The house in Cobb County that uses 400,000 gallons a month
I’ve had a number of e-mails asking me to highlight this story, so I thought I would.
There’s a house in Cobb County that is using over 400,000 gallons of water per month — as much as about 60 normal homes. While there is no evidence of water violations, it certainly seems extreme.
As was mentioned in this video on CNN, the homeowners name is Chris George Carlos. I have no idea how it’s even possible to use that much water in a month without just leaving all of the sinks on full-time. Any idea what he’s doing?
For your geeky side, Google Earth Hacks has a file you can download to view the house in Google Earth.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:13 am
This is ridiculous. I know he is “entitled” to use the amount of water he needs, but he should have a context of what is going on. What about the common good ? He is refusing to talk to anyone. You cannot shut him off because he is paying (and is rich enough to pay many times what he is paying). What other peaceful means can be leveraged to convince this person, it is for the greater good ?
November 13th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Given the volume (roughly 10GPM), this sounds a lot to me like a water based heating and air unit. The “open-loop” design uses water instead of air to provide the heat exchange and operates about 3 times more efficient than an air based unit. However it is foolish to use a water utility for this due to the volume required. It would be much more typical to use a well. The outflowing water is still safe to use for any purpose, just about 10 degrees warmer(69F) in the summer and 10(49F) degrees cooler in the winter. I am considering such a system (well based, not city water) but I plan to use the water for the garden and the rest of the farm. In light of the present drought I may switch to a closed loop system that does not use water, but they do not operate quite as efficiently.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Is he connected to a sewer? How much is being returned to the system?
November 13th, 2007 at 9:51 am
As the A/C usage was just educated speculation (WAG :-), no idea what he is doing with the wastewater. An intelligent design would to flow the wastewater into a large tank and use a pump to provide this water for household and lawn uses so at a minimum it offsets normal water use. Since this by far exceeds “normal” water use even if he waters his lawn every day there must be a means to dump the excess.
It has to be going somewhere regardless of how he uses it and with no obvious creek (from google earth) it must be going back into the sewer or at a minimum a storm drain.
This means none of it is going back into the “system”, other than it eventually ends up in the chattahoochee somewhere along the way, but downstream from where Atlanta can make use of it.
November 13th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
As long as we are “guessing”, I think a better guess would be that the home is involved in indoor hydroponic cultivation of marijuana.
November 13th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
There is something that can be done that would quickly cut excessive water usage. A steeply tiered rate system. Make it so that those who use a very minimal amout of water are charged a low rate, those that use something approaching “normal” usage pay a high price, those that use a high amount pay an even higher rate, and keep stepping it up until excessive wasters such as this man are paying exorbitant rates. Example monthly rates: 0-500 gallons=$.01/gallon; 500-1500 gallons=$.05/gallon; 1500-3000 gallons=$.10/gallon; 3000-9000 gallons=$.25/gallon, over 9,000 gallons=$1.00/gallon. This would provide a financial incentive not to be wasteful and would punish those who flagrantly waste water.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
I just think he’s crapping in the swimming pool and flushing it after every use. Very sanitary, too, chlorine-wise.
November 14th, 2007 at 5:19 am
It is shocking to me that people are still even considering that we are all “entitled” to water. The utter waste and disregard for other people and a life resource is reason enough to cut off his water usage. Maybe limiting usage to what everyone else is using would be a small wake up call. A tiered system is a good idea in theory, but for those for whom money “runs through their fingers like water” it truly has no impact. Conservation is the key.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I think we could make sure his water main was ruined at the street if showed up with the right equipment at 3 AM.
Bastard.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:20 am
[...] all of the outrage about the house in Cobb County that used 440,000 gallons of water in October, the owner has said he plans to drastically cut his [...]
November 14th, 2007 at 11:31 am
His usage for the past month was 121,000 gallons according to the county, and it sounds like he has a 5 acre lot that he was sprinkling previously (which could easily account for 100,000 gallons even with moderate watering).
November 15th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
What a D’Bag, my professional car wash in Smyrna washes over 4000 cars per month and the total water needed for that process is 200,000 gallons/month not to mention that 50% of that water is recycled. Here is what I am doing to be proactive and cut my use:
Professional Car Wash in Smyrna goes WATERLESS to conserve our precious resource. Car-Nutz Auto Spa, Inc. is proud to announce our “waterless” car wash option which we are giving our customers who would like to help conserve water. The results of the process we have developed is indistinguishable from a traditional “wet” wash. Please visit us in Smyrna to see this service in action.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
[...] with the now-famous Chris George Carlos, Cobb County has named 10 more major water users. While most of these people still use an awful [...]
February 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Chris Carlos owns and operates National Distributing Company Inc. locate in Atlanta, Georgia. His company is the #2 wholesale distributor of alcohol in the U.S. The company sells premium wine, beer and liquor…this is just a guess but maybe his house is actually a distillary.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Yep, he’s a douchbag all right Cleve. And while we’re on the subject, how about your pole treatment plant and the stench that continues to make everyone sick to their stomaches in East Point and the surrounding neighborhood.