What's your water footprint?

WRAL has an interactive tool that allows you to discover how much water your household uses (it's an estimate, of course.) But while wandering around online I found a tool that actually claims to measure your "water footprint."

H20Conserve, at http://www.h2oconserve.org/ , walks you through an extensive calculator that asks you expected questions about how many water-saving faucets you have and how long your showers take. But it also asks questions about whether you recycle, what you do with your old clothes, and whether you "let it mellow" (with helpful graphic if you find yourself confused.) Each step of the calculator has an "info" button that tells you why that particular question is relevant to your water usage.

At the end of the calculator you're presented with the amount of water you use per day. It'll going to be an incredibly huge number. That's because the calculator is taking into account all your household's choices in cleaning, eating, and recycling, in addition to the water you directly consume.

In addition to this depressing calculator, the site also offers lots of tips for saving water (in the bathroom, kitchen, around the house, outside, etc.) There's also an article and a link list that covers water conservation and more general conservation issues. You can get an overview of the site at the site map.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have to go not water my lawn.