LCA Region Still Under Drought Watch
January 31, 2025Determine Your Usage and Save Water With These Handy Tips
We may be in the middle of winter, but it’s still dry out there—and despite recent rain and snow, Lehigh, Northampton, and 33 other counties are experiencing drought conditions.
LCA is not experiencing any system-specific issues related to supplying our customers with water, but we are asking customers to conserve water and reduce water use by at least 5-10 percent. We’re keeping a very close eye on the situation, and will provide you with regular updates on our Water Supply page, and on our social media accounts.
In the meantime, there are a number of simple things you can do to cut your water use. And drought conditions or not, each tip will help conserve our precious water resources and save you money on your water bill.
First, Get a Baseline
How and where do you use water? Here in the U.S., we typically use more water per person per day than any other country in the world. Estimates on the amount vary, but at the low end, it works out to about 82 gallons of water a day, and on the high end, 156 gallons of water a day! In other countries, those figures range from about 3 gallons a day to 77 gallons a day.
To determine your personal water footprint, you’ll need to track your activities throughout the day to see how much you’re consuming, and to determine where you can stop wasting water.
Much of our water waste can be traced to the bathroom (frequently flushing toilets, taking long showers). An 8-minute shower, for instance, uses about 17 gallons of water; about 3 of those gallons run right down the drain while we wait for the water to warm up—that’s a lot of wasted water, drought watch or not.
To figure out how much water you’re consuming, you can use the handy worksheet that’s included in our Customer Troubleshooting Guide, or try the Water Footprint Network’s personal water calculator.
Next, Take Action
Now that you know where your water is going, it’s time to find ways to reduce your use.
First, check for (and fix) leaks. If you’re a renter, report leaks to your building manager. Things like drippy faucets and outdoor taps, leaky hoses, inefficient irrigation systems and old toilet flappers can waste hundreds or thousands of gallons a year. Just a single leaky faucet can waste more than 100 gallons of water annually. The United States Geological Survey has a handy Drip Calculator that flushes out an estimate of how much water a leaky faucet is actually wasting over time.
You can check out our post from Fix a Leak Week for handy tips, tricks, and links to resources on finding and repairing leaks around the house. Because whether we’re experiencing drought conditions or not, it’s always a good idea to conserve water.
You can easily change your habits using the tips below.
18 Easy Ways To Conserve Water Today
1. Replace older plumbing fixtures with WaterSense products.
2. Turn the water off while you brush your teeth.
3. Take shorter (and fewer) showers. Only shower when you need to. Set a timer and challenge yourself (and the family) to shave off a few minutes each day. Skip baths altogether.
4. Collect excess shower water with a bucket and reuse it in the garden. You can also reuse it to flush the toilet—just dump the water in the bowl when you’re done, instead of pressing the handle.
5. “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.” Only flush your toilet for No. 2.
6. NEVER use the toilet to dispose of wipes, sanitary products, tissues, medications, or anything that’s not human waste or toilet paper. This not only saves water, it prevents costly clogs.
7. Use two pans for handwashing dishes: one for the soapy water, and one for rinse water. When you’re done, reuse the water in the garden.
8. Skip pre-rinsing your dishes—just scape the worst off to be composted. Today’s dishwashers are pretty powerful, and are quite adept at handling stuck-on food in all but the worst cases. If something’s really stuck on, soak the dishes, then re-use the water in the garden.
9. Only do full loads of dishes and laundry.
10. Refreshing your pet’s water? Use the old water for your houseplants.
11. Reuse water from dehumidifiers to water plants.
12. Save and reuse water from steaming or boiling vegetables and pasta to add flavor to your next recipe that calls for water. You can also save it to make a vegetable stock, for baking, or (if it’s not too salty) watering the plants.
13. Collect vegetable rinse water in a pan or bucket, and reuse it to water houseplants.
14. Only wash your car at a carwash! They’re much more efficient than a garden hose and bucket.
15. Use a broom to clean the sidewalk or driveway—not the hose.
16. Skip the garbage disposal: Start composting your food waste, or throw it in the trash.
17. Don’t use running water to thaw frozen foods. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator, or use the defrost setting on the microwave.
18. Report leaks at work—taps, excessively running toilets, etc. You’ll not only save water, you’ll save your employer money and (hopefully) earn their gratitude.
For more ways to save water and updates on drought conditions, check out our Conserve Water page. And if you have any tips or tricks we haven’t mentioned, let us know in the comments!