More on Water

Everywhere around us there is more water. It comes from the sky, it creeps up on the beaches, it is making the ground absolutely squishy.  And yet there is a shortage of water and it is expensive.  I keep mulling this over.

The main result of the mulling has been to realize that although conserving water is, in general, a good thing, it makes no particular difference to us here in Point Roberts during the colder and wetter months because we pay (as a community) for the water whether we use it or not (and as I understand it, except in the summer, we don't).  Thus, being careful about the water use at this time of year has no impact on anybody or anything except maybe our habits of mind.  This is so counter-intuitive for me that I have a lot of trouble keeping it in mind as I think about it.

Well, it has some impact on the Vancouver water supply because it is actually supplying less than would otherwise be required if I weren't being careful about my water use, but since it is raining all the time, Vancouver has plenty of water supply such that it makes no difference to them.

It is only, then, in the warmer months that we need to be thinking about the advisability of short showers, no bathtubs full of water, limited outdoor water use, no long-running faucets (you turn the faucet off in between uses even when brushing teeth, e.g.), catchments of various sorts (from rain barrels to bottles of water saved when one is running the faucet until the water gets hot).  And this is definitely not proving to be one of the warmer months.

However, my outside storage does include about 50 gallons of water (in one-gallon milk jugs) obtained from the aforementioned running the faucet waiting for the hot water to get there, and a good deal more in a rain barrel, awaiting that time, that time of warmth, should it ever come.  It is probably a pittance, but it is my econo move for the summer, for the moment.