The average daily per capita water use for Dallas is 198 gallons, according to Dallas Water Utilities, quoted in our September cover story, “Hard Truth, Dry Times.” And it goes up in the summer, when 60 percent of our water goes to outdoor irrigation, and half of that just goes into the streets or evaporates. So I decided to check out my own use.
Last month, before I started once or twice weekly sprinking to save what I could of the lawn, my usage was 178 gallons, based on DWU’s 28-day measuring cycle. It was even lower the previous month.
This month, with fairly miserly lawn-watering, and house guests, I’m up to 217 gpcd. For that, the water use-only part of my bill from DWU is $13.24. (This doesn’t include waste water and garbage pickup). It seems cheap to me. Not that I’m complaining, but if water is the new oil, then maybe we’d conserve more if we paid more. IJS.
Anybody else want to tally and post their daily usage?
