potrero view

April 2009

Potrero Hill Copes with Drought

By Mary Purpura and Silvano Purpura-Pontoniere

After three years of below-average rainfall, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently declared a statewide water crisis.  Despite much needed, late-winter rains, experts predict that this year’s all-important Sierra Nevada snowmelt will be roughly 57 percent of normal.  About two dozen water agencies in the state, including the East Bay Municipal Utility District, have already ordered water rationing to protect dwindling reservoirs.  The governor has called for urban water users to cut their H2O use by at least one-fifth.

On a recent Saturday, we spent a couple of hours standing at 17th and Rhode Island streets talking to 20 random passersby about whether news of the drought has impacted their water consumption habits.  More than half reported that they’d made no changes to their water use, and had no plans to do so.  Two interviewees said they’d been conscientious about how they use water all along; they planned to continue to conserve.

In response to our question about their water-consuming behavior, one interviewee in the “no change” group looked up at the dark sky threatening rain and asked, “What drought?”  

Those that were conserving were employing multiple tactics.  Oliver Fringer, a Missouri Street resident and environmental engineer, said his household has dramatically limited the amount of free water play he and his wife allow their young daughter, Avery. “Avery could entertain herself for hours with a faucet running water into the sink, and we’ve put a stop to that,” explained Fringer. Fringer and his family live in a condominium with a front lawn.  He’s trying to convince the building management to replace the lawn with succulents and gravel.  Fringer’s water-conservation instincts are good.  Experts estimate that watering lawns and gardens accounts for from one-third to one-half of all residential water use, totaling more than seven billion gallons daily nationwide.

Nash Anderson, who has lived in Bayview for about a year, has changed the way he washes dishes. “Now I close the sink drain and put in soapy water, instead of having the water running out of the faucet the whole time.”  According to the American Water Works Association Research Foundation, allowing water to run out of faucets – to cool it down, to heat it up, or while washing dishes or brushing teeth – wastes almost 11 gallons of water per person a day in the United States.  “The water we see go down the drain is clean water that we’re then mixing with dirty water so that we can run it through the treatment plant and dump it into the bay,” said Brian Liles, an architect and Potrero Hill resident. “And, of course, that water has to come from our depleted water supplies in the Sierras,” he added. Liles recently installed a hot water recirculation system, which pumps water that isn’t hot enough back into the cold water line, keeping it out of the sewer system and preserving it for use as cold water. Besides saving thousands of gallons of water each year, Liles’s system, which cost a few hundred dollars and took a couple of hours for him to install, provides nearly instantaneous hot water, eliminating time spent shivering naked in the shower stall, waiting for the water to heat up.  

“I’m very aware of the drought issue, but I do love long showers,” admitted Nina Thorsen, who has worked on Potrero Hill for 17 years.  Thorsen employs a manual system to make double use of her shower water.  She collects the water coming out of the faucet as it heats up and uses it to water plants or flush the toilet. She also keeps containers in the shower while she washes herself, and then re-uses that water – “It’s basically clean, with just a little soap or shampoo in it” – to wash her floors.  She pointed to a basic renters’ dilemma: “I live in an apartment, so I don’t have a whole lot of control over water used for landscaping purposes,” she said.  Thorsen’s former landlady required her to water the yard of her rental four times per week. “I printed out information and tried to educate her about drought-resistant plantings,” she explained, but her efforts were unsuccessful, and she eventually moved out. “I’ve suggested installing low-flow toilets and showerheads, but I’ve found that the people I’ve rented from aren’t really responsive to those ideas.”

“We don’t flush as often,” said Jon Gatto, who has lived on De Haro Street since 1996. “And our downstairs toilet runs until it gets punched; we’re planning to get that fixed.”  Replacing toilets is a significant water-saving measure:  toilets are the biggest indoor consumer of residential water, accounting for eighteen and a half gallons of water per person per day.

San Francisco Community Power, with funding from San Francisco Public Utility Commission, is offering low-income families and small businesses free installation of high efficiency toilets to replace pre-1992 models.  See www.sfpower.org for details.

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