TOILET FLUSH LIMITS: AN IRRATIONAL REGULATION FOR TOLEDO, OHIO
According to columnist Dave Barry, Congress passed The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1992, which includes a section that limits the capacity of consumer flush toilets to 1.6 gallons. I assume that this was done in order to "save" water.
Toledo should be exempt from this regulation. The reason is, we obtain our municipal water supply from Lake Erie, and return the reclaimed wastewater to the Maumee River, which discharges into Lake Erie, UPSTREAM FROM TOLEDO'S MUNICIPAL WATER INTAKE. In other words, for every gallon of excess water we flush down the toilet, we return about 1 excess gallon to Lake Erie. In fact, during a drought, such reuse of water should be encouraged! Maintaining that cycle of water from intake tower to toilets to the wastewater treatment plant and returning it to the lake upstream from the intake tower actually delays loss of that water down Niagara Falls and thence to Canada. Large toilet tanks would, for Toledo, prove an effective means for enhancing water conservation!!
Other cities should learn from this example. When faced with a water shortage, inland cities such as Columbus should pump some or all of their reclaimed wastewater back to their drinking water intake point. After all, most household water is used but not consumed (consumptive use removes water from the control of or access by humans - for example, irrigation water is consumed as most of it evaporates). Water that we drink and later flush down the toilet is separated from waste products in the wastewater treatment plant and returned to our surface water supplies. I inform students in Geology 2020 that they no doubt drank some of the same water this morning that they drank 2 or 3 weeks ago. It is not clear how much of the increase in beer drinking by college students can be attributed to this new knowledge (or how many of these students know where milk or eggs come from).
The water we drink (as well as the water used to make carbonated beverages or added to reconstitute fruit juice) has been "used" many times previously, by many other humans. This container from which I sip from time to time holds water once drunk by Moses (perhaps even some of that famous water from the rock). Perhaps some of the water turned to wine at that wedding feast found its way through the hydrologic cycle into this container. Hold your neighbors in great respect - their bodies hold some of the water used by John the Baptizer in the Jordan.
So let us return to rational water use policies. Allow water users who discharge waste water upstream from their drinking water intake to be exempt from "water saving" restrictions like toilet tank size (it does make sense to limit shower flows - at least, for showers connected to water heaters depending on non-renewable fossil fuel or electricity). Encourage cities with limited water resources to reuse their reclaimed waste water in creative ways. The USEPA and other regulators could reduce their compliance enforcement staff if waste water were reclaimed by piping a significant percentage back into the drinking water treatment plant, particularly if mayors and City Council members were required to drink water straight from the tap frequently and in public.