Green Hands USA: America Volunteers

Your water bill may not be very high, but that doesn't necessarily show you the true cost of the water you use. All of our water comes out of the natural environment, and using too much of it costs our rivers, lakes, forests, birds, animals, fish, insects and just about everything else that we hold near and dear. So how do you use less water? The EPA has three simple tips:

Check toilets for silent leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank; if the color shows up in the bowl indicating a leak, fixing it may be as simple as replacing the toilet?s flapper.

Twist on a WaterSense labeled bathroom faucet aerator to use 30 percent less water without a noticeable difference in flow.

and Replace a showerhead with a WaterSense labeled model that uses less water and energy, but still has all the power of a water-hogging model.

What's this WaterSense thing? Like the EPA's similar ENERGY STAR program, WaterSense products are much more efficient. In this case, they use about 20 percent less water than other models. Does it work? Heck yeah. In 2009, the WaterSense program helped consumers save more than 36 billion gallons of water and $267 million on their water and sewer bills.

So I guess your water bills really are high after all, huh?

You can find more information on the WaterSense program and the three tips above here.