With the drought, and now the freezing temp and wind chills, do we leave our faucets dripping? And if so, can you mention drought ways of saving water in situations like that for everyone to follow. I am going to save mine to water the christmas tree or water for my dog or cats. there are so many ways to recycle the water we waste on a daily basis. I collect my water while i wait for it to get hot and then i use it for animals or plants or something outside, anything is better than the drain unused. anyway, what started this was the dripping faucets. Do we need to do this?

MIKE MOSS SAYS:      Shannon,    Thanks for your efforts at saving water. Regarding your question about dripping faucets, we wouldn't really recommend that unless you have water supply pipes that you know from past experience will freeze and burst in very cold weather. Most of us have supply lines that are buried and/or located in warmer area beneath the house, so that it is quite rare for them to be damaged by freezing. So for most people leaving faucets dripping would be a waste of good water. Of course, for those who have vulnerable, exposed lines that might rupture in very cold weather, it would be worthwhile to drip the faucets in order to avoid a much larger loss of water due to a breakage. In these cases, perhaps a bucket could be used to store the "drippage" for re-use in order to both conserve water AND avoid a ruptured line.