Posted by ( cgtaylor1 ) on March 18, 2009 at 1:39 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Here's a pretty simple idea: Don’t pour water down the drain that could be used for something else–watering houseplants, filling the dog’s water bowl, or cleaning.

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Posted by ( wldblume ) on March 19, 2009 at 6:27 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

1. For only my husband and I, we decided to opt out on a dishwasher when we remodeled our kitchen. I know from past experience how water consuming they are.

2. I run my dishwater into a gallon containter til it gets warm enough to do dishes (about a gallon, I also save my rinsewater from doing dishes and save this water to water my plants with.

3 - Use plantings native to the area that require little or no water during the dry season.

4 - Think about using landscaping stones around your mail boxes rather than flowers or plants that require watering.

5 - Showers can be taken in three to 5 minutes. When shampooing shut the shower off to soap the hair and/or conditioning it. The shampoo/shower combination can be done in about 6 or 7 minutes.

Make a game of conserving water with children. They can help water your plants and flowers with sprinkling cans.

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Posted by ( gliadrachan ) on March 20, 2009 at 8:14 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Most sprinkler systems result in spraying onto sidewalks or into streets; hand watering usually has a more intelligent delivery.

But if you have the time to stand outside for 8 hours per day, don't be surprised at your water bill. Or at the fact that your lawn will be sprouting all kinds of interesting fungal disease before it dies.

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Posted by ( steveintampabay ) on March 20, 2009 at 9:37 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

The logic behind water restriction does not add up. Conservation is always wise, yet we have liberal leaders in the role doling out the resources.To quote Rohm Emanuel, "Don't let a good crisis go to waste".This seems to be setting the stage for more fines, more enforcement, and more intervention of government in people's daily lives, over the simple enjoyment of personal space in a natural setting.We elected officials to prevent and solve these problems, and their solution is an obvious admission that they did not do their job.The city water department sells water, and will see a loss in revenue.City Council's plan of action is to blame it on the weather, when they have been spending taxpayer money on solutions designed to prevent this type of manufactured crisis.They have failed as leaders, but succeeded in their design of a plan to scare the public and extract revenue from a different source.Wouldn't it be simpler and smarter just to sell the water to the public?We sell water to St Petersburg, but they do not have restriction of their tap water being used for irrigation.The reclaimed water project is not throughout the areas, as intended, so those in the unserved areas will potentially lose valuable landscaping.Development has slowed, and more people have installed the low volume irrigation systems, and raised their level of conservation.The desalination plant has not been adequate, and appears to be only a gamble that was lost.The reservoir is not working. How hard is it to build a functional reservoir anyway?The economic impact on small independent, taxpaying businesses will be large.It is simplistic and irresponsible to paint a picture of a crisis over the failure of City Council to adequately deal with a known issue.Remember these politicians on election day. They did not perform well, and should be replaced.In the meantime, some of us will suffer the consequences of their expensive and failed intentions.

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Posted by ( fischer ) on March 20, 2009 at 9:53 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

This is all about social control. It has very little to do with conservation. When are we going to say enough to this madness?

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Posted by ( Eureka ) on March 21, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Lucky you, thanksenate. I don't have that option in my neighborhood. Not rich enough. We lowly commoners don't deserve to have nice yards, apparently. Heck, it took YEARS before the city would even give us recycling bins.

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Posted by ( pacfandave ) on March 24, 2009 at 7:22 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

You ask the wrong question. The question is, what are YOU doing to amp up the water supply? Sooner or later, more desalination plants will have to be built, and the sooner the cheaper. And how classy of HOAs to allow their watering to conform to Tampa's ordinance. You mean they had a choice?

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Posted by ( HawkEyeConoclast ) on March 26, 2009 at 12:04 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

I had to figure out lots of ways to conserve water, power, pretty much everything after I became disabled from a burst brain aneurysm a few years ago. Here's a tip I use to save water & electricity: (Note that this tip will probably only work if you have a large double basin kitchen sink). I keep a watering can in one basin & instead of using the dishwasher I hand wash my dishes. I fill the watering can with run off water used washing the dishes & then water house plants & outside plants with that reclaimed water. It's said that you can use more water hand washing dishes than using the dishwasher, so we should be careful not to overuse water in this process during our water crises.
I also reclaim my bath water after taking a bath by filling old water jugs with it rather than just letting that run down the drain, then i water my gardens with that. Mind that some bath products may be good for plants & others may not. This tip requires some work, but if you consider the cost of water-police tickets it's work that pays well if you want to keep the green on your landscape & in your wallet. I've been publishing a website with lots of environmental tips like this since my aneurysm because that experience made me realize the interconnected nature of all life on earth. We're all in this together & water is unlike any other substance on earth. It has the strongest atomic bond (covalent), never spoils, is literally billions of years old and makes up about seventy percent of you & I, so let's be respectful of it through this drought. OH YEA, Proper grass cutting will also save water. Find out what breed of grass you have & be careful not to cut it too short! Most Florida grasses should not be cut below two inches because part of the root system is above ground & cutting into it will weaken the grass & require you to use more water to get it back to health. Then grass scalpers will often dump fertilizer on their grass to restore the health they took from it which winds up in the Hillsborough River & the bay & we wonder why our water quality stinks (often literally). I've got more, but I'll leave it their for now.

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Posted by ( Fluorida ) on March 30, 2009 at 1:59 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

No. 1, Phosphate mines use millions of gallons a day, how about them?
2. Use a pitchfork on lawn soil to loosen up so grass roots can penetrate, and then sprinkle mulch all over. The mulch keeps the moisture longer so grass can grow without overwatering.
3.Request, no, demand the counties stop fluoridation. This is why so many people are buying bottled water. The fluorides are from the phosphate fertilizer manufacturing process. See "Geology of Florida", 1997, Univ. Press of Florida, page 143: "In addition to uranium, fluorine is an economical byproduct of phosphoric-acid production. The fluorine from the rock reacts with silica to form SiF4 gas. During acid production this gas is recovered as fluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6) in wet scrubbers that are part of the environmental-protection equipment. Fluorosilicic acid is widely used in the preparation of chemical compounds and in the treatment of public drinking water."
See AWWA Standard for Fluorosilicic Acid B703-06, Foreword gives this same data and page 13 has an entire page of contaminants in the commercial grade agents. But...then we are all walkin', talkin' recycling units~~

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Posted by ( guitarteacher ) on April 3, 2009 at 8:19 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

I don't water anything but my vegetable garden. I grew up in the country, where it was considered sinful to water anything you couldn't eat. When there's a drought, grass only deserves water if you have animals out there eating it. Maybe we should pass THAT law - HOA members can ONLY water their grass if they put goats and cows in their yard to eat it! THAT would be fun to see.

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Posted by ( Defiant ) on April 3, 2009 at 2:23 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

I am going to save all my extra water for the owner of Lazy Days RV. He needs all those millions of gallons each year to keep his grass at his palacial estate green.

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Posted by ( DarthRandall ) on June 24, 2009 at 8:52 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

TBPatriot on March 23, 2009 at 5:53 p.m. - Spoken like a "do as I say, not as I do" liberal... Me, I'm not showering. I'm conserving LOADS of water that way.....

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