Weird water restrictions in NJ? (1 Viewer)

[Todd Hochard]

Yes I was being sarcastic

Phew! For a second, I thought you were aspiring to be a local government employee.
Cheers!

 

[Jay H]

Jay H, did you know that it can take up to a year for a clear coat finish to set up on a new car.

I believe it's clear coated, but I've heard a bunch of different opinions, one being that the paint is cured at about a high heat at the factory and it doesn't take too long for it to be cured. Others say that a polish is all that is needed. Dunno, I'm kind of impartial to the feeling that if one can polish a car, then one can wax a car cause the wax is supposed to protect the finish/polish of the paint. In any case, it looks good, I did find two itty bitty rock chips, one in the lower hood and one on the rear wheel well, but nothing that a dab of touch-up paint can't fix. Of course, I bought it in Virginia so it's inaugural run was like 230 miles to go home at under 4000 RPM and very gingerly... It was very hard though

 

[Steve Owen]

washing a car doesn't use much water. But washing a car is a luxury item, watering the lawns in the neighborhood is not. Making sure your pool is filled up so it doesn't break apart is not a luxury.

Washing your car is no more of a luxury than taking a shower. Or a relaxing bubble-bath.

I take some pride in how I present myself. I take a shower before I go out. Is that necessary? No, probably not. Especially if it's more than once a day. It's most certainly a luxury, but somehow that seems to be OK. But if I try to take some pride in how my car looks by washing it, which takes less water than my shower (and orders of magnitude less water than watering the yard), somehow that's a no-no. Makes no sense to me...

-Steve

 

[Ryan Wright]

If you can't figure out the "whole" picture of why it's ok to waste thousands upon thousands of gallons of water to water a lawn (which either evaporates and turns to rain at some point, or soaks back to the water table), but not hundreds to wash a car

Wait!! Wait just a minute. You forgot some important details:
water to water a lawn (which either evaporates and turns to rain at some point, or soaks back to the water table), but not hundreds to wash a car (which either evaporates and turns to rain at some point, or soaks back to the water table)
What the heck is the difference? The water returns to the water table or atmosphere in both situations.

 

[AjayM]

Wait!! Wait just a minute. You forgot some important details:

water to water a lawn (which either evaporates and turns to rain at some point, or soaks back to the water table), but not hundreds to wash a car (which either evaporates and turns to rain at some point, or soaks back to the water table)

What the heck is the difference? The water returns to the water table or atmosphere in both situations.

And you're missing a few key points as well.

-You can take your car to a car wash, you can take your car to a man who will wash it by hand. You can't take your lawn anywhere (well you could but then watering it would be the smaller of some other problems)

-When you have the ability to take your car someplace and wash it, then washing it at home is a luxury, is it not?

-When your lawn and all of the lawns and gardens in your neighborhood are dead, what happens to your property values? If everybody in the neighborhood has a nice well kept car, but it's dirty do you lose 10-20% of the value of your home, which is almost always an appreciating asset (unlike a car which almost always depreciates)?

-Who makes the laws and these regulations? People that got voted into that position by the people of the community. If everybodies property value goes down because of what an elected official does, then what are the chances that the person will get re-elected?

So yes, it's stupid that you can waste tens of thousands of gallons of water while watering a lawn to much (as has been pointed out), but not a hundred to wash a car. But that's the way it is stupid or not.

Andrew

 

[Todd Hochard]

(which either evaporates and turns to rain at some point, or soaks back to the water table)

That's a good GENERAL idea, but it doesn't really work that way. So much of the water either evaporates or goes to storm water runoff drains, that direct the water to places where it isn't useful to anyone.

For 3.5 years (from late 97 to late summer 2000), here in Central FL, we could watch torrential downpours nearly every day, just off the coast, where it didn't help anyone out. Inland, though, nothing. Sure, all that water was evaporating, but it was raining down offshore.

Here in FL, the aquifer is being drained much faster than it is replenished. Unless this gets turned around, we'll have to look elsewhere for water. Probably to desalinization (like SoCal is considering), which is crazy expensive, and consumes a LOT of energy to produce.

The whole idea of "Find more," instead of "Use less," seems so counterproductive.

Todd

P.S. If you take your car to a guy that washes by hand, how are you saving anything?

 

[AjayM]

P.S. If you take your car to a guy that washes by hand, how are you saving anything?

It's not saving anything, but it's also not going to get you a ticket. So again it's just another piece that shows you how stupid the laws are. Although I will say that most of those guys are pretty frugal with water, especially the traveling ones (that carry their own water), much more so than most people are when washing a car.

And I agree, finding more instead of using less is quite ridiculous. Look at a country like Bermuda, which has no natural water, everything is collected or transported in. In which case the transported water is SUPER expensive, the collected water is essentially free. Every house has water collection built with it, so each house has a way to keep water. I think they have a few desalinization plants as well, but again with side effects that it uses a lot of energy and costs a lot of money. They have figured out a wonderful way of doing things that works fairly well, I don't know how happy Americans in general would be with it, for instance when I was there last we pulled up in a sailboat after 7 days of very stormy weather (read not taking a shower, no shaving, etc) at the marina, we had to buy tokens to take a shower. $15 later I was once again clean, clean shaven and ready to re-join society....for a single shower.

Andrew

 

[Mike Main]

Then there's Aruba. It has a oil refinery which means cheap and seemingly endless energy. It also has a desalinization plant supplying the whole island (16 miles by 4 miles). There was no sign of water conservation consciousness like that of Bermuda. Oh well I guess its the resources that every country/island/state has that differs it from the next.

Mike

 

[nolesrule]

The reason for the rule is most people would was h their car with a running hose and not a bucket and sponge.

Here in my area, the restrictions keep getting tighter. Watering has gone from every other day to twice a week to once a week and it must have an automated sprinkler system to be unsupervised. Car washing went from having a hose with a restrictor nozzle to an auto shutoff to using a bucket and sponge.

 

[Steve Owen]

So yes, it's stupid that you can waste tens of thousands of gallons of water while watering a lawn to much (as has been pointed out), but not a hundred to wash a car. But that's the way it is stupid or not.

Yes, but it doesn't HAVE to be the way it is. If "can't wash your car but OK to water your lawn" laws come to my town, then I guess I'll just have to do the only reasonable thing... civil disobediance.

-Steve

 

[Todd Hochard]

This thread has inspired me to measure, using my precision water meter, the amount of water I use on my next car wash.

Stay tuned.

 

[Steve Owen]

This thread has inspired me to measure, using my precision water meter, the amount of water I use on my next car wash.
Stay tuned.

And....?

 

[Todd Hochard]

And....?

uh, I'm lazy.
I did wash one of our cars, but my wife was washing clothes. I'll try again this week.

 

[Jay H]

As an update to fellow people from NJ here, as of 6/20/02 we are allowed to wash our cars on the weekends with a bucket or hose with auto-shutoff. Watering of lawns with an automatic sprinkler is on an every other day basis based on your house number..
Anyway, more info can be found at
www.njdrought.org
Looks like our reservoirs are at normal to over normal status now, but the streams are still at a very dry level and all of NJ is still officially in drought emergency status.
Jay

 

[Todd Hochard]

Update:

I FINALLY remembered to measure my car wash.

15.6 gallons.

I washed my 1980 Z28 (a sizeable car). A generous pre-wash rinse down, fill the bucket (about 1.5 gal in a 2gal bucket), spray-soak the sponge, and get to work. Two rinses on the car during washing. A refill of the bucket. Separate rinses for all wheels. I did not go out of my way at all to minimize water usage- just business as usual.

That's actually lower than I thought it would be. The meter is accurate, and my hose flows 3.9gals/min (I measured it) when spraying (I keep the nozzle on the "shower" setting).

Summary- these sorts of limitations make no sense, in the face of allowing lawn watering to continue. For reference, it takes nearly 1000gals to water my postage-stamp lot ( about 1/10 acre of watered surface) each time (I shoot for 1/2" of water, twice a week- with all the rain, I haven't watered since May, though).

Todd