Drought tips to help you save water indoors

As winter and the holiday season approach, California water providers are bracing for what could be the fourth dry year in a row. Your conservation efforts are helping and the need continues to conserve in Contra Costa. During this time of year, the average household uses about 150 gallons per day. Throw in a few house guests over the holidays—as well as the extra dishes, laundry, showers, and cooking—and that figure can quickly climb. Here are Contra Costa Water District’s top indoor drought tips to help you keep saving and make the most of every drop. Also, a quick reminder to adjust all outdoor watering this time of year!

Top Drought Tips for Indoor Water Use

Eliminate Leaks

Verify if you have any continuous leaks on your property by checking the low-flow indicator on your water meter, which will move if any water is being used. First, make sure you’ve turned off all water at the property. Get a step-by-step guide on How to Read Your Water Meter.

Run Full Dishwasher Loads

A lot of water can be saved by running full loads of your dishwasher which likely uses less than 6 gallons per cycle. Running water during handwashing for just 4 minutes will use more water than running a dishwasher!

Install Water-Efficient Fixtures

Make sure to install newer water-efficient showerheads and faucet aerators if yours haven’t been updated in the last 5-6 years. These items are free at CCWD’s main office. Upgrade your toilet to a WaterSense 1.28 gallon per flush (gpf) model if it was made before 1994 and uses more than 3.4 gpf.

Upgrade to Water-Efficient Appliances
If your clothes washer is an older top-loading model, consider replacing it with a new EnergyStar front-loading model which uses over 50% less water.

Monitor Your Water Use
Regularly monitoring your water use is critical if you want to use water efficiently. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. If you’re receiving a bill directly from CCWD, sign up for My Water Report to view your historical water use, set up high use notifications, and utilize the "check if I have a leak" module in My Water Report to assist you in checking for leaks. Additionally, consider installing a Flume Smart Home Water Monitor device – more details below.

More drought tips can be found at ccwater.com/drought.

Automated Smart Leak Detection

Invest in a Flume Smart Home Water Monitor to help you manage, monitor, and conserve our most precious resource. Flume can help you:

For residents who receive a water bill directly from Contra Costa Water District, we offer an instant rebate off the purchase price. PLUS there’s a Black Friday Sale 11/21 through 11/28 where Flume will automatically take an extra $10 off the device in addition to CCWD’s instant rebate . Don’t miss this opportunity to get a Flume device for less than $45 (plus tax and shipping)! You can’t beat that price (regularly $199)!

To participate, get your Flume device at flumewater.com/ccwater.

Join the Cleaner Contra Costa Challenge
Become part of the movement to make Contra Costa a cleaner and greener community. Thinking green means working together for the common goal of a cleaner, more ecologically sustainable community. It’s being mindful of what helps - and hurts - the environment and taking little everyday actions that make a big difference over time. And you might even save some money while you’re at it. The Cleaner Contra Costa Challenge is a fun and educational action-based website that allows residents, businesses, schools, and community groups to track their progress as they implement actions and measures that help reduce waste, save water, save energy, and save money.

Did you know that up to 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions each year come from five basic household activities? These include transportation, electricity, heating/cooling, food, and waste. The Cleaner Contra Costa Challenge provides helpful tips for all these key areas and features an entire section on water saving measures and actions you can take. It also includes local resources on available CCWD rebates, services, and information to help your water conservation actions. There are even rewards for investing in bigger ticket alternative energy strategies such as energy efficient appliances, home solar systems, and electric vehicles.

Take a peek at some water efficiency actions you can implement for your household at cleanercontracosta.org. You might even be inspired to organize a group or a team and get a friendly competition going with other teams. Our community can accomplish so much when we work together to take sustainable actions! Join your community on the path to create more healthy, sustainable, and resilient communities.

Los Vaqueros Demonstrates Value During Drought

The Bay Area’s largest drinking water reservoir is carefully managed so you have reliable access to high-quality water whenever you need it. Through drought or deluge, Contra Costa Water District’s Los Vaqueros Reservoir gives us a place to store fresh water from the Delta when it is available and to draw upon that fresh water when it is needed. In 2022, facing steep reductions in our water supply, Los Vaqueros Reservoir is providing an additional 6 billion gallons of high-quality water for customers that we otherwise wouldn’t have available. That water is one of the reasons we didn’t face more severe cutbacks this year. View the current level of Los Vaqueros Reservoir.