To reach southern California, water must travel long distances through complex delivery systems.
Most Californians understand that swelling populations in the southwest are and will continue to outpace water supply both from the California State Water Project sources and the Colorado River.
Additionally, Golden state residents are learning that water-wise habits in our landscape and gardens can save up to 60 percent of this precious resource. But something many folks aren’t aware of is that there is another compelling reason to reduce excessive water usage: energy conservation.
The California State Water Project is the largest state-built water and power development and conveyance system in the nation. It includes facilities—pumping and power plants; reservoirs, lakes, and storage tanks; and canals, tunnels, and pipelines—that capture, store, and convey water to 29 water agencies from one end of the state to the other.
The SWP’s watershed begins in the mountains and waterways around the Feather River and Lake Oroville areas north of Sacramento. It continues south through a multitude of conveyance systems and pumping stations finally terminating in the southern most point at Lake Perris in Riverside county.
Pumping (moving) and treating this water is incredibly energy-intensive! For example, the
Pumping water over Tehachapi Mountains is incredibly energy-intensive!
state water project, with its big pumps that move water over the Tehachapi Mountains to Southern California, is the state’s single biggest user of electricity!
With this in mind we as consumers of this water can make smarter, more informed choices. Collectively we can have a powerful impact on energy consumption in our state.
How so you may ask? It’s simple, outdated energy-use habits associated with water use from our landscapes and gardens combined with our home appliances such as dishwashers, hot water heaters, and laundry machines — add up to a lot of unnecessary pollution and waste. The California Energy Commission estimates that twenty percent of our state’s electricity is associated with water use, mostly by urban customers.
Installing a native plant garden will dramatically lower your water usage!
We all can do our part to reduce excessive water usage with very little effort and lifestyle change. Turn your tap off whenever possible, upgrade that inefficient water heater or dishwasher when it is at the end of its useful life and install water-wise landscapes and gardens.
Remember that adopting smart water-use habits is an easy way that every one of us can have a direct, positive impact on our environment statewide and with a modicum of effort we all can conserve our most precious resources!
© 2012, Rob Moore. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Rob Moore
and by using grey water in the garden? Or is that not allowed in California?
Diana of Elephant’s Eye recently posted..The garden at Elephant’s Eye in September
Some are using grey water, but it can get a bit sticky depending on the municipality you are dealing with!
Hi Rob, and thanks for clarifying this issue! In my book, Energy-Wise Landscape Design, I tried to make the connection between water and energy, and your comments really support this idea.
I found this article incredibly interesting because I didn’t realize all the effort that was put into transporting the water over the mountains. It almost seems like one step forward and two steps back. Just to get the water there we have to use tons of electricity. California is usually great at making forward changing progress, hopefully they can make changes in time and get the rest of the country on the right foot.
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