. (Maybe I am remembering my mother hauling water for our cabin when I was very little, I don’t know!) But the grey water system works for one of our three bathrooms. I just like using the water twice. It smells like kiwi-watermelon soap too. (:
I think it would not be an advantage to have a toilet that cannot be used if the water is turned off, just in case of water outage or natural disaster. So make sure you can still use your toilet by hand.
Actual early seventies sign scratched on wall in Yosemite National Park bathroom: “Flush twice, L.A. needs water.”
Speaking of people having their water shut off:
“Last week’s major chemical spill into West Virginia’s Elk River, which cut off water to more than 300,000 people, came in a state with a long and troubled history of regulating the coal and chemical companies that form the heart of its economy.”
Does anyone know if the chemical spill was the result of some environmental mandate to process coal a certain way in the first place? That was my question.
The other unintended consequence of low flow toilets is at the waste water treatment plants.
It seems that they were designed for a certain through put and highly concentrated waste at a lower flow rates affects the performance of the plants..
Chris4692 on January 12, 2014 at 10:03 pm
In the Mid west US, water is used, and reused. Sioux Falls takes wter from the Big Sioux River, uses it, cleans it, and puts it back. The Big Sioux joins the Missouri River, Sioux City takes water from the River, uses it, cleans it, and puts it back. The same for Omaha, Memphis, and many other cities before the water reaches the Gulf.
There’s an urban legend in London that a glass of the city’s tap water has been on average through seven people’s guts.
There is another one that says in London you are never more than one yard (meter) away from a rat. I don’t know if either legend is true.
The next time we retrofit our 1956 model we will be doing this. As you note the next bad drought will be painful. We were blessed during the 80s and 90s, now, not so much. Gonna be mainly dry during this Negative PDO.
If you want to reduce water use but don’t want to go the whole hog of dual flush, just put a brick in the Cistern. It reduces water use by about 2 litres per flush but that isn’t enough to effect the flush.
phlogiston says:
January 13, 2014 at 1:55 pm
Chris4692 on January 12, 2014 at 10:03 pm
In the Mid west US, water is used, and reused. Sioux Falls takes wter from the Big Sioux River, uses it, cleans it, and puts it back. The Big Sioux joins the Missouri River, Sioux City takes water from the River, uses it, cleans it, and puts it back. The same for Omaha, Memphis, and many other cities before the water reaches the Gulf.
There’s an urban legend in London that a glass of the city’s tap water has been on average through seven people’s guts.
There is another one that says in London you are never more than one yard (meter) away from a rat. I don’t know if either legend is true.
So Chris4692 – Since Saint Louis gets there water from the Mississippi, is that why Budweiser taste so bad…
Nothing like going to Loveland Pass and adding to Clear Creek – which Coors uses….
“Richard111 says:
January 12, 2014 at 5:59 am”
I understand that in some local authorities in Australia collected rain water is metered and factored into water usage bills (At the waste end I think). But here in Sysney so much water is wasted due to leaks in the system, and the water companies will not do a thing about it. So much rain, in fact twice as much as London, falls on Sydney which most of it simply flows out to sea. Warragamba dam overflowed last year when Tim Flannery said all our dams would be empty. In fact, there was talk of extending the capacity of the dam.
I have heard that “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If’s it’s brown, flush it down” before.
In London, most of the water comes from ground water and is very “hard” simply because it’s been filtered through chalk. Not sure if it’s been though other people several times, but I heard that urban legend too.
We have low-flo loos here in Australia, with the flappy rubber valves. They fail all too easily. We also have the waterless urinals in many commercial buildings which are bloody awful!
Dear Anthony, on a serious note, most public toilets in Sydney do not have any soap for washing hands. That’s right, you read that correctly. Australia is considered a first world country, but they actually do not provide any soap in the public toilets.
Considering that Polio is spread mainly via Fecal-Oral transmission and considering that Australians make a very large fuss about Polio Vaccinations, you might have thought that they would splash out on some soap in public toilets which would help prevent the spread of any outbreak of Polio. But they do not.
It is scandalous and extremely disgusting to know that there are many people walking around Sydney who may have had a “number two” only to find that there is no soap provided for them to wash their hands!! IT IS DISGUSTING!!! They then go on and touch railings, handles, door knobs etc… which somebody else may then touch, who may then touch food or otherwise place their fingers in their mouths. I.e. Fecal-Oral transmission is enabled by the stupid policy of not providing soap in the public toilets in Sydney. I do not know about the rest of Australia, Sydney was the only place I visited this year.
Since i’m in California I’m not going to install a low flush toilet, yet. During the last drought water was rationed based upon historical usage.
There is no GLOBAL shortage of fresh water. Any claims that the earth is somehow running low on fresh water are bunk. The earth is constantly distilling water in huge amounts.
Now, this truthful statement doesn’t preclude the facts that: (1) certain local and regional areas can experience water shortages; (2) the water supply in certain areas might not be sufficient for handling continued population growth; and (3) the populations of certain areas are depleting their fresh water stores faster than such stores are replenishing.
Any area that experiences seasonal or cyclical drought is an example of (1). Phoenix is an example of (2). Mexico City, with it’s ever depleting aquifer, is an example of (3). The increasing examples of 1 and 2 are more attributable to population growth than changing climate.
Unfortunately, far too many environmentalists will attempt to claim GLOBAL shortages based on anecdotes of 1, 2, and 3.