Module 4 personal consumption
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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Geography
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Feb 20, 2024
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Uploaded by SuperComputerLeopard33
Amber Smith
Southern New Hampshire University Module 4
November 2023
The environmental issue I chose to discuss in my final project is water quality. Using water daily affects the environment and the water quality for everyone. The more water one person uses daily negatively affects the environment in several ways. The more water that is depleted from a water table on a regular basis, the poorer the water quality can become. I live in a 2500sq foot home with 5 people. We all use water for showers weekly as well as drinking water, cooking, dishwasher, washer for clothing and brushing teeth just to name a few. Flushing toilets is even included in water usage even though we think we do not have an option in that choice. The average month for our household with water consumption and usage is around 8000 gallons. Which is 96,000 per year. According to the USGS, the average household uses around 300 gallons of water per day(“Water data for the Nation”, 2023). Compared to the average household, my household uses slightly less at 266 gallons of water per day. The first data table with the scatter plot is our households average water usage for a year. This includes gallons per month for the year
The table below shows a lot of the common water uses and how much that takes each time:
Table from: (“How much water do American households use each day?, 2023)
I feel like part of the reason why our household is slightly less than the average is because I have always been interested in conversation with the environment since I was younger. So, I am more mindful than an average person of water consumption. Although we could do better. Some ways to improve water consumption and ultimately water quality globally include: Ensuring appliances are working properly and there are not leaks with the dishwasher, toilets, showers, and sinks. If appliances are not working properly and are leaking, they cost a lot more water in cost to your utility and cost to the environment. Since brushing teeth with the tap running constantly takes an entire 1 gallon of water a day and we have 5 people, making that total at least
5 per day if we run the water, we can turn the tap water off while brushing. You can turn the water on at the beginning then turn off and brush. Then turn back on to rinse. That would save several gallons of water per day in just my household alone. Upgrading a showerhead and other faucets to water saving faucet heads. The faucets save water and provide a higher pressure. So you still get the higher pressure but would be using less water and would never know the difference. The changes that I have personally already made in my household are the faucets and shower heads. We did that several years ago and found it saved us money and water consumption
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over time. We also turn the water off while brushing already. I think another thing I would consider doing is a better job of checking for leaks and our appliances being in good working order. I have heard our toilet running for periods of time and just let it go. I should make sure that
the water is not just running for long periods of time wasting water. I would also consider watering our lawn and outdoor plants in a manner that wastes less water. I would let the natural rain do a lot of the work and only make sure we are watering the lawn and plants when absolutely necessary.
Resources: “Water data for the Nation” USGS. November 2023. https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-
resources/data
“How Much Water Do American Households Use Each Day? Clean Water Center. November 2023. https://omahawater.com/how-much-water-american-households-use-each-day/