El Dorado Hills Woman's Drought-Busting Plans Cut Water Usage By 60 Percent
/ CBS Sacramento
EL DORADO HILLS (CBS13) — A local woman is taking big steps to save water during the drought, rigging up her home to the point where she's cut her water use by more than half.
Marie Levy has built her own water-saving system in El Dorado Hills from simple products you can find at any hardware store. She's even figured out a way to reuse water more than once.
"Every year in California it's dry," she said.
Levy doesn't hide her lawn watering during the drought. In fact, she's proud of it.
"It's about one load of wash to water my grass for an hour," she said. And I can do that every day of the week and not run out of water."
She's discovered a way to save water wasted every day and put it to good use. She built her own system without any professional experience.
Every morning, each family member fills a bucket with water that's wasted while waiting for the shower to heat up. That water is then used to wash their clothes with biodegradable laundry detergent.
"The second usage of the water is running that washing machine, and when it drains out of the machine its grey water, it goes into my storage tank," she said.
That water, when needed, is pumped from the tank through a garden hose onto her lawn.
"That's three times for the price of buying each gallon once," she said.
Her family has been able to cut back on their water usage by 60 percent.
"It's not only the cash savings that we are getting we also feel like we are helping California to save water," she said.
And she says any money spent is worth the savings.
She also collects rainwater and condensation from her air conditioning unit, which she uses to water her front garden and fill her fountains.
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