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SALT LAKE CITY — Football fans everywhere hope this year's Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles isn't a toilet bowl but Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities officials view it as a chance to talk about water conservation beginning with the toilet.
It's why the department is issuing the "Super Toilet Bowl Challenge" this weekend as a way to talk about how toilets — and other indoor water uses — can impact water usage amid the state's ongoing drought.
"There's a way for us to draw a connection to create awareness about the things that we can and still should be doing to save water," says Laura Briefer, director of the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities.
The department's Super Bowl lead-in is an urban myth that the nation's sewage systems are swamped during the halftime of the Super Bowl because so many people are flushing their toilets at the same time. The truth is that there is a "Super Bowl Flush" — a spike in usage documented in sewer treatment plant measurements — but it's nothing that overwhelms the system, Briefer explains.
But she says if we're talking about bowls, why not talk about toilets? Toilet leaks and every flush can be impactful overall, especially since older toilets can end up using 8 gallons per flush and one person flushes a toilet five to seven times every day on average.
The challenge they offer is how to improve how people use their toilets:
- Only flush pee, poop and toilet paper. Don't use your toilet as a garbage can.
- Check your toilet for leaks. An old flapper valve can leak as much as 200 gallons of water per day. If you pour dark food coloring into the tank and leave it for about 20 to 30 minutes and the color shows up in the bowl, you have a leak.
- Install a new toilet if possible. Newer models, with U.S. WaterSense labels on them, can use less than 2 gallons per flush.
And speaking of the bathroom, they are asking people to avoid running water while they are brushing their teeth or shaving, repair any leaking pipes or faucets and take shorter showers because all of those can save several gallons of water every day. More water-saving tips can be found here.
Salt Lake City Public Utilities users were able to save 2.9 billion gallons of water during last year's irrigation season, and despite a much-better snowpack runoff forecast for this spring, Briefer says there will be more calls to cut back water usage this year because Salt Lake County remains in a moderate to severe drought.
The "Super Toilet Bowl Challenge" is just one of the many ways the department can be creative — perhaps even a bit humorous — about its messaging.
"This is a serious problem that we have on our hands, but sometimes I think it's important that we don't take ourselves so seriously all the time," she said. "We can have fun with conservation (and) we can think about it in new ways."
