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Dry Weather and Drought Tips

Water and Energy Conservation

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average American family of four uses 400 gallons of water per day!  Water conservation can start right at home.  Diverting less water for municipal uses helps to preserve stream flow and maintain healthy aquatic environments.
Viewer Tip: Give these easy water conservation tips a try:

Place a sand or [...]

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Water Footprint

You’ve probably heard about carbon footprints, but have you ever thought about water footprints? Freshwater is used for many common activities like showering, watering lawns and brushing teeth.  But did you know that gallons of “hidden” water also go into making many of the products we use every day?  Water is used to needed to [...]

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Use Your WaterSense and Save

Did you know that you can look for the WaterSense label to save water, energy and money on faucets, showerheads and toilets when remodeling your bathroom? Just by purchasing WaterSense labeled products, consumers saved more than $2.5 million in utility bills and enough water fill the Empire State building 130 times in 2009.
Viewer Tip:

Look [...]

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Don’t Dry Up This Summer

Did you know that up to 50 percent of the water you sprinkle on your lawn and garden could be wasted from evaporation and runoff? July and August are peak water use months because so many people water outdoors.
Viewer Tip: Remember that if you water wisely, you can save a lot of blue while [...]

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Check, Twist, Replace

Are you for Water? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking you to take the “I’m for Water” pledge this summer and try a few simple changes to save water at home.

Check toilets for silent leaks; fixing an old flapper can sometimes save big.
Twist on a faucet aerator and save water and energy without a [...]

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Don’t Get Hosed

Did you know that an average garden hose flows at at a rate of 10 to 16 gallons per minute? A broken sprinkler head wastes approximately 300 gallons of water per hour!
Viewer Tip: With less than one percent of freshwater available for human use, water conservation is extremely important.  Help reduce your outdoor water [...]

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Smarter Showers

The average American family of four uses 400 gallons of water per day – much of that water is used in the bathroom.  Installing low flow shower heads and faucet aerators are some of the most effective water conservation measures you can take at home. These devices can reduce water consumption by as much as [...]

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Wildfires

Did you know there are over 140,000 wildfires a year in the U.S.? The consequences of wildfires have significant impacts on fish and their habitats due to changes in water quality and water flow. Forest fires cause an increase in flooding because the vegetation that once slowed the runoff is now gone. They also result [...]

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Riparian Areas

Did you know in the arid West, an estimated 90 percent of desert wildlife relies on riparian areas for at least some part of their life cycles? Riparian areas are ecosystems that exist near a body of water and form vital linkages between streams and the surrounding uplands. Habitats in the Southwest face many of [...]

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Spring Showers

Showering accounts for about 17 percent of residential indoor water use – up to 30 gallons of water per household per day. According to EPA, we use 1.2 trillion gallons of water every year in the U.S. just for showering. That’s enough water to meet the water needs of New York and New Jersey for [...]

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If it’s Falling…

You may as well collect! The upcoming dry summer months are probably the last thing on your mind during heavy late winter and spring rains. At this time of year, it may seem like it will never dry out, but it’s important to remember that a hot summer is just around the corner. So why not collect that [...]

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Hop Along, Young Grasshopper

Grasshoppers are an all-too-common invader of gardens across the country. They’re difficult to control because they are highly mobile and can do large amounts of damage in a very short period of time. You might think grasshoppers are just a summer problem, but there’s plenty you can do this spring to gauge what this year’s [...]

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Desert Trout

We don’t often associate the desert with trout habitat, but the gila (HEEL-a) trout, or “trout of the desert,” is a unique species that lives in the arid climate of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.  Unfortunately, the gila trout has suffered severe population declines over the past 100 years and currently occupy only a fraction [...]

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Scare Up Water Savings

This Halloween, take a minute to teach your little G.I. Joes and Cinderellas a thing or two about conserving water when it’s time to brush their teeth after all those treats.
Viewer Tip: Turning off the tap while you brush your teeth saves eight gallons per day, adding up to enough water in a year to take 170 [...]

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California’s Water-Energy Connection

Most people don’t realize the considerable amount of energy it takes to deliver, treat and heat the water they use. In fact, American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours per year—enough electricity to power more than five million homes for an entire year. In California, water-related energy use accounts for [...]

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When the Rain Falls Down…

If the water we use is replenished by precipitation, why do we need to save it? The short answer is that while water can be purified and reused over and over thanks to the natural water cycle and wastewater treatment technology, it may not be available everywhere—or every time—it’s needed. When we all use water [...]

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Rake in Water Savings

Did you know that at least 30 percent of the water you use at home is outdoors? In drier parts of the country, homeowners use as much as 70 percent of their water outdoors.
Viewer Tip: This autumn, look for ways to be more water-efficient and fall into good water habits.

Adjust your watering schedule each month [...]

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Spawning Salmon

Fall is the best time to see salmon returning to spawn in Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula rivers.  Plenty of water is needed for salmon to swim upstream and successfully reproduce.  After salmon lay their eggs in the gravel stream beds, they die. The eggs are left on their own and rely on a flow [...]

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Garden Guzzlers

Nationwide, Americans use more than seven billion gallons of water per day to water lawns and gardens.  That’s enough water to fill more than 10,700 Olympic-sized swimming pools!  Look for drought-tolerant plants to help reduce your outdoor water use.
Water Guzzlers: Plants with dark, glossy, large leaves tend to require more water because more leaf surface [...]

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Don’t Let Money Go Down the Drain

Did you know that you can have a big impact on water and energy use by upgrading bathroom fixtures in your home?

Faucets: Installing WaterSense labeled faucets or faucet aerators in your bathrooms could reduce your household’s annual water use by more than 500 gallons and save 70 kilowatt-hours of electricity used for heating the water [...]

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