They should be required to have a recapture system that gets filtered and sprayed back onto the lawn.
it feels "wrong" but what would that accomplish? it's not like the saved water will be transported to areas that lack it. using it also doesn't deplete it; it's a renewable resource (depends on where you are I suppose. ground water depletion seems to be a problem in some areas).
The issue also is too much freedom. Or more accurately, before somebody flames me, more freedom without recognising its cost.
I consider myself a libertarian, but I think modern Western culture has too much of an entitlement complex rivalling a toddler. We should really temper freedom with social cost. As an example, living in the desert? So yeah, plenty of A/C, high electricity, fossil fuel production, etc. I know somebody will flame me, but I genuinely feel that much of contemporary Western society's issues stem from an abuse of liberty. This is why people are obese, for instance. They eat all they want, and then don't give a shit despite the cumulative effect that millions of obese people have on society. So if healthcare costs rise for everybody, governments have to scale back state provision (this is to my UK compatriots. Do you think the NHS would be viable in 30 years should this continue?), and countries become less productive, yeah a real boon..
Someone further may say I'm not a "true" libertarian lol.. Well yeah, no true Scotsman aside, I don't see liberty at odds with social wellbeing. IMO, the two are inherently linked. We don't allow people to kill and rape others because they negatively affect society in many ways. They violate rights because we created rights concepts to protect ourselves and further society.
Middle East has cheap desalinization figured out. I can buy a bottle of desalinated water for $0.25. "Spring" water costs like $2 a bottle here.
The desalinization wrecks the ecosystem though because they just pump all the brine back out and it kills everything.
I would vote for greywater being used for sprinkler systems. You're absolutely right that it takes too much energy to clean the water, when the only purpose for it is vanity. I think it ought to be mandatory to hook sprinkler systems and toilet water up to greywater systems for new construction.
We also flush our toilets with drinking water, which is really stupid. We should make better use of greywater.
Texas is in a really bad drought right now. In many areas you can't water more than once a week, and they are considering making that every two weeks.
So what the OP wants is happening all around me.
Most water usage is negotiated for this reason. Here in Texas rice farmers are always fighting for the water.
The problem is that while residents face severe restrictions, from what i've read the Oil&Gas companies continue to pump out the water for fracking with no restrictions.
I think there should be a law mandating every person take a 3rd grade science class and learn what the water cycle is. Water is never "wasted".
ps - I used 60,000 gallons of water the last two months. My lawn looks incredible.
no...the problem is people trying to live where there is no water. Its not that hard people...
Relocating billions of people is really really simple.
Relocating billions of people is really really simple.
Natural underground reservoirs that took hundreds of years to fill are getting tapped out all over the country.
People who think that water isn't a scarce and valuable resource don't truly understand the water cycle.
Lawns provide no practical use anyway, at least that I know of. I see no reason to keep them if they can't survive in the natural climate.
Stop shipping food or water to places that can't supply their own food or find their own water.
You don't need to relocate anyone. Stop shipping food or water to places that can't supply their own food or find their own water. The problem solves itself in a single generation. If you live in a desert you have nobody to blame but yourself. Move, adapt or die just like life on earth has been doing since life began.
Relocating billions of people is really really simple.
The problem is, population continues to grow in such places.
I would vote for greywater being used for sprinkler systems. You're absolutely right that it takes too much energy to clean the water, when the only purpose for it is vanity. I think it ought to be mandatory to hook sprinkler systems and toilet water up to greywater systems for new construction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater
uggh, the water just goes back into the ground
Sure, but then we'd have more Texans spread out through the rest of the nation...and it's kind of convenient having them all in one place.