OCWA’s Annual Water quality report for 2013 indicates approximately 36.13 million (M) gallons of water per day is distributed to 340,000 residential customers”. The majority of the water OCWA treats comes from Lake Ontario; about 18M gallons or 50%,. Otisco lake water supply about 47% and is distributed to southern and western county residents. The city of Syracuse treats its own water from Skaneateles lake at about 3% of the daily supply, and is distributed as a first come, first serve basis along the pipeline. To offset these large quantities anyone can collect precipitation.
Water Harvesting
The Living Building Challenge is a building certification system that is in continuous design, improving the sustainability measures of the building to function within its own bioregion. The potential use, or reuse of water in such a small treatment cycle may be another reason for consideration of how water is used, or conserved.