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In regards to saving water, there can be huge benefits to doing so. I'm on the Utility Board overseeing the municipal utilities for my city (electricity, water,

In regards to saving water, there can be huge benefits to doing so. I'm on the Utility Board overseeing the municipal utilities for my city (electricity, water, wastewater, trash). Our city is growing rapidly, and expanding a sewage system is extremely expensive. We're a city of ~60k and are spending ~$200mm to expand our wastewater treatment plants. And densification means current sewage lines can't support the buildings that need to be built. More efficient appliances mean less water going through the sewer, and less wastewater that needs to be treated. Which means lower capital expenditures, which eventually come directly out of your pocket.

Dylan16807 3y ago
It means something, but if a household uses 300 gallons in a day and 3 are going to the dishwasher, you can only improve that so much. And if even a fraction of people feel the need to pre-rinse or post-rinse, those gains can disappear.
zo1 3y ago
Side rant. Convenient how we've created a problem that requires huge infrastructure investment. This was a solved problem with septic tanks, that we could have spent many many multiples of money on improving and making ridiculously fancy with sensors and motors and and and. But alas, government is the Big Job Creator. Got to feed that beast.
- voiper1 3y ago
  I don't buy this cynical take. The current water treatment plants are much more complicated than a simple septic system which lack economies of scale and can still lead to ground water pollution. Also, we've apparently transitioned from waste water being something that had to be dealt with to an actual asset. It can be cleaned to partial usage (and used for agriculture) or directed to help refill specific aquifers.
- brightlancer 3y ago
  Septic tanks are great for single family-dwellings, awful for dense apartment buildings, and scale from great -> awful very quickly in between. IOW, wastewater infrastructure is necessary above a certain density. The irony is that wastewater infrastructure is one of the areas where cities often defer maintenance, leading to sewage backups when it rains.

Dylan16807 3y ago

It means something, but if a household uses 300 gallons in a day and 3 are going to the dishwasher, you can only improve that so much. And if even a fraction of people feel the need to pre-rinse or post-rinse, those gains can disappear.

zo1 3y ago

Side rant. Convenient how we've created a problem that requires huge infrastructure investment. This was a solved problem with septic tanks, that we could have spent many many multiples of money on improving and making ridiculously fancy with sensors and motors and and and. But alas, government is the Big Job Creator. Got to feed that beast.

voiper1 3y ago
I don't buy this cynical take. The current water treatment plants are much more complicated than a simple septic system which lack economies of scale and can still lead to ground water pollution. Also, we've apparently transitioned from waste water being something that had to be dealt with to an actual asset. It can be cleaned to partial usage (and used for agriculture) or directed to help refill specific aquifers.
brightlancer 3y ago
Septic tanks are great for single family-dwellings, awful for dense apartment buildings, and scale from great -> awful very quickly in between. IOW, wastewater infrastructure is necessary above a certain density. The irony is that wastewater infrastructure is one of the areas where cities often defer maintenance, leading to sewage backups when it rains.