Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
JAMES CITY COUNTY - Water conservation efforts are taking off in a big way.
A cistern was being installed Thursday at Cooke’s Gardens and Landscaping. It’s essentially a giant rain barrel, collecting water from the roof into gutters and into the in-ground cistern.
"70 gallons of water is used each day by us and it's a phenomenal amount of water and we need to take some action now to try to help reduce that," explains Charlie Martino.
His is one of many businesses partnering with the James City Service Authority to educate people about rainwater harvesting.
"We want to use that non-potable water like this that we're not gonna drink for things like watering the grass, the laundry, flushing the toilets, if we can get that far," Martino adds.
Installing a cistern is one of five ways residents can get hundreds of dollars in rebate money from the Authority for conserving water.
Groundwater is a limited resource in the region.
“We're pulling out of the ground over all about 100-million gallons a day. Not just the James City Service Authority, but other people that are using the aquifers and they do not recharge as quickly as we are withdrawing the water," said Larry Foster, the general manager of the Authority.
There are other ways to conserve around your yard: use drip irrigation in landscaped beds and use drought-resistant plants.
