WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2002 (ENS) - Online information is now available to help consumers save water in their homes and reduce their utility costs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new website to promote water efficiency in the home by offering on line information on saving water and reducing utility costs. Using water efficiently can help improve water quality, protect sources of drinking water, reduce the cost of drinking water and wastewater treatment, maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems and mitigate drought impacts.

Water efficiencies in the home can be improved by detecting and fixing leaky faucets, installing high efficiency clothes washers and toilets and watering the lawn and garden with the minimum amount of water needed. Fixing a silent toilet leak, for example, may save as much as 500 gallons per day.

Installing high efficiency plumbing fixtures and appliances can help a typical family of four reduce indoor water use by one-third, the EPA says, saving about $95 per year on water sewer bills and cutting energy use by as much as six percent.

Watering the landscape with an automatic irrigation system may likely be the single largest use of water in the home and can be improved by using proper irrigation and scheduling techniques such as cycling the sprinklers.

Using all of these techniques reduces human impacts on rivers, lakes and streams, the EPA says.

Water efficiency also plays an important role in reducing the amount of energy used to treat, pump and heat water - now about eight percent of U.S. energy demand. Water heating accounts for 19 percent of home energy use.

If 20 percent of U.S. homes used high efficiency clothes washers, national energy savings could be 285 billion BTUs per day - enough to supply the needs of more than one million homes.