Terry Stokka has lived in Black Forest for 29 years. He is president of the Friends of Black Forest, chairman of the Black Forest Land Use Committee and chairman of the Black Forest Water & Wells Committee.
Iím sure most of you are aware we have water shortages in Colorado. Water is increasingly becoming a more precious and scarce resource. The old phrase, ìWhiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting,î is becoming more true every day. Our Colorado water future will clearly need some serious decisions and even hardships.In this column I would like to examine some of the issues surrounding water in Colorado and specifically water in El Paso County. This month, Iíll address personal water consumption and hope to educate you on the topic, maybe even show you ways to consume less water.We appear to be headed into a very dry summer; thus, a continuation of our drought. At the rate things are going, water restrictions will be in effect for the city of Colorado Springs. Many of your water providers may have restrictions as well. Lawns will be stressed this summer. For those of you on private wells, you are on your honor as to how much water you use, but remember that straw you have in the ground goes down to a non-renewable aquifer, which you share with more than 22,000 other well owners in El Paso County.We are so accustomed to turning on the faucet and getting clean, plentiful water that we donít often think about how much we actually use. Let me give you some numbers. Water is measured in gallons for most of us but in a larger sense it is measured in acre-feet. One acre-foot of water is 326,000 gallons, which is enough to cover a football field minus 10 yards to a depth of 1 foot. That is a lot of water. The water providers tell us the average family uses 0.35 acre-feet of water per year. This works out to 313 gallons per day. If you have a lawn, this number goes up to about 0.5 acre-feet or 447 gallons per day and will be even higher if you have a very green lawn.How do you compare to this average? Think of the orange Home Depot or the blue Loweís buckets that hold 5 gallons. The average family uses 62 of those buckets per day. You are probably saying, ìI donít use that much water!î but you might be surprised. If you consider that a dishwasher or clothes washer takes 10 to 20 gallons, a shower can be 10 gallons, a toilet can be 2 gallons per flush; those numbers add up pretty fast. Do you let the water run when you shave? How about when youíre rinsing off the dishes? Is the dishwasher full when you run it? Is the shower a means to de-stress or is it just a get-clean-and-get-out activity? I encourage you to think about where water is being wasted in your homes and find ways to help us all.Many of you have a water meter that was required for your well when your development was started. Others have a meter because your water district sells you water by the gallon. Read your meter on the first and at the end of each month, then divide by the number of days in the month to see exactly how much water you are using. I would be interested to hear your results. For those of us on private wells with no meter, we arenít able to get those measurements but we can still be conscious of our usage.Water conservation is a state of mind. Think water conservation. You will be helping all of us who currently live in El Paso County and the thousands who are yet to come. Our goal is to keep Southern Colorado viable and beautiful for decades to come.
