A Day Without Water

I live in a three bedroom house in San Diego and today my home has no water. I live in an affluent region of one of the most affluent countries in the world. “I don’t have water” is a very odd statement for me to make… and it’s an incredibly surreal way to live. When I turn on the faucets in the kitchen or bathroom, all I hear is the slurping suction of moist air and a rattling of the old copper pipes. I am afraid to flush the toilet because, well, I like my liquids! So I am developing a longer-term agreement with the color yellow and have placed a temporary “extra” rubbish bin next to the loo.

We do have two 1-gal glass jugs of drinking water, plus a container full of about the same of tap water for washing+other. It’s a short term fix.

A very short term fix.

I was conscious of just how short term that supply will be as I carefully measured out a glass of water for my morning toiletry/bathing activities. It was like being back at Burning Man, minus the dust. A month ago John and I consciously chose to spend eight days in the desert plus one in Yosemite with a 27 gallon water supply. Water consumption (i.e., drinking and cooking) was carefully orchestrated. Bathing was usually by means of baby wipes or the communal camp “shower” (i.e., being soaped up and sprayed down with help from a hand-pump pressurized power washer, a system to which we happily donated five gallons of water - showers for ~20 of our campmates).  I’ve gotten water-greedy since coming home and balk at the idea of being limited to 1.2 gallons of water today. Last night’s pipe accident has been a sustainability wake-up call!

Oh, did I mention that our lack of water is our own fault? John was out in the yard, prepping the front-side area for re-landscaping, when he hit a shallow copper water line. According to the 2010 California Plumbing Code, all underground piping shall have a minimum 12-in of cover, which is what made finding pipe at 6 inches (or less) so surprising.  We patched the leak with hose clamps and plastic. It was enough that we could fill up our emergency containers (Alas, I cannot say that we were so prepared as to having pre-filled containers!) and John could rinse off the mud before we turned off our connection to the water main.

 

The sun is up and as I drink my careful alotment of tea, I contemplate materials for our at home repair job - solder (lead free 95/5 tin/antimony), k strength copper pipe and couplings, flux, cutters, sand paper and a blow tourch, as well as good ways to drain an underground, shallow water system at the lowest point in the house.

 

Needless to say, it's going to be an interesting day.

Happy Sunday!

S