Introduction

We are all aware of our water use when we take a shower, flush the toilet, or run a load of laundry. But this domestic use of water only constitutes about 10% of global water use. The remainder of our water use is embedded in our energy use, in the food we eat, and in the goods we buy. In the US, municipal, state, and federal agencies monitor water quality and operate complex water treatment schemes to keep our homes, factories, and farms supplied with clean water. But the expectation that clean water will always be available at the turn of a faucet is contrary to reality.

Though water is renewable, freshwater is a limited resource as it only constitutes about 2.5% of the global water supply. Of this, only about 1% is easily accessible, for most freshwater is trapped in snowfields and glaciers. Within the next two decades, two thirds of the world’s population will likely face water shortages. Water shortages are already apparent in the United States, with the South and West in particular dealing with increasingly frequent droughts. Factors contributing to water shortages include climate change, an increasing world population, and inefficiencies in how we use water.

Water availability is also contingent on water quality, which can be impacted by human actions. Each of us contributes to water pollution on a daily basis either directly through our own actions (through what we flush away, dump down the drain, or apply to our lawns that can be carried away when it rains), or indirectly (when we use electricity, or purchase food or goods that use water during the manufacturing process).

In this lab you will calculate your personal water consumption to learn about your water footprint. You will also analyze your direct and indirect contributions to water pollution. The lab also includes ideas to reduce your water footprint and contributions to water pollution.

Lab Directions

Part 1: Domestic, Agricultural, and Industrial Water Footprints

1. Complete Table 17.1 in the Lab Response: Domestic (Personal) Water Use Audit to calculate how much water you use in a typical day. Track your water usage for the categories listed in the Water Consumption Chart below. For some categories of water use, such as flushing toilets and drinking water, a daily computation is directly calculable. For other water uses, such as laundry, you will first need to work out a weekly estimate and from that compute your daily use of water.

Water Consumption

Sources of Water Usage	Calculating Water Usage (person/day)
Flushing toilets	Calculating water used on a daily basis for flushing toilets: average number of daily flushes x water per flush Find out how much water your toilets use per flush or use these figures: 6 gallons/flush for older toilets prior to 1992 1.6 gallons/flush for toilets since 1992 1.3 gallons/flush for some newer toilets
Bathing / showering	Calculating water used on a daily basis for showering or bathing: For showers: average number of daily showers x length of shower (mins) x water flow per minute (as calculated)* For baths: average number of daily baths x time it takes for bath to fill (mins) x water flow per minute (as calculated)*
Handwashing / brushing teeth	Calculating water used on a daily basis for hand washing/brushing teeth: number of times faucet is used x length of time water runs in each use x water flow per minute (as calculated)*
Laundry	Calculating water used on a daily basis for laundry: number of loads (weekly use / number of people / 7) x water per load Find out what your washing machine uses per load or use these figures: 35 gallons per load for standard top-loading washers with agitator 20 gallons per load for high efficiency top-loading washers without agitators 15 gallons per load for standard front-loading washers 10 gallons per load for high efficiency front-loading washers
Dishwasher use / dishwashing by hand	Calculating water used on a daily basis for dishwashing: For dishwasher: number of times dishwasher is used (weekly use / number of people / 7) x water per load Find out what your dishwasher uses per load or use these figures: 12 gallons per load for older dishwashers prior to 2013 5 gallons per load since 2013 3 gallons per load for Energy Star models For handwashing dishes: number of times dishes are handwashed x length of time water runs in each use x water flow per minute (as calculated)* and adjust for the number of people in your household as necessary
Cleaning / cooking / drinking	Calculating water used on a daily basis for cleaning/cooking/drinking: For some (like drinking water) you can estimate your daily water use For other water use in this category calculate as follows: number of times faucet is used x length of time water runs in each use x water flow per minute (as calculated)* and adjust for the number of people in your household as necessary
Other including lawn / garden / car washing / leaks / pets	Calculating water used on a daily basis for all other uses: estimate of total water used / number of people in your household as necessary; divide by 7 if your estimate was for a week

* To calculate the water flow rate for any faucet or shower, place a large enough container (of known volume) under the water faucet or shower and determine how fast the water fills the container when the faucet or shower is adjusted for the normal flow you use. From that you can determine water flow/minute. For example, if a 4-gallon container fills in 2 minutes, water flow rate is 2 gallons/minute. If you have multiple showers and faucets, you can calculate this flow rate for the faucet/shower you use most often.

2. Evaluate your water supply to determine if your water availability, access, affordability, safety, and acceptability are as described below.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/292, which recognized the human right to clean drinking water and sanitation. As described by Borja-Vega and Kloeve (2018) the right to water encompasses five dimensions:

• • Availability. The water supply must be sufficient and continuous for personal and domestic uses, which include water for drinking, washing of clothes, food preparation, and personal and household hygiene. Between 50–100 liters (13-26 gallons) of water per person per day are needed to ensure that most basic needs are met and few health concerns arise.

How much water do you use on a daily basis? How does it compare to 50-100 liters of water per person per day, which is considered adequate to meet basic needs? How much more water do you use and how many people could your “surplus” water support?

• • Accessibility. Everyone has the right to water and sanitation facilities that are physically accessible within or in the immediate vicinity of the household, educational institution, workplace, or health institution. The water source should be within 1,000 meters of the home and collection time should not exceed 30 minutes.

How accessible is your water supply? Are your water sources within 1,000 meters of your home, school, or workplace, and do you spend less than 30 minutes collecting water for daily use?

• • Affordability. Water, and water facilities and services, must be affordable for all. Water costs should not exceed 3 percent of household income.

Investigate the affordability of your water supply. Is it less than 3% of your household income? Ideally the easiest way to do this would be using a water bill, if your household receives one. If it is included as part of your rent you can assume that it affordable. Other ways to consider additional water costs is to calculate what your household spends on purchasing water (such as bottled water) or on water treatment (if you are on a private well).

• • Quality and Safety. The water supply should be safe for human consumption and for personal and household hygiene. This means that the water is free from microorganisms, chemical substances, and radiological hazards that constitute a threat to a person’s health.

Investigate the quality of your water supply. For most people in DuPage County, water comes from Lake Michigan and is provided to us through the DuPage Water Commission, so you can check out the information regarding water quality on their website. Additionally, you town/village/city should have information about the water supply.

• • Acceptability. Water and sanitation facilities should be culturally appropriate and sensitive to gender, lifecycle, and privacy requirements.

How acceptable is your water supply? Are your water and sanitation sources culturally appropriate and sensitive to gender, lifecycle, and privacy requirements?

3. Answer questions 1-2 on the Lab Response for Part 1.
4. The domestic water consumption figure calculated in Table 17.1 only accounts for about 10% of your total water use. Agriculture (accounting for about 70%) and industry (accounting for about 20%) are not included. To calculate your agricultural and industrial water footprint, use the Extended Personal Water Footprint Calculator on the Water Footprint Network.

• • Select your country of residence.
  • To calculate your agricultural footprint, enter information about your food consumption.
  • To calculate your industrial footprint, you can either enter your income or better yet, enter your expenses (i.e., the approximate total cost of your share of housing, transportation, utilities, and anything you purchase [clothes, books, electronics, etc.], whether you paid for it or someone else covered the expense for you).
  • Calculate your agricultural and industrial water footprint in liters using the following conversion factor: 1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters.
  • NOTE: You do not need to enter information about your domestic water use, as you already calculated that in Part 1.

5. Answer questions 3-5 on the Lab Response for Part 1.

Part 2: Contributions to Water Pollution

1. Complete Table 17.2 in the Lab Response: Contributions to Water Pollution to identify and describe activities that result in your contributing to water pollution (from home, work, school, recreation, etc.) and analyze the effects of your pollution.

To help you with filling out Table 17.2 you may use your textbook or credible resources from internet. Embed citations within each response as appropriate. Provide complete citations for your resources, not simply URLs/web addresses.

Remember that we all contribute to all categories of water pollution. Some contributions are direct while others are indirect. A direct contribution is an action on your part that leads to pollution. An indirect contribution is when you do not personally cause the pollution, but the products or services you use cause pollution during their production or transportation. In your table include both direct contributions (such as laundry detergents you wash down the drain) as well as indirect contributions (such as fertilizers used to grow the food you consume). Here is an example using nutrient pollution as a model to help you understand how to complete this datasheet.

Contributions to Water Pollution

Category of Pollutant	Personal Contributions Describe your activities that contribute to each category of water pollution (describe at least 2 activities and identify whether contributions are direct or indirect)	Effects of Pollutant Describe the effects of each type of pollutant (describe specific effects of each pollutant on ecosystems as well as for human health)
Nutrient Pollution	Direct contributions: (1) Use of detergents that contain phosphorus. (2) Use of nitrogen-based fertilizers in my yard. (3) My contributions of human sewage waste. Indirect contributions: (1) My consumption of meat products, which contributes to nitrogen pollution caused by improper handling of livestock manure. (2) My consumption of conventionally grown food due to the farmer’s use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.	Human health: Nitrogen & phosphorus cause harmful (toxic) algae to grow in our water sources. Human exposure to such algae through drinking or swimming can cause stomach & liver illness, respiratory problems, or neurological problems. Ecosystem effects: Nutrient pollution causes algal blooms which lead to oxygen depletion (hypoxia) in the aquatic ecosystem. This kills aquatic life and can create whole “dead zones.”

2. Answer the questions on the Lab Response for Part 2.

References

Borja-Vega, C. & Kloeve, E. 2018. Why a human rights based approach to water and sanitation is essential for the poor. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/water/why-human-rights-based-approach-water-and-sanitation-essential-poor

DuPage Water Commission website. https://dpwc.org/

Water Footprint Network website. https://www.waterfootprint.org/

---

Lab 17 Response: Water Use and Pollution Audit

Part 1: Domestic, Agricultural, and Industrial Water Footprints

Table 17.1. Domestic (personal) water use audit
Use the information provided in the instructions for Part 1 to calculate your domestic water use in the table below. Show all your calculations.

Sources of Water Usage	Number of uses or minutes of water usage (per person, per day)	Calculate amount of water usage (per person, per day)
Flushing toilets gallons/flush:
Bathing / showering Shower—water flow for shower in gallons/minute: Bath—water flow for bath in gallons/minute:
Handwashing / brushing teeth water flow for faucet in gallons/minute:
Laundry gallons/load:
Dishwashing Dishwasher—gallons/load: Handwashing—water flow for faucet in gallons/minute:
Cleaning / cooking / drinking water flow for faucet in gallons/minute:
OTHER including lawn / garden / car washing / pets / leaks
Total domestic water use = flushing toilets + bathing / showering +hand washing / brushing teeth + laundry + dishwashing + cleaning / cooking / drinking + other	gallons/person/day: Convert to liters: consumption of water in gallons/person/day x 3.785 = consumption of water in liters/person/day liters/person/day:

Questions

1. Using the information provided in the lab directions about the United Nations Resolution 64/292, which recognized the human right to clean drinking water and sanitation, discuss how your water supply measures up in terms of
   • Availability:
   • Accessibility:
   • Affordability:
   • Quality and safety:
   • Acceptability:
2. Which of the following measures do you take to conserve water? Check yes or no as appropriate. If the measure does not apply to you, explain why in the “comment” column, or use that column to make any additional remarks. Space has been provided for you to include water conservation measures you employ that were not included in the list.

3. Report your agricultural water footprint calculations from the water footprint calculator as follows:

Your annual agricultural footprint:

agricultural water use in cubic meters/person/year x 1,000 = agricultural water use in liters/person/year

_______ cubic meters/person/year x 1,000 =_______ liters/person/year

Your agricultural footprint on a per-day basis:

agricultural water use in liters/person/year divided by 365 = agricultural water use in liters/person/day

_______ liters/person/year divided by 365 = _______ liters/person/day

What item in your food consumption has the largest water footprint?

4. Report your industrial water footprint calculations from the water footprint calculator as follows:

Your annual industrial footprint:

industrial water use in cubic meters/person/year x 1,000 = industrial water use in liters/person/year

_______ cubic meters/person/year x 1,000 = _______ liters/person/year

Your industrial footprint on a per-day basis:

industrial water use in liters/person/year divided by 365 = industrial water use in liters/person/day

_______ liters/person/year divided by 365 = _______ liters/person/day

5. Reflect on your water use:
   1. Considering all your water use—domestic (i.e., personal use), agricultural, and industrial—are you/should you be concerned about your level of water use? Which areas of your water use concern you most? Explain your thinking.
   2. How could you reduce your water footprint especially in the areas of water use that do/should concern you? Identify two ways.

Part 2: Contributions to Water Pollution

Table 17.2. Contributions to water pollution.
Use the information provided in the instructions for Part 2 to identify and describe activities that result in your contributing to water pollution (from home, work, school, recreation, etc.) and analyze the effects of your pollution in the table below.

Category of Pollutant	Personal Contributions Describe your activities that contribute to each category of water pollution (describe at least 2 activities and identify whether contributions are direct or indirect)	Effect of Pollutant Describe the effects of each type of pollutant (describe specific effects of each pollutant on ecosystems as well as for human health)
Nutrient pollution
Waterborne pathogens
Toxic chemicals
Oil pollution
Sediment
Thermal pollution
Plastics

Questions

1. Explain the mechanism of natural selection. How would you respond to someone who tells you not to worry about water pollution because species will develop adaptations to deal with the negative effects of pollution through natural selection? Explain your thinking. Include examples in your response.
2. Reflect on your contributions to water pollution:
   1. Are you/should you be concerned about your contributions to water pollution? Why or why not? Which of your contributions to water pollution concern you most? Explain your thinking.
   2. How could you reduce your contributions to water pollution especially in the areas of water pollution that do/should concern you? Identify two ways.