Miscellaneous Questions about Water Conservation
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Q: I was curious if you might know how much of our water usage goes to fighting fires as compared to total usage of all of our water.

A: (Penny Livingston-Stark) Interesting Question. I would say the majority of water goes into agriculture/cattle/landscaping/lawns etc. I don’t know this for a fact, but from repeatedly calculating water use, those volumes are high. I don’t know what the water use for firefighting is, but If you consider how much land is devoted to irrigation it seems like a lot more than acreage of fires. These fires in AZ and COLO have probably used a lot more than normal.

Q: Will it be possible for us to reuse the waters coming from the canals, dumpsites, ect.?

A: (Penny Livingston-Stark) It’s would be a good idea to get it tested. Your local government should fund it. Canals and dumpsites are sometimes unfortunately very similar in their pollutant loads, but not always. If your canal is coming from a dumpsite the likely hood of there being serious pollutants (poly aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, pcbs, battery acid, diesel fuel, paint residue etc) is very high. This could be treated in various ways to reclaim heavy metals using plants, breakdown pesticide residues using bacteria and fungus and process excess nutrients like manure and sewage with plants and bacteria.

Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti has had some breakthrough discoveries using mushrooms to clean up some of these pernicious contaminants. Here are some web links about that. Although I’m not sure his name is even mentioned.
rawfoodinfo.com
battelle.org
Re: Canal water it really depends on what is in it, and that depends on what is upstream from you in the watershed. Not just directly but what could wash into the canal during a storm. It is possible that there is sewage (fecal coliform and ecoli) if you have septic tanks or cesspools upstream as well as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and agricultural runoff. There is a lot of pollution that comes from “Non-Point Source” which means it accumulates and concentrates in waterways. If any of your neighbors are changing their oil of cleaning paint brushes, fertilizing their lawn, cleaning pesticide sprayer cans etc. and dumping it on the ground, it is surprising how much that accumulates in a watershed.

It IS possible to clean such water and render it safe to but I highly recommend testing it extensively if you think there are harmful pollutants. Until then I wouldn’t put it on anything edible or use in any edible aquaculture system until you know it is clean water. Running it through a reconstructed marsh system using gravel, pumice or carbon (woodchips) and taking up some of the excess “nutrients” using marsh plants helps. The marshes and wetlands are the livers and kidneys of the earth. That is why it is so important not to remove them.

Q: We live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our homes here are subject to basement flooding. Are there ecological ways to keep the water out? We are thinking of putting crushed limestone as a barrier to water, around our foundation. Is this something you would recommend?

A: (Penny Livingston-Stark) The solution lies in finding out where the water is coming from and addressing it there. Crushed limestone is not a barrier to water. It may keep expansive clay from heaving around your foundation when there is a lot of moisture there. If the water is coming from the roof, you may consider moving the water from your eaves through to where you want the water to flow. If it is coming from surface runoff you may want to dig some transfer ditches to move that water away from your house to your garden or someplace that can use the water.

Q: I will be moving to Paros island in the Cyclades island complex in Greece. I would like to build a home that will be totally self sustained, from power and water. Also I don't want to spent more then $150,000. Where do you recommend I start from?

A: (Maya Madrigal) Beginning the process of building a home that is "off the grid", meaning providing it's energy, water and other utilities independently, is a wonderful goal. If you already own the property you wish to develop, you should begin to research the building codes, property restrictions, and other factors which may determine if you can legally build off the grid, and if so what methods of construction are acceptable in your local area. Other priorities to research are what local building materials are available, the relative cost of building materials and labor, and what types of products on the market to help you provide for your energy and water needs.

Another important part of the planning stage is envisioning what you dream of including in your building plans, and seeing how to arrange such parts to efficiently work in your unique climatic and geographical conditions. In Permaculture Design we use the processes of observation and analysis, create overlay maps and flow diagrams, and use techniques such as random assembly and zone/sector analysis, to create designs. You will want to additionally research the regional adaptations to climate and geography for homes and gardens. For example, my understanding of Paros Island, Greece is that it is a rocky, semi-arid island with very fertile plains and some higher elevations. Traditional homes are terraced, thick walled, lime plastered, and used trellis vines to help with evaporative cooling. These traits are not accidental, terraced levels provide additional living spaces, thick white walls provide heat and light reflection and are cooling, indirect lighting with small windows and interior courtyards also provide shade.

I suggest including Chapter 11 Dryland Strategies in the Permaculture Designers Manual by Bill Mollison as part of your research into the many creative design strategies that can help you design your home and property to be passively efficient, in turn lowering your utility needs. Lastly, when building on a budget remember the benefits of a smaller scaled floorplan, local and traditional building materials, and passive design can cut costs and allow for more of your goals.

Q: Maya, I am the Director of Sales for a local landscaping company in St. Louis, MO. We just met with a "green" home builder and he is requesting us to design and install the landscaping for two "green" house projects that he is currently building that will be completed in the Spring of 2007. He talks about "water barrels" and other water conserving methods, also, what types of plants that are recommended etc. Would you be able to pass on any information to me at your convenience, I would appreciate it.

A: (Maya Madrigal) There are many new and appealing garden accessories on the market for the "green" consumer's ecological home and garden. You mentioned water catchment barrels, which attach to the roof gutters through a down spout. The best I've seen for serious homeowners have multiple barrel attachments(so for example three grouped barrels could be attached at one corner downspout, very attractive with container plantings), a cover to keep water clean of debris or growth, and a front spout or hose attachment. 

Other key landscape additions for the "green" landscape might include compost systems, ranging from inexpensive wire framed and plastic modular systems or tumblers to the more finely crafted and handsome cedar wood units. Home composting is one of the single most effective and simple ways for the average home gardener to gain greater efficiency in the recycling of household waste, as is worm farming in similar smaller sized units.

There are, additionally, a wide range of solar products varying from garden accent lighting and fountains to sculpture and greenhouse power. The "green" gardener will of course be interested in the more practical and consistently necessary resources of heirloom, open-pollinated, organic seeds and plants, organic soil amendments, non-toxic pest control, highly crafted tools to reduce cost over lifetime.

Also, more people are desiring to increase the wildlife value of their gardens, tools that help are bird feeders and baths, bee/bat/bird/toad houses, and plants specific to your own local native ecology or climate. In looking at the sustainability of good home scale design, more and more people even in the most urban areas are looking for attractive, high quality products for hobby mini-farming and animal husbandry. I've seen some very fine high quality animal houses for doves, chickens, rabbits etc. that suit some "green" home owners.

Q: I read somewhere about a small stationary bicycle water pump setup in someone's home, instead of needing to use an electric water pump to bring the water into the house to fill up the water tanks for daily use. Supposedly, cycling 10 minutes a day fills up the tanks in the house for use. I am interested in implementing a system like that in a small cabin that uses a spring fed well system. Do you know how to design these types of systems, or know where I can get more info on how to create one based on other's successes?

A: Having run a weird and wonderful bike business for eight years not so long ago, I have lots of contacts and understanding of the issue. I have also seen many interesting demonstrations of static bike power (German Army used them in WW2 to power radios!).

Try these links: http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/product_info.php?cPath=22_81&products_id=198

http://www.climatecare.org/projects/technologies/human-energy/

http://www.howtopedia.org/en/How_to_make_Human-Powered_Water-Lifters

http://www.cee.mtu.edu/peacecorps/documents_july03/Human_Powered_Pumps_FINAL.pdf

Practical Action (formerly Intermediate Technology Group - an offshoot of Fritz Schmacher's thinking) are great for this kind of stuff (which was the first link I mentioned. A google on 'human powered pumps brought up the others and several dozen more. Happy constructing!