Water conservation measures
could involve personal sacrifice
By KIM ODE
Staff writer
Could you get by on 50
gallons of water per day?
If the present water shortage
situation continues, an ordinace
before the Sioux Falls City Com-mission
may make this
possibility a reality.
The City Commission last
week adopted a resolution urg-ing
citizens to conserve water
and gave first reading to the or-dinance
restricting water usage.
To the Sioux Falls resident,
this may mean browner lawns,
dustier driveways and higher
plumbing bills. To the
Augustana student, this could
signal shorter showers, dirtier
cars and bigger washloads.
There are at least three
stages to the restricted water
usage with the first stage going
into effect upon second reading
of the ordinance.
The first stage would prohibit
watering yards except by hand-held
hose; watering vegetation
except by hand-held hose or by
container not exceeding three-gallon
capacity; washing out-door
surfaces except with
three-gallon containers;
washing mobile equipment ex-cept
where required by health
and sanitary regulations;
washing interiors and exteriors
of buildings; ornamental foun-tains
except those with recir-culating
systems; swimming
pools without recirculating
systems and defective plum-bing.
The ordinance also provides
for misdemeanor charges for
anyone who knowingly lets
defective plumbing remain out
of repair.
Exceptions would be possible
in all categories.
The second phase would be
activated if water shortages
became worse and would
prohibit all of the above uses
under any circumstances,
meaning three-gallon con-tainers,
hand-held hoses and
recirculating devices would no
longer be acceptable.
Additionally, the use of air-conditioning
equipment
operating with water would be
prohibited.
The 50-gallon limit per per-son
per day would be imposed
if the water shortage reached a
critical stage. At first glance, 50
gallons may seem like a
veritable ocean, but the cup
soon runneth over.
The average residential water
usage per person daily is 65
gallons according to the City
Commission. These figures
compiled by the American
Waterworks Association give an
idea of where that "ocean "
goes.
Under normal circumstances,
a shower takes 25 gallons of
water; under conservancy stan-dards,
four gallons are allowed
for a wet down, soap up and
rinse off. Shaving with the tap
running uses up 20 gallons
while only a gallon is used if the
basin is filled.
The two gallons needed to
wash your hands with the tap
running can be halved if the
basin is filled first. The 10
gallons estimated needed to
brush your teeth can be cut to
one-half gallon if the tap doesn't
run continuously.
Washing machines are real
water hogs. A full cycle run with
top water leavel drinks up 60
gallons while washing on a short
cycle with the minimum water
level uses only 27 gallons.
In a recent Argus-Leader arti-cle,
Sioux Falls Water Depart-ment
Manager Les Hash quoted
other figures.
He said it takes five gallons of
water to flush a toilet and es-timated
it would take eight to
ten gallons to fill a tub to six in-ches
with the person in the tub.
It normally takes 36 gallons of
water to fill a tub.
People will know if they are
using too much water with the
help of explanation on reading a
water meter that will eventually
be sent with a water billing.
What if more than the allowed
amount of water is used in a
residence?
The resolution activating the
ordinance section could state a
penalty or control measure.
Hash said some California com-munities
experiencing a water
shortage have been doubling
water bills for such infractions.
Whether these measures will
have to be enacted depends on
South Dakota's infinite variety of
weather and unselfish actions of
area residents. With the recent
rains, a water shortage seems
like a bygone worry for some.
But summer is just around the
corner — and the Sioux Falls
area is still inches behind in nor-mal
precipation.
Augustana College
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Thursday, March 17
Volume 60, No. 6
Campus fire alarms
frequent, city fire
marshal concerned "( /
/,
r /
4 t;
By KATHY RANG
Editor
The following is a letter recently received by Vice President of
Financial Affairs Jean Helland, expressing the Sioux Falls Fire
Department's concern about the number of fire calls it has made to
the Augustana campus.
Feb. 24, 1977
Mr. Jean Helland
Vice President, Financial Affairs
Augustana College
29th Street & Summit Avenue
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57105
Dear Mr. Helland:
Since January 1, 1977, our Department has made eleven fire
calls to Augustana College, five to Costello Dormitory, 2413 South
Grange Avenue; and six calls to other dorms and buildings on the
campus. Most of these fire calls were due to false alarms caused by
improperly installed and/or malfunctioning equipment. These calls
were not the fault of improper maintenance by your maintenance
department but rather by whomever drew the plans or the installer
and the equipment manufacturer.
Mick Grocott, Fire Inspector, and I met with Adolph Kondert and
Al Wingert, Augustana Maintenance Department, at the Costello
Dormitory and checked the installation of the smoke detectors. It
was pointed out by Mr. Wingert that the apartment's smoke detec-tors
were on the apartment's electrical circuits and could be turned
off by tripping a breaker in the apartment which would nullify, com-pletely,
the detector's effectiveness. This is a violation of our Code.
The detectors must be on a circuit which is connected ahead of the
main.
Mr. Harmon, Mr. Kondert, and Mr. Wingert are aware of this
situation and are attempting to correct or to have corrected the im-proper
installation.
In the past, some of the alarms were caused by students pulling a
fire alarm station. Tampering in any way with a fire alarm system or
its components is a misdemeanor and is punishable by fine of not
more than $300.00 and/or not over ninety days in jail. If a violator of
this law is caught, a complaint will be filed and an arrest made.
With these thoughts in mind, we would appreciate your following
through on these problems which most certainly will help eliminate
most, if not all, of the false alarms on your campus.
In the near future, Fire Department companies will tour and in-spect
Augustana dormitories and buildings both for familiaraization
and to make the school a safer place, if possible, for the faculty and
students. While there, spot checks will be made of the alarm
systems and components which include sprinklers, detector heads,
etc., for proper functioning.
If you have any questions in reference to this matter, please feel
free to contact me at 100 South Minnesota Avenue, or call 339-
7174.
Sincerely,
Marvin E. Sletten
Fire Marshal
The Fire Department particularly expresses concern over the
number of calls it has made to Costello Dormitory, the recently-built
married student housing building on South Grange. Helland said
the situation is being investigated by Augustana personnel. He add-ed
that part of the reason for the number of calls from Costello Dor-mitory
is the newness of the building. "All the bugs aren't quite out
of it yet," he commented.
Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds Millard Harmon said
he has called the architects and gotten plans of the building in an
effort to correct the problem. He said the main fault seems to lie in
the equipment, which is made by Notifier, a fire alarm system
manufacturer.
A letter concerning efforts to correct the problem has been sent
both to Fire Marshal Marvin Sletten and the Notifier Company. Har-mon
said the next step is to get in contact with Pete Hegg of Hegg
Realty, who put up the building for Augustana.
Harmon said the system is currently installed in such a way that if
the electricity to just one Costello apartment is shut off, the alarms
will not work in any of the apartments, thus leaving the building
without an alarm system.
Harmon said there could be any number of situations that could
set off a false alarm in buildings like Humanities, where there has
been a number of fire calls recently. For example, an alarm could
be triggered, he said, following a 15 degree rise in temperature
within 15 seconds which could occur if a window were closed and
the thermostat turned up.
Sioux Falls residents may have to significantly cut down on use of water if the city commission puts
emergency water conservation measures into effect.