From Volusia County Water Resources and Utilities

September/October 2002

As part of an ongoing effort to keep our Utility customers informed, Volusia County Water Resources and Utilities will continue this year to publish a bimonthly newsletter. Look for helpful water conservation tips, articles or activities for children and much more.

Rain Barrels
Residential irrigation can account for 50% of residential water use. Rain barrels not only store water, they help decrease demand during the summer months. Only ¼ inch rainfall runoff from the average roof will completely fill a typical barrel.
Collection of water from rooftop runoff can provide an ample supply of free "soft water" containing no chlorine, lime or calcium. Collecting this water will reduce your demand for treated tap water, and save money by lowering your monthly bill. Rainwater diversion will also help decrease the burden on water treatment facilities and municipal drainage systems during storms. The storage of rainwater is also recommended for general emergency preparedness, or for areas prone to drought. A good formula to remember: 1 inch of rain on a 1000 square foot roof yields 623 gallons of water. Calculate the yield of your roof by multiplying the square footage of your roof by 623 and divide by 1000. Rainwater harvesting is an old fashioned method of obtaining water but is making a comeback due to the need for water conservation. Many web sites have information available on rain barrels, even how to make your own. You can check out the Volusian Water Alliance web site at www.volusianwater.org. Information on rain barrels is found under "What’s New".

Wilbur-by-the-Sea Stormwater Improvements"

The community of Wilbur-by-the-Sea is currently undergoing construction of stormwater improvements. These improvements are designed to reduce flooding at intersections and provide treatment of stormwater runoff. The project consists of the installation of underground, perforated pipes surrounded by a gravel rock bed, called an "ex-filtration trench". This system works by collecting stormwater runoff into the pipe, and then the water is dissipated through the pipe perforations into the gravel rock bed. This underground storage system is being installed at selected flood prone intersections. In addition, 3 vacant residential lots are to be converted to shallow, landscaped retention areas. The project is expected to be completed by November 2002.

Plant of the Month

An evergreen flowering shrub, they are ideal low-maintenance plants. They grow between 3 and 6 feet tall and about the same in width. A few are large shrubs that can be trained to a small tree form. Indian hawthorns are grown for their attractively neat, mounded form and clusters of flowers. The pink/white crabapple-like flowers open in clusters above the foliage in mid-April to May. Bluish-black berries appear in late summer and persist through the winter. Plants prefer sun, although they will grow in partial shade Pruning is rarely necessary.

NEW DATA LOGGER

To help customers cut water use, Volusia County Utilities has launched a water audit program. We recently purchased water meter data loggers. The data logger is a portable flow recording instrument compatible with almost all water meters. It is small enough to fit inside a meter box and is easy to set up. The unit is affixed to the customers water meter for a one-week period. All water use information is stored, then down loaded onto a computer program. The results are surprising. Recorded water use will show slow leaks, normal water use and irrigation use over the weeklong period.

During an audit, a customer used 5,640 gallons during one week. The data loggers print out displayed 980 gallons consumed for routine household use and 4,660 gallons used for irrigation. The report even showed five hours of total irrigation time with flows between 12 to 21 gallons per minute.

The meter data logger also determined one customer had a slow water leak of 14 gallons per day or 440 gallons per month.

Utilities Operations has two data loggers. Customers may call the Billing Department at 736-5971 to request installation of the data logger on their meter. Installation will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Water Conservation Door hanger

Click on the image to the right and print the next page. Using the pattern, cut out the door hanger shape. You might want to have some supervision doing this. Using colorful markers or crayons, write a water conservation message on your door hanger then hang it on a door in your home where you want people to be more conservative with the water. For example: Three-Minute Showers Only, The Toilet is Not a Wastebasket. A door hanger with one of these messages should go on the bathroom door. You can decorate your door hanger too. Use old fabric or paper scraps. That’s recycling and that helps the environment too.

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