Thursday, May 27, 2010

got water?


Ironically, since the great flood of 2010, the city of Nashville has been short on water. One of our two water treatment facilities was badly damaged during the flood. In addition to our reservoirs being wiped out, our treatment capacity was down 50%. Since then, we have been on various levels of water restriction.

It rained last night for about 30 minutes, thank goodness. We are still under water restrictions and unable to water landscape plants. However, since my boyfriend ‘outed’ my illicit water usage to a neighbor at a cook-out last night, I will freely admit here that I have watered a few plants with tap water in recent weeks.

The plants I’m illegally watering happen to be my (4) tomato and (3) pepper plants which I’m hoping will be excused since they are ‘crops’ that we will draw nourishment from. Besides, I’m merely using a Yazoo growler which I carry by hand from the kitchen to the garden. There are no hoses involved!

I still remain vigilant in all other realms of water conservation and plan to use any water caught in outdoor containers to water the garden. I wasn’t even going to mention the time someone I live with forgot about the water restrictions and cleaned out his cooler with the hose in the driveway…

But in all seriousness, this water restriction has had a huge impact on our local community. This week, car washes in Davidson County were allowed to re-open for a few hours each day. Along with car washes, many other businesses have been hit hard by the water restrictions. If you own or work for a pressure washing company, pool company, irrigation company, or landscape company, your livelihood is probably in jeopardy.

I was talking to a neighbor from Australia last weekend about the water restrictions. She said that water restrictions like the ones we’ve been living with for a few weeks are a way of life in parts of Australia. In fact, the local government tests the amount of water in your soil and will fine you if the water content is too high!

Our water reservoirs have stabilized to 85%, and they say the other water treatment facility will be operational within the next week. I sure hope it is. But in the meantime the water restrictions have been a good reminder of what we should be doing anyways, conserving water.

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