Water flow in modern kitchen faucets

[Mark Bolton]

So do I. Being on a well and septic, we have no need for faucets designed for municipal water systems.

The national average cost of water is still often pretty close to the same. On a private system its lumped into large single expenditures and projected gambles. On a public system its amortized out on a monthly basis. When you do the average math of the cost of a well, possible failure of that well over time, pumps, pressure switches, pressure tanks, water treatment systems, over the life of the home, the cost of a septic system, pumping the system, and now that many locations have a system inspection on sale that if you fail may cost you tens of thousands to remediate to sell the property, it often times comes out about even on a national average.

The bottom line is water, and crapping in a bucket, isnt free, unless you catch rain water and practice the philosophy of humanure.

In my rural area you could use some ridiculously super low math and say a home with a drilled well may be 2K for the well, perhaps another 5K over the life of the well in pump, tank, filtration, perhaps water softener, RO system, sediment filters. Septic at 7K, perhaps another 2K over the life for pumping, perhaps another 10K if your bound by some failed re-sale inspection and fail. Perhaps way more?

At those course numbers your talking over $100 a month over 20 years with not a cent accounted for for electricity to pump water. Still cheap. But again, wasting is just plain foolish. If I can flush my toilet, wash my clothes, dishes, with less... I'd be just plumb dumb to run the water over the hill for spite. Heck, we've got dingbats running up the roads with diesel trucks thinking its an extension of their privates to rip the emissions off their trucks and belch plumes of black smoke as opposed to getting good mileage and putting money in their baby'mama's college fund.

Low flow toilets, high efficiency dishwashers and washing machines, best thing since sliced bread for me. I'd rather have that money in the bank rather than dump it over the hill just because I can.

[Mark Bolton]

I know that many people with well and septic don't care about how much water they use since they aren't paying for it.

A complete delusion on their part.

[Jim Becker]

The whole point is conserving fresh water which is important no matter where your water comes from. I know that many people with well and septic don't care about how much water they use since they aren't paying for it. I have well and septic, but I still use water pretty ,much the same as if I had to pay for each gallon.

I have to waste a lot of water to get hot water. The water heater used to be right next to where all the pipes come together, but when I switched to a gas water heater it had to be placed 15 feet away so now hot water has to travel an extra 30 feet.

I'm sure that there are people who do act like they can use as much as they want. But even though I remove the restrictors for a better shower and kitchen washing experience, I don't assume it's an unlimited resource as I know it's not. I will say that having both our well and our septic on our own property at least means any water we use is being returned to the earth in essentially the same location. It's not being piped and pumped from far away like many people have to endure just to have water.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I'm sure that there are people who do act like they can use as much as they want. But even though I remove the restrictors for a better shower and kitchen washing experience, I don't assume it's an unlimited resource as I know it's not. I will say that having both our well and our septic on our own property at least means any water we use is being returned to the earth in essentially the same location. It's not being piped and pumped from far away like many people have to endure just to have water.

Exactly right Jim. Water never gets "used up". It might move to a place inconvenient to where a human lives, but it didn't cease to exist.

[Brian Elfert]

Exactly right Jim. Water never gets "used up". It might move to a place inconvenient to where a human lives, but it didn't cease to exist.

No, water does not get used up, but clean unpolluted water can get used up. (Some cities pulling water from the Mississippi river spend more money cleaning up river water to make it potable than treating the sewage.) Many areas have aquifers that are being drawn down and aren't refilling. Your well may be fairly deep and pull from a source that isn't getting replaced by your septic discharge.

There was an uproar this week here in Minnesota about a railroad wanting to put in two wells to pump out 500 million gallons a year and move it by train to the southwest US. I don't understand how it makes financial sense to haul bulk water by train. The city of Las Vegas can use 500 million gallons of water on a single summer day.

[Gary Ragatz]

There was an uproar this week here in Minnesota about a railroad wanting to put in two wells to pump out 500 million gallons a year and move it by train to the southwest US. I don't understand how it makes financial sense to haul bulk water by train. The city of Las Vegas can use 500 million gallons of water on a single summer day.

I don't think that water is intended for the general water supply in Las Vegas. Only thing that makes sense to me is that they will ship the water to bottling plants for Coke, Pepsi and/or Nestle, where it will be turned into bottled water or other soft drinks.

If local water is expensive or in short supply, it makes more sense to ship water in bulk and bottle locally rather than ship bottled product long distances. 500 million gallons per year is 4 billion 16 oz. bottles per year - between 4 and 5 bottles per day for every person in the Las Vegas metro area. More than enough for the locals, but there are a lot of visitors.

[Brian Elfert]

I don't think that water is intended for the general water supply in Las Vegas. Only thing that makes sense to me is that they will ship the water to bottling plants for Coke, Pepsi and/or Nestle, where it will be turned into bottled water or other soft drinks.

If local water is expensive or in short supply, it makes more sense to ship water in bulk and bottle locally rather than ship bottled product long distances. 500 million gallons per year is 4 billion 16 oz. bottles per year - between 4 and 5 bottles per day for every person in the Las Vegas metro area. More than enough for the locals, but there are a lot of visitors.

The water was supposed to be for commercial and industrial use. The water is not for Las Vegas. I was just using the daily water consumption in Las Vegas as an indication of how 500 million gallons is a drop in the bucket compared to all the water used in the Southwest US.