How's Your Water Budget?

“The land with its waters gives us nourishment. The earth rewards richly the knowing and diligent but punishes inexorably the ignorant and slothful.” -Walter Clay Lowdermilk co-founder of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service

After considerable research and consultation, we have concluded that the most important and relevant focus for our watershed research is to develop a practical, replicable methodology for assessing the Water Budget of a watershed, as well as detailing measurable, human-scale, low-budget practices to improve the amount of water available within a watershed. California Department of Fish & Game’s draft Coho Salmon Recovery Plan specifically lists as a primary research need for Russian River Coho Salmon recovery the determination of impacts from water diversions and withdrawals in the Dutch Bill Creek watershed (where OAEC is located) and adjacent Green Valley watershed. This issue is also a priority for the Russian River Watershed Council’s management plan. In 2007, the research emphasis will be on establishing a baseline study for Dutch Bill and possibly Green Valley watersheds, and designing the methodology for a long-term water budget assessment.

This "Data Logger" measures the water level in our domestic well

This "water meter" measures how many gallons of potable water we consume

With very basic tecnology it is possible to monitor your own water budget. We have installed a water meter directly into the water line coming into our water tanks. Now we can see how many gallons of water we consume...what we spend, when we use alot, when we use a little and what our potable water budget income and savings have been. The more we know about our water resource the better we can insure its abundance. Figures 1 and 2 below are sample outputs of the kind of simple data collection that we're engaged in. To take it up in scale imagine the complex accounting that must take place to understand the water budget of a whole watershed like the Russian river.