Powegians: When Trying to Save Water, Consider Your Pool
By C.H. Currier
With water rates in Poway expected to increase up to 40 percent in the next three years, not to mention the ongoing drought across the state, it’s worth asking ourselves: what can we do to save water?
There are almost 16,000 residences in Poway and from scanning google earth, thousands of them have swimming pools.
I’ve been a pool owner in Poway for 20 years. It’s a very cool pool. There’s a constant babbling waterfall that is totally Zen. Mallard ducks occasionally try to make it their home. Little birds like to fly across it, snagging insects. I’ve become a big fan of dragonflies. Sometimes, not often, we swim in it.
One issue gnaws at me. It evaporates hundreds of gallons of water every week. During the summer my pool and spa can turn to vapor almost 3000 gallons a month. I figure losses are about half that much during the winter when temperatures are lower, and days are shorter. The bottom line is I’m needing almost 30,000 gallons and spending about $300.00 a year to keep the pool full.
I don’t like wasting water. Over the years I’ve removed my lawns, planted drought tolerant Australian, Mediterranean, and native Californian shrubs and trees. I’ve turned off the sprinklers to areas of the yard that we don’t see much. As for toilets, I prescribe to, ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’. You know the rest.
Over the years I’ve sat looking out my office window, knowing that my pool’s water is disappearing and that if I let it get down too far, the filtering system doesn’t work. To reduce evaporation, we tried a bubble-wrap type pool cover. It did slow down water-loss, but our maintenance guy couldn’t keep the pool’s sides from turning green. It was also hard to wind the heavy plastic on to its fourteen-foot-long spool partly because the pool is in a kidney shape. We tried mini covers consisting of six foot round floaty thingies. They didn’t work out either. My wife and I even discussed filling the pool in and planting tomatoes. That would have cost over $25,000 and wasn’t a good option.
Recently, after reading about the devastating water issues affecting the west and the 37% increase in water rates being proposed by the Poway City Council, I decided it was time to go online to see if there were any new technologies I could use. I discovered something the pool industry calls liquid solar blanket. It’s a chemical you add to your pool. The manufacturers claim their products reduce evaporation by up to one half. On Amazon, there seemed to be several different brands. I was skeptical but figured what do I have to lose. I purchased a quart called Cover Free (which is only for pools) for about $20.00. For my pool, which has 22,000 gallons, it would require 5oz. per week. They say the way it works is by producing an invisible, single molecule skin on top of the water. It’s nontoxic once in the pool and if disturbed by swimming or anything else, it floats back together and continues working. There are two other brands advertised on Amazon: Solar Pill, sold by Leslie’s, and Sea Klear 1112000.
Eureka! After two months, I can report that I am adding about half as much water per week than before using the liquid solar blanket product. But am I saving money?
These are rough figures, but you’ll get the point. The product is costing me $3.15 a week. Now at Poway’s higher tier 3 rate I’m adding about $3.90 of water. My total cost per week is $7.15. Without the product I’d be paying $7.79 a week. There is a small savings of .64cents.
My goal was to try and save water and it does accomplish that: about 375 gallons per week during the summer months. Let’s assume 375 gallons a week for six months and 190 gallons a week for the other six months. My total water savings could total approximately 14,700 gallons a year. Multiply that by 4000 pools in Poway and there is a potential savings of millions of gallons of water.
In any event, do what you can to prevent evaporation if you own a pool or spa. As they say, water is becoming the new oil.
Here are Poway’s current tiers and rates per unit of water as of January 1 of 2021. A unit is 748 gallons.
Tier 1 = 1-20 units @ $4.80 / unit
Tier 2 = 21-56 units @ $5.60 / unit
Tier 3 = 57+ units @ $7.79 / unit
If water rates go up as predicted, so will the savings.
Scott Currier is a thirty-year resident of Valle Verde, a retired horticulturist, and a published short story writer. Look for his upcoming novel, Where the Ashes Fell, in 2022.