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5 Ways to Save Water

“Wisconsin uses 759 million gallons of groundwater each day,” says Melissa Malott, attorney and water program director at Clean Wisconsin. “With simple conservation practices, we can meet our needs in a sustainable way.” The average person uses about 63 gallons of water a day. Here are five easy water-saving tips:

1. Water smart: Outdoor watering can account for 60 – 70 percent of household water use. Watering early in the morning helps reduce evaporation. And water deep, not often, to encourage root growth and drought resistance.

2. Get it washed: When your car is dirty, head to the carwash. Washing a car at home uses between 80 – 140 gallons of water, while a commercial carwash averages less than 45 gallons per car.

3. Go low flow: Replace old showerheads with low-flow ones to reduce your household water usage by 45 gallons a day and about 16,000 gallons per year. Low-flow toilets save 25 gallons a day and 9,000 gallons a year. Look for the EPA WaterSense logo.

4. Full loads: Make sure your dishwasher and washing machine are full before running them to save water and electricity. If doing dishes by hand, fill up the sink instead of running water for each individual dish.

5. Water pitchers: Keeping a pitcher of water in your refrigerator is a cheap and easy way to have ice-cold water on hand. Turning on the tap for each glass wastes water as you wait for the tap to get cold.