5 Water-Wasting Habits You Might Not Know You Have

It shouldn't take mandatory water restrictions like the ones in place last weekend and over the 4th of July to jolt us into using a less of the wet stuff.

If we can get by without watering our lawns so often or washing as many loads of laundry during a mandatory water restriction, we can probably cut back on the amount of water we use at home on a regular basis.

College Park was one of the cities covered by Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission water restrictions after last Sunday's big storm knocked out a water filtration plant in Montgomery County. Over the July 4 weekend, restrictions were necessary because of a cracked water main.

In the past, though, WSSC occasionally has banned car washing and lawn watering and even asked us to flush our toilets less because it hasn't rained enough and there's simply not enough water to go around.

Every time, we live through it.

I'm going to make a real effort to use less water all the time, not just during water restrictions. I don't think it will be too hard to cut back—as long as I think about how much water I'm using.

My biggest sacrifice will be shortening the long, hot showers I love to take, but I'm going to try. Still, not all water-wasters are so obvious. Here are five water-wasting bad habits you might not realize you've got—and that we can all change pretty easily:

1. Ignoring leaks: That annoying drip-drip-drip from the bathroom faucet could be wasting more than 3,000 gallons of water a year, estimates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A toilet that runs constantly can waste 200 gallons a day, and most likely, all you have to do is replace the toilet flapper, which is a simple, do-it-yourself job.

2. "Watering" your driveway: Even after you set your sprinklers to spray only the grass and not waste a drop by overshooting onto any hard surfaces, adjust them once a month. Sprinkler heads can be knocked out of alignment if playing children bump them, if the soil they're buried in moves or if you brush against them with the lawnmower. Like anything with moving parts, sprinkler heads are bound to come out of alignment from time to time.

3. Watering your lawn too late: I see sprinklers spraying lawns all over College Park on hot summer afternoons. Early morning watering is better because less water evaporates before it hits the ground when the air is still cool and the wind is calm. A bonus: Your grass is less likely to suffer from lawn diseases that can set in when it sits overnight in wet soil that hasn't had a chance to dry out before the sun goes down.

4. Hanging onto ancient appliances: Newer dishwashers, washing machines and water heaters are so much more water- and energy-efficient that it might be worth it to replace your old ones even if the relics are still working. An example: A front-loading washer cleans clothes just as well but uses 18 fewer gallons of water per load than a top-loader.

5. Wasting energy: It takes water to produce energy, so you save water when you cut back on energy use. The reverse is true as well: It takes energy to get water to your home. Use less of either and you'll save the other for use by future generations.