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Toilets

The Backstory

Roughly 26 billion gallons of water are used each day in the United States, about 5.75 billion gallons of which go to operate toilets. The average person in the U.S. uses 100 gallons daily. Residential water use accounts for 13 percent of the water used in this country (agriculture, at 41 percent, and industry, at 46 percent, are the biggest consumers). Considering that only 3 percent of the earth's water is fit for human consumption, preserving water is an urgent task.

Environmental Issues

Household water consumption has a significant impact on aquatic life, especially when water supplies come from freshwater lakes and streams. The Rio Grande, recently named one of the World Wildlife Fund's Top 10 Rivers at Risk, has been so overextracted that saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico has begun moving upstream and endangering native species. So far, 32 of the river's 121 native species have been displaced as a result of increased salinity. And in New Mexico, supplying Santa Fe with water has transformed the Santa Fe River, named America's Most Endangered River in 2007 by the non-profit American Rivers, into a dusty ditch for most of the year.

Just like the Rio Grande, city water supplies are succumbing to saltwater intrusion, which occurs when increased pumping of groundwater allows saltwater pools to infiltrate freshwater supplies, making water unfit for human use. In response, cities are installing energy-intensive desalination plants, which require more fossil-fuel-derived power that, in turn, contributes to global warming. To date, desalination plants are under construction in Tampa Bay, Florida, and cities across California, with even more plants being proposed for that state.

Aside from water use, toilets contribute to the environmental load of pharmaceutical chemicals when people flush leftover pills rather than disposing of them in the land trash. These chemicals bypass wastewater treatment plants and wind up in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. To date, as many as 100 different pharmaceuticals, including antiseizure medications, analgesics, and ethinyl estridiol (the active ingredient in birth control pills) have been identified, and their effects are wide-ranging. For example, exposure to sewage known to contain ethinyl estradiol has been associated with the feminization of male carp and trout, exposure to antidepressants affects shellfish reproduction, blood-pressure drugs are reducing sperm counts in aquatic organisms, and in the Pacific, exposure to Prozac has reduced hunting instincts in fish.

Social Issues

According to a recent government survey, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that "at least 36 states are anticipating local, regional or statewide water shortages by 2013." The scarcity of any necessary natural resource leads to political conflict, and many states are in the midst of water wars and disputes over water rights.

Developers in south Florida, for instance, recently requested additional water supplies to be diverted from their northern neighbors, infuriating citizens in north Florida. Rather than encouraging water conservation, the state responded by providing funding for costly wastewater disinfection plants. Out West, water wars have raged for decades, mainly among farmers, who need water for their crops, and city water consumers. Cities are gradually taking more water, which could mean a long-term struggle for small farmers. Denver Water, which already sends over 15 billion gallons of water a year to the highly populated Front Range region, is proposing to send an additional 5 billion gallons through an expansion of the area's water supply, which currently diverts water from 40 points on mountain tributaries. Local municipal and environmental groups are fighting these efforts and campaigning to restore water levels in order to preserve the watershed's threatened trout populations.

In Nevada, Las Vegas water officials are campaigning for rights to the states rural groundwater, hoping to redirect 65 billion gallons of groundwater a year to support the city's phenomenal growth rate, a deal that could potentially deprive farmers of well water for irrigation.