Clarity on withdrawal versus consumption, San Diego style

Regarding my discussion yesterday of the fact that not all water conservation measures are created equal, here’s a nice treatment of the subject by Deborah Brennan at U-T San Diego:

“It’s one of the simplest, most common sense things you can do to save money and restore the ecosystem, especially in San Diego where we have chronic drought,” said Candace Vanderhoff, chief executive of RainThanks & Greywater, and the installer of Murphree’s system. “By retaining the water on the site instead of sending it out to the ocean, we’re able to create more green spaces.”

The key bit here is that “sending it out to the ocean” line. Makes clear where the effluent goes – that San Diego’s clothes washer drain water is being discharged to the ocean, rather than being returned to the system for reuse somewhere else downstream. San Diego’s at the end of the downstream. Kudos.