Lance Armstrong's Austin home used 330,000 gallons of water in July

[MicaelS]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/us/16lance.html?th&emc=th

How in the hell do you use 158,000 gallons a water a month on average, and then shoot up to 330,000 gallons? My god that is 443.5 gallons of water an hour, 7.4 gallons of water a MINUTE? That's obscene, and what makes it worse, he wasn't even IN Texas, rather he was in Colorado and California all summer.

In July, Mr. Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, used a whopping 330,000 gallons of water at his lush Spanish-colonial home, with an acre of gardens and a swimming pool, city water authority officials said.

This tremendous flow of H2O, which is 38 times what the average household in the city uses in the summer, comes as Texas is going through a dry spell and officials are asking people to cut back on watering their lawns.

The Austin American-Statesman, which broke the story on Friday, quoted Mr. Armstrong as saying he was unaware his water use was so high. “I’m a little shocked,” he told The Statesman. “There’s no justification for that much water.” He added, “I need to fix this.”

But city water records suggested that his home has long been a guzzler of water, using an average of 158,000 gallons a month since January 2007. Then, in June, the cyclist shot ahead of the pack, topping the city’s list of residential water users for the first time, officials said. That month his house and garden drank up 222,900 gallons.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. WTF?

Is he running a brewery there?

[mitchum]

2. Does he have a freaking nuclear reactor in there?

[NightWatcher]

3. holy shit, someone jiggle the handle on the toilet, NOW!!!

[realisticphish]

11. haha nt

[malaise]

13. LOL

:rofl:

[Da Fusa]

16. LOL! that's a funny one

[TheCowsCameHome]

20. Maybe his toilet has the optional Niagara Falls feature.........

[ellie]

4. What an ass.

[burythehatchet]

5. We know he is a fan of Republickans. Seems that is his way of life as well.

[shireen]

6. maybe there's a big leak in his water main?

anyhow, he's replenishing the Edwards aquifer. :P

[elocs]

14. A leak would be too simple of an answer, but why wait for more facts

before we jump all over this story? But then again, a leak in the water line would seem to be a very simple answer for such excessive water use when the guy is not home. I really don't think it has anything to do with his being a Republican.

[DangerDave921]

21. LOL

Good point. Why are some on here so quick to connect water usage to him being a Repub?

Should we now investigate the water usage habits of all famous people? I'd sure be curious how much energy and water someone like Barbara Streisand uses, or John Travolta with his private stock of jets.

Face it -- rich people live differently than we do.

[elocs]

27. I googled before I posted to find that the average family uses 10,000 gallons a month.

I also read of a family who used 63,000 gallons of water in a month because there was a water leak. They didn't know about it until the water in the ground rose high enough to be noticeable. I am sure if Armstrong were not home and no water was showing above ground that he might be unaware that he had a problem. That would be a simple answer without other compelling facts.

[tnlefty]

29. The article states that the Water Authority has already ruled out

a leak as a cause for the excessive usage. :shrug:

[elocs]

30. If his irrigation system has a problem, that could be a simple answer.

I read online that a home faucet left running can use 4-7 gallons per minute. It's too bad that the water usage problem was not pointed out and addressed at its previous levels by the Water Authority.

[MH1]

7. The rates for water usage should be tiered.

Extremely excessive use for a residence should be charged for at an extremely high rate.

[dkf]

8. An acre of lush gardens sounds rather excessive in a drought.

I'm glad he is getting called out on this.

[XemaSab]

22. I'd like to know what makes it "lush"

You can have tropical-looking plants that don't suck up a lot of water. Which isn't to say that he's not over-irrigating.

I just don't trust the source of that word. :shrug:

Edit: here's a picture. Doesn't look "lush" from the air.



Double edit: In the article, the HOUSE was described as lush, not the grounds.

[Retrograde]

32. It's got green grass

large expanses of it. In a semi-arid or arid climate that makes the grounds lush. Otherwise, they'd look like my neighbor's dessicated mostly-brown with a few blades of green sticking up lawn (I replaced mine with drought-tolerant perennials years ago). Can't comment on the trees from the photo, but as a resident of a dry area all I can say is the only way to get grass that green is water, water, water.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. McCain's wife tapped his line to get free water for Anheuser-Busch

[MiniMe]

10. How green is his grass?

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Don't know, but it must be up to the handlebars by now.

[MiniMe]

24. Maybe * comes over and cuts his brush

:rofl:

[undeterred]

15. Is he training to compete with Michael Phelps?

[Moochy]

19. The training is going well

[csziggy]

17. Maybe he was filling water bottles for other bicyclists...

[seabeyond]

18. thurs water shut off. a neighbor kid went to wash hands, no water, left both valves open full

i took off and ran some errands. water was turned on. when i pull into garage i have two kids jumpy up and down all excited. basement (refinished) and husbands computer room flooded and laundry room. i walk in and turn valves off and ask kids if they might of thought that one thru.

huge mess

and i have been so conservative i using water

[Squatch]

23. Does he pay for it?

:shrug:

[MicaelS]

26. The bill for July was $2,460. n/t

[carlyhippy]

25. He probably has a big pool he flushed out the water and refilled

a really big inground pool can hold 50-60,000 gallons, he has a huge estate with fountains and gardens, it sounds like the watering system timers were stuck on during the whole month...after looking at the pic in the article, yep, he has a nice green grounds, as well as the adjacent areas, looks like he is watering the neighborhood too.

[cobalt1999]

28. Take out the lawn, go with native local plants, remove the fountains.

By doing that, he'd probably be using less water than the typical home in the state.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

31. How apropos is this? Daryl SLUSHER, an assistant director of the Austin City Water Authority

in charge of conservation, said the city had ruled out a leak. LOL! I love it when people's names are closely related to their jobs!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Sanctified]

34. From the looks of the pictures of the home he has a ton of trees.

I guess he could just cut them all down to conserve water but if he is footing the tab for the water I think it's better to keep the trees.

[frylock]

35. guerilla garden

just sayin