Kayla Johnston | Contributing Writer
Extreme water shortages, wildfires spiraling out of control and emergency food deliveries — that’s right, California is in a drought.
As of September, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 100 percent of California was at a D-1 level, meaning “Moderate Drought,” while nearly 82 percent fell under the D-3 level of “Extreme Drought.”
“We’re facing perhaps the worst drought that California has ever seen since records began being kept about 100 years ago,” Brown stated in a January NPR broadcast announcing the emergency.
As conditions worsen, more and more restrictions are being placed on organizations within California. Los Angeles County has asked Azusa Pacific University for a 20 percent water reduction and restricted it to watering fields two days a week, Mondays and Fridays, according to APU Assistant Director of Environmental Stewardship Toney Snyder.
As a school striving to use resources efficiently, Azusa Pacific already has spent years taking measures to cut back on water usage. All the restrooms on campus are in the process of conversion to motion-sensing water faucets and low-flow toilets.
Additionally, Snyder notes that the water district has paid for a company to come to APU and replace all sprinklers with more efficient rotating nozzles. However, with more than 10,000 sprinkler heads across campus, the process has taken nearly five months.
With this level of water shortage and no signs of the heat slowing down anytime soon, many are left wondering, “What can I do to help?”
Azusa Light and Water, the electricity and water provider for all apartment living areas on campus, gives easily accessible water conservation tips on its website, www.azusalw.com, and encourages its customers to do whatever they can to help. Whether that means turning off the water while brushing your teeth or cutting down on your number of car washes, the company is pushing simple steps toward saving water. Through the DRiP Rebate Program, Azusa Light and Water customers who purchase certain water-saving appliances or convert to drought-resistant landscape materials can apply for a rebate of up to 50 percent of the cost of the irrigation system supplies.
So what does this look like for college students? It’s possible to make an impact even with limited resources and funds.
“I would love to be a part of the effort to conserve water, but I have no idea where to start. … I just take small steps wherever I can and hope that my efforts make a difference somehow,” junior applied health major Abbey Mast said.
Mast touches on a concern that a many college students share: where to begin.
According to Snyder, showers are the biggest area in which students can make an impact and reduce their water usage.
“College students take 1.6 showers per day. … If you take a five-minute shower, you will use about 30 gallons of water, so we need to be more aware and try to be less wasteful every time we step into the shower,” Snyder said. “That’s where we have the biggest opportunity to save.”
Every shower on APU’s campus is equipped with a water pressure lever that can be adjusted as needed. Snyder suggests students make use of this lever to limit the heavy flow of water and only use high pressure when rinsing off. When students are shampooing or washing their bodies, high water pressure is not necessary.
Even something as seemingly minor as drinking from water bottles can cause a lot of damage. It’s rare to finish an entire water bottle, and when purchased in packs, students are more likely to toss one out and grab a new one before the previous bottle is empty.
Mast has committed to using a refillable plastic water bottle in place of buying large packs of disposable bottles.
“I find that I use the water I’m drinking more effectively when I have only have one bottle to drink from,” Mast said. “That way, I don’t have half-full bottles sitting all over my apartment that I eventually end up throwing away; I can finish what I have and only refill when necessary.”
Cutting out small amounts of water whenever possible can lead to a significant decrease in the number of gallons used per student per day.
Snyder urges students to call the Department of Campus Safety or the Office of Facilities Management in the event they see water being wasted on campus, whether that is a sprinkler causing water runoff or a leaky toilet in their apartment.
There currently are no plans in place in the event the drought continues to worsen. “If we get a lot of rain this winter, it could change everything. … It all depends on what God gives us,” Snyder said.