As you may have heard, California is going through another drought. You may be thinking, “how can I help?”
One potential way is to learn how much water are you currently using at home and how you are doing relative to the recommended water use target. Based on this, you can determine if by tweaking your water use a little, you can make a difference.
The recommended water use target for indoor needs is 55 gallons per day per person. Indoor water needs include: water to flush the toilet, to wash dishes or clothes, to brush your teeth or to shower. The water used to water your lawn or drought-tolerant garden is not included within the recommended indoor water target.
The figure at the top of the page depicts the recommended indoor water use for households where one, two or four people live. Additionally, you can notice that in each graph on Tuesday and Thursday the water use is higher than the other days. This is because we assume that those two days these households, besides their regular indoor use, also water their garden or lawn. Outdoor residential water use can vary significantly depending on where you live – for example, is it an apartment building with no outdoor space or a single family house with a garden?
If you live in Long Beach and would like to see if this is a way you can help fight the drought, you can find your usage information by looking at your water use dashboard. This dashboard is a service offered by the Long Beach Water Department, which you can access at https://lbwater.watersmart.com/