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EBMUD mandatory water rationing requirements

itsacrispy

itsacrispy

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Hi all,

Does anyone happen to know what the mandatory water rationing requirements are for EBMUD? I want to know what it entails if/when it goes into effect. If it's as bad as it was last year, i.e. neighbors informing on one another, I may have to consider downgrading my tank. My wife and I are already limited to 100GPD each!

Thanks,
Mike
 
Yikes sorry to hear that, I fricking HATE mandatory water rationing, or any other type. It rewards those who have been wasteful because them cutting back 20% (or whatever it is) just means they can be less wasteful, and people who have been fairly conscious about conserving get hammered because they're already at a minimum usage and are asked to cut back more.

However things you can do other than downsizing, reduce the frequency of your water changes, or go a DI resin only route on making freshwater, or paying the store water prices for RO water, all of which do have disadvantages but it'll keep your tank.

Those are just fish tank related water usages, there are many others you can use, 15 or so years ago we went through one and other things we did was take more military style showers (water on to get wet, water off, soap up, water on to rinse off, water off)... showers are huge wastes of water most of the water is simply beating against your skin and not doing any actual washing. Do laundry? Collect rinse water from the final rinse cycle, pump that back into the washing machine for the next load (basically halve your water usage there as well), go to the bathroom in public places more... :D ok that one I won't do personally :D
 
Yep, I remember the rationing we did 15 years ago: "If it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow". My wife never experienced water rationing before, so when I told her about that mantra, as well as military showers, she thought I was kidding.

Anyhow, to be completely honest, I do prefer a continuous hot shower so I'll probably install a more efficient showerhead. I thought about using the RODI waste water for the laundry machine, but my wife will not have it. As for DI resin-only, I checked w/ Marc at Melev's Reef, he informed me that I would burn through the resin in one hour of use. I know I can recharge DI resin, but the time and care that it takes just isn't for me.

If it really comes down to it, I will downsize the tank drastically to save on the water bill and time. My HOA knows I have a 150 gallon tank in my home, and though they can't do anything just yet, I wouldn't be surprised if I got a knock on the door if/when mandatory rationing hits.
 
Just curious, is your TDS high?

I have been using a DI Resin-only system going through two canisters and it has lasted me longer than I thought. This is in part due to two things though, my TDS varies from around 25 to 35ppm which is quite low. Secondly my tank is small at 28g. That said, I have probably done well over 150 gallons of water changes and the resin is still only about a fifth spent (I use the color changing DI Resin). I also have a dual TDS meter that verifies TDS in and out.

This would not have worked for me when I lived in Woodland where my TDS was around 600ppm and I went through RO membranes faster than I liked. But I thought I'd mention it still might be an option if you have low TDS.
 
[quote author=itsacrispy link=topic=6703.msg86559#msg86559 date=1236277157]
Yep, I remember the rationing we did 15 years ago: "If it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow". My wife never experienced water rationing before, so when I told her about that mantra, as well as military showers, she thought I was kidding.
[/quote]
Yeah I never used the brown/yellow one, even though I heard it, I just make sure to drink plenty of liquids and then my pee isn't yellow to start with :D

Anyhow, to be completely honest, I do prefer a continuous hot shower so I'll probably install a more efficient showerhead.
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Hey who doesn't! I still wonder why I can shower in a few minutes yet the significant other can take over a half hour, I mean ok longer hair but geeze. She will most likely object if I tell her to cut it short. Need to check my shower head though don't know if it's a "water saving" I think the only thing that makes it water saving is a restricter valve right inside the part that screws to the wall pipe, which I conveniently removed because the flow was nicer before :).

I thought about using the RODI waste water for the laundry machine, but my wife will not have it.
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Unless it's a hot water argument show some numbers for it! While the TDS will be on average about 20% higher, it'll be free of chlorine and other silt like material so is probably better for your washing! Switching to those low-temp detergents can fix the temperature issue. I can understanding doing a "luxury load" but things like jeans and tshirts (about 80% of my clothing :D) hardly needs hot water.

As for DI resin-only, I checked w/ Marc at Melev's Reef, he informed me that I would burn through the resin in one hour of use. I know I can recharge DI resin, but the time and care that it takes just isn't for me.
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As much as I respect Marc's knowledge, I don't like that number of "1 hour". It's quite frankly a load of crap. You will burn through resin on the order of 20 times faster sure, but 1 hour? I can't imagine you can even stick water through it fast enough to burn the resin up in one hour. But fair enough about the recharging resins.

If it really comes down to it, I will downsize the tank drastically to save on the water bill and time. My HOA knows I have a 150 gallon tank in my home, and though they can't do anything just yet, I wouldn't be surprised if I got a knock on the door if/when mandatory rationing hits.
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How much does your HOA know about your tank though? I think the average person might see a big fish tank, but figure it's already full of water why would you need that much more?? :D Besides your HOA checks your water meters? Man... ouch. Most people will narc on you if you wash you car, water your lawn, or do other obvious water usages, I doubt they're counting your flushes or timing your showers.
 
Mike1962: My TDS is around 33 PPM, so I may very well be able to do as you have.

Mike: I'm now thinking that Marc may have made that statement given a much higher TDS than I have. Based on what Mike1962 said, I may be able to run a DI-only set up successfully. If that's the case, can I just remove the line-in to the RO membrane and plumb it directly to the DI unit?

You're probably right about the HOA and the tank, they probably don't know how much water goes into maintaining it. And I don't think they check the meters either. My worry is whether or not they'll have the "water police" on patrol again this year. Each home has their own drain that spills into the ditch along the main street. On a hot Summer day, you can spot which home is using water in their backyard from a mile away.
 
Well I'll restate, you'll most likely burn through your resin 20x faster than you do. That being said, I can easily go through quite a bit of water before resin needs to be replaced.

It's all math, if your RO membrane knocks out 95% of the TDS, then 5% is what's absorbed in the resins, remove the membrane part, and you now have 100% of the TDS, so 20x as much. Everyone's rate of resin depletion is different, if I replace my resin every 2 years, then I'd replace it a little over once a month. It will go much quicker than you think, it's just that "1 hour" number seems quite bogus to me :)

Don't drain your RO waste water, pull a hose in to an inconspicuous part of your backyard if possible, the ground can absorb quite a bit water usually.
 
that being said, I would easily drink and bathe in RO waste water it's really not that much dirtier than what comes out the faucet. My TDS is in the 150-180 range too :)
 
Ah, thanks for clearing that up Mike. I was wondering where that 20X quicker thing was coming from. I still have no idea how often I need to replace my DI resin, it's probably been 2 months since I replace all the cartridges sans the RO membrane. I've probably made about 150 gallons of water since then, and no color change has taken place yet.
 
I wonder why your SO won't let you use the RO waste water for laundry?? It is indeed clean and dechlorinated water. The tds will be slightly higher. If you tds is currenly 33 it will probably be still sub 40.. Way less solids than most locales.. I use my ro waste water for my fw tanks. The water is already dechlorinated and its ready to go right into the tank..
 
[quote author=itsacrispy link=topic=6703.msg86572#msg86572 date=1236281465]


You're probably right about the HOA and the tank, they probably don't know how much water goes into maintaining it. And I don't think they check the meters either. My worry is whether or not they'll have the "water police" on patrol again this year. Each home has their own drain that spills into the ditch along the main street. On a hot Summer day, you can spot which home is using water in their backyard from a mile away.
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Those drains should only be collecting yard water, if your subdivision was built to allow your homes dischange water (I.e water that SHOULD go into a sewer) into the street the EPA would shut down the entire subdivision and make them correct that issue.

That being said the "water police" should only be able to tell what water you use to water your lawn, wash your car etc.....
 
Fishnfst, I'm still trying to educate my wife on that exact fact, that our RO waste water is still cleaner than most Bay Area cities' tap water. Don't know if she'll go for it. That's fine tho, I've been using it to water the plants recently.

Roc, I failed to mention that my RODI unit is outside and the waste water goes into one of the yard drains.

Mike
 
RO waste water has gone through carbon and a particulate filter prior to getting rejected. Sure it may have a bit higher TDS but... it was cleaned up much more then you tap water :) I'd drink it.

We use DI only at Reed as do a million others. Services like Culligan are huge users of DI resin. Rich (Thales) uses DI only and he's not changing 24 filters a day. While Marc is a friend and sells RODI units in this case I think he's blowing some bad smoke!
 
Thanks gresham

I certainly don't want to tarnish marc's reputation. My understanding is that his water may have 15 to 20 times the tds that I have.

Mike
 
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=6703.msg89668#msg89668 date=1237338025]
Sure it may have a bit higher TDS but... it was cleaned up much more then you tap water :) I'd drink it.

[/quote]


So true, I've tested the TDS of a few waste lines and scratched my head, gone back and tested the TDS of the tap and wondered if I could get by without a membrane on some of my HH clients close to the treatment plants. I'm talking 10 TDS when it was 30 before, for me unless you're dealing with delicate animals (which you don't in service generally) 10ppm is amazing.
 
[quote author=itsacrispy link=topic=6703.msg89670#msg89670 date=1237338532]

Thanks gresham

I certainly don't want to tarnish marc's reputation. My understanding is that his water may have 15 to 20 times the tds that I have.

Mike
[/quote]

But he understands the TDS varies from even house to house.

Remember, just because some one sells something doesn't equate to them knowing much about it. You where wise by posting here :)
 
I talked with the local Culligan branch the other week. He was concerned he did not know if DI only water was good enough for Reef tanks but said he has heard of other people doing it. He had a chart based on City and could give an estimate on how long their DI cylinders would last. He said for San Ramon it should be good for 8-12k gallons. The service costs $26 a month and $85 per recharge. If mandatory rationing goes into place I am going to have to go down this route.
 
[quote author=chicken link=topic=6703.msg89689#msg89689 date=1237344869]
I talked with the local Culligan branch the other week. He was concerned he did not know if DI only water was good enough for Reef tanks but said he has heard of other people doing it. He had a chart based on City and could give an estimate on how long their DI cylinders would last. He said for San Ramon it should be good for 8-12k gallons. The service costs $26 a month and $85 per recharge. If mandatory rationing goes into place I am going to have to go down this route.


[/quote]

Wow you got one uninformed employee then. Our local rep had no concerns and even mentioned he's got many aquarium owners (marine) that he services in our area :)
 
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