1. Turn off the ice maker! If you have the restaurant type, it uses a continuous trickle of water to make the ice, and it lets ice melt down the drain to keep the bin clean. Wastes electricity too. If you must use it (why?), find a use for the drain water. Automatic ice makers in refrigerator freezers are OK, they don’t waste water. Best is a new refrigerator with in-door ice maker if you can afford it.

2. Waterless urinals. Some use a layer of oil in the trap to keep the odor down.

3. Semi-waterless urinals. Take a conventional urinal, remove the flush valve. Mount a small hand-washing sink above the urinal with its drain connected to where the flush valve was connected. Washing hands flushes urinal. Might have to use a little boy’s urinal to make the sink hight convenient.

4. Save electricity with compact fluorescent bulbs. They use a quarter of the electricity of conventional incandescent bulbs. My church had removed half the bulbs in the sanctuary lights before I joined. I replaced 36 60W bulbs with 72 15W bulbs, filling all the sockets to give us twice the light with half the electricity. Sure, each new bulb cost 3 dollars, but it outlasts seven 50-cent bulbs and saves seventy-five dollars of electricity by the time it burns out. That’s right, spend three dollars to save seventy-five! You can’t afford not to buy them! Start by getting a box for replacing old bulbs as they burn out. Maybe have your members each adopt a light bulb. Try to really get going before summer, because electricity wasted by indoor lights turns into indoor heat, and wastes more electricity on air conditioning in the summer. Those 36 60W bulbs I replaced generated more heat than a 110V electric space heater.

I work in the restaurant industry, so to see the amount of waste that happens behind any kitchen’s doors is just horrific. Rather than using a microwave to defrost something in 2 minutes, restaurants will often put a piece of meat in the sink and let hot water pour over it for an hour. how many thousands of gallons does that waste for 2 minutes of electricity? OR.. I have an idea, how about just take the meat/veges out 2 hours earlier and they’ll defrost with no expense of additional energy

i am a photographer as well, and i was at a photo shoot at a public Atlanta high school talking with the lunch ladies about what they were doing about water waste.. after watching her defrost vegetables for 30 minutes by running hot water over them I walked over and talked to Annie (and inconspicuously turned off the water). I asked her what she thought about the drought and what she could do to conserve, and she stopped, looked at me really seriously and asked if i believed in god (i don’t) — i answered of course. She told me that god always provides for believers and as long as I pray, god will never stop giving me as much water as i want. she promptly turned aorund to the sink, flipped the water back on, and went back to cleaning on the other side of the kitchen.

now, that’s just assinine, but the next encounter i had was horrific.. and this is really what atlanta’s churches are spreading, especially within the african american community.

there are a few things that i’ve done around the restaurant i bartend at to make us a bit more water wise. most people aren’t jumping on board with the if its yellow let it mellow.. well, i haven’t flushed my pee (anywhere!) in a long time, i figure people are going to have to get there regardless, it’ll just be 6 months before people are comfortable walking into a bathroom and seeing a yellow bowl.

we run 1/2 price water specials, which in no way do i think is a long term saver of water, but for a temporary glutch can be beneficial. it takes like 3 gallons of water to produce a gallon of bottled water, not at all beneficial, nor is switching to paper plates, the amount of water used in the paper production, blah blah.

i filled up jugs and put them into the back of the bowls to displace unnecessary water. i also instituted a system of buckets next to sink, so lets say on a friday night i make 100 martinis, i have to use fresh ice each drink, but atleast i can keep that water from going down the drain and water the ‘al fresco’ dining experience, i mean last summer’s garden, atleast keep the soil tilth for next year and allow that water to reevaporate into our environment, which potentially causes great rain events.

so one night a waiter starts to dump a wine chiller’s worth of ice down the drain, and i was like, no dude, we recycle that, put it in the bucket. and my only bar customer, a young african american woman, perhaps early to mid 30s, looked at me completely disgusted. reycling water. i was like, we don’t give it back to the guests ma’am, we use it to water the plants outside in our garden.

she then proceeds to tell me that she knows why there’s a drought. she told me that there’s flooding in NC, SC, TN, AL, & FL.. All the states around us have water, but we don’t.. the reason? Atlanta is a modern day Sodom, like from the bible, and until we rid Atlanta of the sodomites god is punishing us for allowing them to still live.

I have a beard, and talk in a deep voice, but I’m gay.. So i just stood there for a second, staring into her eyes and seeing the complete belief and utter hate.

That’s what our churches are doing to conserve water.

the dual flush low water use toilets that have finally come over here in the usa market. they have two flushes…one for number 1, which uses a very small amount of water. the other for #2, which only uses the 1.6 gal or under depending on the model. also waterless urinals. they work great and save huge on water usage. low flow automatic faucets that turn on only by motion, and off the seond the hands are removed. used in most theme parks and airports, etc and save huge on water usage. stop complimentary coffee if applicable until the crisis is over. those who want coffee badly can bring their own so no water is wasted at all.

have church service(s) only during the daylight hours and with daylight lighting only, not electric lights, etc. to save on electric. btw, great point…saving on electric is good all around for everyone. this should be done year round, not just during a crisis. shut off automatic night time lighting. sign up for with your local power company(if applicable)..where they cut your power for 15 minutes a day and you get money off of your bill. install up to r-38 insulation in attic spaces to conserve on cooling and heating costs. install 7 day programmable energy star rated thermostats.

long term, invest in solar power. have metal roofs installed in buildings hooked up via a gutter system to a water holding tank for use in irrigation..like they do in parts of hawaii and other places in the world where water is considered precious.

plenty of options out there to save, and protect the water systems. it takes some investment, but allot is tax deductable…and some power companies have programs that will pay up to so much back to you for certain upgrades.

btw, great topic…keep up the good work.

I just hope you get some rain down there, as I don’t look forward to a mass migration of thirsty suburbanites to my area, where water supplies are likewise threatened. Fortunately this area isn’t overbuilt like ATL.

Low Flow shower heads help. If you don’t want to change your toilet, simply fill a two-liter bottle with water and put it in the toilet tank. Don’t flush urine…

If its yellow, its mellow. If its brown it goes down. Guys, urinate outside when and where possible.

Fill your sink to wash dishes rather than leaving the water running continuously.

I’m on a well, so I’ve been implementing these tactics since the day I moved to my house. I read that low flow shower heads, costing about $10 each, can save up to 25000 gallons of water a year for an ‘average American household’.

Wash your clothes when they’re dirty. don’t wash your car, ever. don’t water anything that you can’t eat. if you have grass, get rid of it or put in some native vegetation, or grow something edible in its place.

Don’t play golf. Doing so subsidizes one of the worst water wasters. Don’t patronize car washes, places with fountains running out front, or places that are still watering landscaping.

Use less electricity.

There are many things you can do, but the question is: how much is the average American willing to sacrifice? not enough in my opinion.

The alternative: plan where you are going to move when Lake Lanier runs dry. learn how to collect and purify rain water. Build a cistern. That strategy worked for Americans for 2 hundred years. My grandparent’s house in Missouri had a cistern for collecting rainwater, that grandpa used to water his fruit trees and vegetable garden.

Waste not, want not. And to the churches: God helps those who help themselves.

On the water, why not have preachers talk more about “creation care”? And why not in big churches do what was done at that one football game? Have assigned volunteers do the flushing, as it does not need to be flushed every time.

Obviously, it is my belief that a massive amount of investment (public and private) be done statewide for the toilets, shower attachments, appliances, etc. Churches don’t always have the money for all of that, but they should start budgeting for it for the future. If anyone has read the latest IPCC report, scientists now believe that water shortages will be a big problem by 2020, so if we use this drought now to prepare for whatever comes in the future (and really, no matter what you believe, saving water is ALWAYS a good thing), then Georgia will be ahead of the game.

They could cut back on irrigation and use low flow toilets. Although I think churches should be a the bottom of the list.

I also don’t blame them for not responding. Why should they put themselves in the cross hairs?

The per gallon capita for individuals at home is still high. I’m not trying to conserve water at all and just planted 50 big shrubs and use less water than the average person in Atlanta. Not blaming them. I installed low flow toilets and dishwasher, etc.

Atlanta needs to offer more incentives for people to upgrade their house’s and business to use less water.

It would be nice if churches could help educate people but that’s really not that purpose.

You should be sending that letter to the developers and real estate association.

I think it’s great for the author of the article to be progressive though.

good luck!

Well, I’m not a church-goer, in advance. But how about the electricity idea? One sunday lit by candles and not lights, followed by a brief lecture about how much water the church saved, and a reminder that it’s right and good to try to help conserve as much water as possible?