What are churches doing about the drought? Not much…
There are approximately 1500 churches in the metro Atlanta area, so I thought it would be interesting to see how they’re trying to save water.
I found a list of the 25 largest churches (paper list — sorry, no link) and e-mailed them all and asked what they’re trying to do to save water. I was quite disappointed that most of them didn’t take the time to respond. I sent the e-mail about three weeks ago, so they’ve had plenty of time.
Since I personally work at a church, I’ve been trying to think of things we can do to cut back. It’s tough to figure out. Our main use (now that we obviously don’t water the grass anymore) is likely from the restrooms, so we make sure nothing is leaking. Beyond that, though, what can be done? I had hoped to gain insight from the churches that responded.
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta stopped watering their new installs a while back, despite having a permit to do so. This saved nearly 500,000 gallons/month.
First Baptist Church in Woodstock followed a similar plan. Prior to the watering ban, they cut back on irrigating and they are very stringent about ensuring that no sinks, toilets or water fountains are leaking. They also are looking at retrofitting to automatic sink and toilet fixtures, which could save some water.
I had a few churches tell me that they were forwarding my e-mail onto so-and-so that could answer my questions, but then I never heard back.
So where does that leave us? I see three problems:
- First, these churches as a whole have horrible customer service. I know this is something that many churches work very hard at, so the complete lack of response from so many churches was pretty sad. Only four replied at all and only two of those took the time to answer my questions. The other 21 churches apparently were too ashamed to admit that they’ve done nothing to help save water.
- Second, obviously, churches aren’t doing much to help save water.
- Finally, churches don’t know what to do to help save water.
So I’m asking you: what can churches do to help conserve water? The techniques we use at home don’t really apply (put a bucket in the shower, brush your teeth differently, etc), so what can be done?
Studies tend to show that about 20-40% of the US attends church each week. With five million people in Atlanta, that’s 1-2 million people per week. There’s a lot of water that could be saved.
Before anyone suggests it, this isn’t the place to talk about the whole “pray for rain” thing. I’m simply curious to see legitimate suggestions that any church (from 10 members to 10,000 members) could take and use.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
They can make it clear to their flocks that conserving water is a moral imperative.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Let it go, son… They have spent their whole lives “turning things over to god.” They have a difficult time thinking for themselves. It is only we humans, we who can make things happen. What it boils down to, they’re going to have to understand that unless action is taken, they’re going to end up dying, at the least have their lives completely uprooted and planted elsewhere because they did not take action because they “prayed for rain.” These poor people are like the passengers of the Titanic who could have saved themselves by thinking ahead and stripping wood off anywhere and built floating platforms with anything so that people could at least lay down together to retain body heat in the deadly, cold night.
Those people cannot be saved if they cannot save themselves…
November 19th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
My apologies… I didn’t read the “pray for rain” limiter… Let’s see, some viable solutions might include POPULATION CONTROL, construction of the artificial wetlands as has been done in other areas, and educating people at water usage when they first move there, in other words require a class on water usage when they first sign up for service for the first time (just so everyone’s on the same page and can be held accountable for abuses of the water supply). I wonder about setting up very large square or round funnel structures that can be set up over unused land to catch rainfall and funnel it to tanks, so that it won’t be absorbed into the ground and lost there or evaporated out.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Lots of Georgians are Baptists, so they refuse to believe there is a water shortage, thus they will be perplexed when no water comes out of the spigots at their houses this summer. They believe this stuff cannot happen to them.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:07 am
I would love to see some people start to recognize what is now coming out as the real source of water wastefulness: electricity. AJC had a story this past Sunday that makes it clear — our daily household water usage pales in comparison to the amount of water it takes to produce an average home’s daily electricity quota.
To put it in perspective, see a quote from the article:
“Government agencies, however, have calculated that thermoelectric plants with once-through cooling use an average of 25 gallons of water to produce one kilowatt hour of power.
The average Georgia household burns 1,100 kilowatt hours of electricity a month. That translates to about 27,000 gallons of water.
By comparison, a family of four goes through about 9,000 gallons a month for household uses such as washing clothes, flushing toilets and showering.”
Read the full article here:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/11/17/power_1118.html
The most efficacious and imperative way we can conserve water, it seems, is to drastically cut back on electricity usage. I think Atlanta’s churches — as well as its general populace, and generally oblivious civic leaders — need to be quickly made aware of the correlation between energy and water usage. I have much more to say on the topic, but I’ll wait for a more specific thread to come up first.
-st
November 20th, 2007 at 12:21 am
So you don’t like God’s customer service … well isn’t that just too bad. Those are the people God calls to work so it must be the way God wants it.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Why don’t you just close the church until the water emergency is over?
November 20th, 2007 at 3:25 am
1. Low flow toilets
We recently had a drought in VA and had to look closely at water useage. Probably the biggest water waster in our home is the toilet. The churches have these too. The newer low flow toilets save a LOT of water. (see attached article. Not my own. Just did a google search.) http://www.terrylove.com/crtoilet.htm
2. Check for leaks.
Here we are in a drought and our water bill just kept going up and up. A call to the water company led to this suggestion. Turn off the water shutoff to your home. (ours is just inside the front wall and looks like a hose faucet.) Go to your water meter and see if there is a dial or something like an odometer. Ours had both, but the dial just indicated hundredths of a gallon. If the very sensitive dial moves after 10 minutes, you have a leak. Same with the odometer, in ours it is just less sensitive since the lowest it reads is tenths of a gallon. If you have any movement of your dial, you have a water leak somewhere. A small leak may be fairly inconsequential, but leaking a few gallons or more a day is significant. Call your water company for suggestions on how to proceed if you have a leak.
3. Wash underclothes twice as often as outer garments. If your pants/shirts can be hung up to air out for another use, do so.
4. Turn off the faucet rather than watch it go down the drain.
I know this gets old, but it is a hard thing to build new habits. When you are hand washing dishes or brushing your teeth or any other activity during which you may need the water on continuously longer than a few seconds, turn it off as often as you can. If you want to see how much you thoughtlessly let go down the drain unused, put a large bowl under the faucet while you brush, wash or rinse to catch what you are allowing to go down the drain. You may be surprised how much it adds up. If you can, close the drain and use the water coming out for rinsing. It would be pretty drastic, but I imagine you could catch some of your handwashing water and use it to flush your toilet with, but that may be more trouble than it is worth.
5. Wipe instead of rinse.
When camping, we use paper towels that have been wet to wipe out pots and dishes before washing them. This reduces the amount of water used for washing and they don’t need to be rinsed excessively. (pick your favorite sturdy brand of paper towel.) If you use basins, they do not need more than about a gallon of water each. Next, we use a basin of warm water to rinse off the excess soap and a third basin to do a final ‘hot water’ rinse to make sure everything is truly clean (some people add a small capful of bleach to the 2nd basin). We can do dishes, pots and pans for a family of 6 with as little as 2-3 gallons of water.
6. Showers
When you shower, turn on the water and wet yourself, your hair and your washcloth thoroughly. Soap up your cloth and scrub thoroughly. Wash your already wet hair. Turn the water back on and rinse quickly. A shower done like this for me uses less water than a shallow bath.
7. Catchment systems
Some people capture rainwater from their roofs into drums that their downspouts feed into. This water can be used for washing your car, watering your lawn or outdoor plants (I’d personally avoid watering a vegetable garden with this unless I was ready to lick my roofing materials) or flushing your toilets.
Good luck. I have been praying for your city to get rain… but just like our drought, you still have to take action.
J.S.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Churches specifically?
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?
November 20th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Great idea. I know that churches tend to waste quite a lot of electricity. I’ll see what kind of numbers I can find.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Yup - electricity.
Also - hand sanitizer gels in the bathrooms.
Churches could be really, really helpful in spreading the message of how people could be conserving water in their homes and businesses. It would help lessen the people vs. government feel of the crisis to have religious leaders talking about conservation in terms of caring for one another, our environment, and ourselves.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Do churches use that much water?
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!
November 20th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Interesting discussion. On the electricity, why not do motion lighting? The light only turns on when you are walking in that area. This way, if the church is open with workers, but no service is going on, lights will automatically be off in hallways. This is commonly done in Europe, and it saves an ENORMOUS amount of electricity.
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.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I think you’re appealing to the wrong demographic. Judging by the response you got, it looks like they think the Almighty will provide and there’s no reason for them to change their behaviors, or help themselves, as it were.
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.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
short term……
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.
November 24th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Hi!
You guys don’t know me, but I’m Adam. I’ve been very vocal about water waste for years, but recently I’ve been more willing to just talk to anyone about it.
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.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Churches:
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.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Well the Baptists could stop dunking and go to sprinkling like the Methodists do.