Turning off the tap: Common domestic water conservation actions insufficient to alleviate drought in the United States of America

Diana M. Ruiz; Heather Tallis; Bernie R. Tershy; Donald A. Croll

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229798

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionOctober 15, 2019
30 Dec 2019 Decision Letter - Shahid Farooq, Editor PONE-D-19-28748 Turning off the tap: Common domestic water conservation actions insufficient to alleviate drought in the United States of America PLOS ONE Dear Mrs Ruiz, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please add some your Options for the Future: Balancing Water Demand and Water Resources at domestic level We would appreciate receiving your revised manuscript by Feb 13 2020 11:59PM. When you are ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. To enhance the reproducibility of your results, we recommend that if applicable you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io, where a protocol can be assigned its own identifier (DOI) such that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript: A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). This letter should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. This file should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. This file should be uploaded as separate file and labeled 'Manuscript'. Please note while forming your response, if your article is accepted, you may have the opportunity to make the peer review history publicly available. The record will include editor decision letters (with reviews) and your responses to reviewer comments. If eligible, we will contact you to opt in or out. We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Shahid Farooq Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at http://www.journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and http://www.journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf 2. Please amend your list of authors on the manuscript to ensure that each author is linked to an affiliation. Authors’ affiliations should reflect the institution where the work was done (if authors moved subsequently, you can also list the new affiliation stating “current affiliation:….” as necessary). [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes ****** 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: Reviewer comments Turning off the tap: Common domestic water conservation actions insufficient to alleviate drought in the United States of America PONE-D-19-28748 Please add some your Options for the Future: Balancing Water Demand and Water Resources at domestic level Please estimated water savings for a house with low pressure in county then compare to a house with high pressure, your data will be more reliable for future estimation if you please add some data regarding important voluntary domestic water conservation measures include the following: • Limiting toilet flushing. • Adopting water-saving plumbing fixtures, such as toilets and shower heads. • Adopting water-efficient appliances (notably washing machines). • Limiting outdoor uses of water, as by watering lawns and gardens during the evening and early morning, and washing cars on lawns and without using a hose. ****** 6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?** For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: No [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files to be viewed.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email us at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Reviewer comments.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229798.r001
Revision 1
9 Feb 2020 Author Response Reviewer comment: “Please add some your Options for the Future: Balancing Water Demand and Water Resources at domestic level Please estimated water savings for a house with low pressure in county then compare to a house with high pressure,” Response: We are unclear as to the reviewer’s use of the term “pressure” here, and so respond on the basis of two possible interpretations. The reviewer may be using pressure to refer to water pressure entering the household through pipes from the municipality or well. In this case, it would be expected that a household with high water pressure would use more water than a low water pressure household, and so water saving devices may have larger benefit when installed in high water pressure households. To analyze this variation, we would need to know average water pressure in each county, and make an assumption about how many houses already have pressure regulating devices installed. Water pressure can vary dramatically even within the service area of one municipal water provider (based on distance from source, elevation, pipe diameter, etc). We were unable to identify an available data source that would allow us to robustly estimate impact of water pressure on adoption of other water saving devices. We have added text to the methods section clarifying this limitation, lines 152-155. A second interpretation of “pressure” in the reviewer’s comment could relate to household water demand, wherein high pressure would represent households with high water demand. Our methods relied on total domestic demand reported at the county level. We are not aware of data avialable at the individual household level and so are unable to make household level demand comparisons. Reviewer comment: “your data will be more reliable for future estimation if you please add some data regarding important voluntary domestic water conservation measures include the following: • Limiting toilet flushing. • Adopting water-saving plumbing fixtures, such as toilets and shower heads. • Adopting water-efficient appliances (notably washing machines). • Limiting outdoor uses of water, as by watering lawns and gardens during the evening and early morning, and washing cars on lawns without using a hose.” Response: Our chosen water saving interventions include all elements suggested here, except limiting toilet flushing. Our original manuscript includes water saving plumbing fixtures as specified for toilets (in Table 1, row 4 “Install WaterSense labeled low flow toilets”), showerheads (Table 1, row 5 “Install WaterSense showerheads”) and washing machines (Table 1, row 6 “Install ENERGYSTAR clothes washer”). We also include the commonly recommended action to limit outdoor water use as the installation of a WaterSense irrigation controller (Table 1, row 9). WaterSense irrigation controllers earn the WaterSense label by meeting EPA standards for avoiding overwatering. These irrigation controls assess actual local weather conditions to determine watering needs rather than preset timers. We feel this adequately addresses the action of efficient outdoor watering in the most reliably measured manner. All of the mentioned actions and the derivation of their estimated savings are also found in Supplemental Table 1. As washing cars on lawns and limiting toilet flushing were not found to be a commonly recommended action and difficult to reliably estimate potential savings, we have not included it in our analysis. However, we have added text to note such exclusions in our methods, lines 133-140. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers .docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229798.r002
14 Feb 2020 Decision Letter - Shahid Farooq, Editor Turning off the tap: Common domestic water conservation actions insufficient to alleviate drought in the United States of America PONE-D-19-28748R1 Dear Dr. Ruiz, We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication. Shortly after the formal acceptance letter is sent, an invoice for payment will follow. To ensure an efficient production and billing process, please log into Editorial Manager at https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the "Update My Information" link at the top of the page, and update your user information. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to enable them to help maximize its impact. If they will be preparing press materials for this manuscript, you must inform our press team as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. With kind regards, Shahid Farooq Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): I have evaluated the revised manuscript. The authors have addressed the minor points raised during review process. Thus, the manuscript can be accepted in its current form. Reviewers' comments: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229798.r003
Formally Accepted
19 Feb 2020 Acceptance Letter - Shahid Farooq, Editor PONE-D-19-28748R1 Turning off the tap: Common domestic water conservation actions insufficient to alleviate drought in the United States of America Dear Dr. Ruiz: I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper at this point, to enable them to help maximize its impact. If they will be preparing press materials for this manuscript, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org. For any other questions or concerns, please email plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE. With kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Shahid Farooq Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229798.r004

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .