If you receive a letter from Harris County MUD 208 and you are told you are one of the top 10 residential water users, it is not a good thing. It means your household is using well above the “normal” average household usage of water in our area. Just remember the average household’s “leaks” can account for more than 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year, or the amount needed to wash 270 loads of laundry. There are several things you can do to make certain you do not receive this letter.

1. Check your sprinkler system to see if it needs to be repaired. Please physically check your sprinklers and make certain all heads are in working order and not watering the neighbor’s yard or the street.
2. Place a drop of food coloring in the toilet tank. If the color shows up in the bowl within 15 minutes with-out flushing, you have a leak. Make sure to flush immediately after this experiment to avoid staining the tank.
3. Keep your home leak-free by repairing dripping faucets, toilet flappers, and showerheads. In most cases, fixtures replacement parts don’t require a major investment.
4. Don’t leave water running while you brush your teeth or shave.
5. Don’t use water to do what can be done with a broom. Cleaning the driveway and sidewalk with a broom rather than a hose does the same thing, and usually takes less time.
6. Keeping your yard green does not require that sprinkler to run for hours on end or daily for that matter. You just need 1″ a week for a healthy lawn. Irrigate your lawn deeply and infrequently. Turn off the system if we have had 1″ of rain that week.
7. Wash only full loads of clothes.
8. Install rain barrels or harvest rainwater for outdoor irrigation.
9. Run your dishwasher with full loads only.
10. Take shorter showers.

Basically, you don’t want to be on this list. Yes everyone for years has thought that water was always going to flow out of the faucet with just a simple twist of your hand. Luckily we are not living in California and yes we have had a wonderful, wet winter but we still need to always be mindful of our natural resources. We are just now experiencing a recovery from some of the worst droughts in Texas.