FORT WAYNE – If you go to the TinCaps’ game at Parkview Field tonight, you might come across a little something extra.

American Standard, which makes toilets and other plumbing fixtures, will have a portable showroom parked outside the stadium to show off and demonstrate some of its products from 5 to 8 p.m.

The event is part of a national tour about water conservation.

Those who visit the display will be able to get all kinds of information about how replacing an old faucet can save 8,000 gallons of water a year; turning off the water while you brush your teeth can save 24,000 gallons a year; and getting a low-flow showerhead can save 22,000 gallons of water a year.

The tour’s goal is to reduce water consumption in America by 18 billion gallons by getting people to install water-saving fixtures in their bathrooms, which is where Americans use 75 percent of their water.

By now we’ve all heard about the need to conserve – farmland, electricity, oil, water, and so on. I have no problem with conserving things, though I do draw the line at toilet paper.

And I understand that water is a huge issue in parts of the world. For example, a shocking percentage of the world’s population has a shortage of clean water.

I’ve heard about water rights brawls out West, about how the Colorado River has just about been sucked dry, and we’ve all heard about the bans that have been placed on washing cars or watering lawns in different parts of the country. That’s what happens when you build huge, sprawling cities in the desert.

There are the stories of the ground sinking as water is pumped out, and of the big aquifers that supply the Great Plains being overtaxed. Just a few years ago, a drought caused the reservoir that supplies Atlanta to almost run dry, and some Chicago suburbs are suffering water shortages now, I’m told.

Yes, there are plenty of good reasons in plenty of places to conserve.

Many of us have probably heard advice on how to conserve. Turn the water off while you brush your teeth. Turn the shower off while you lather up and turn it on just to rinse, like they do on submarines.

But with North Korea, Iran, unemployment, a struggling economy, the stock market, rising taxes, insurance costs, college costs and so on, I have a hard time getting too worked up about water.

I live in Fort Wayne. We have two reservoirs, including one we have never used, the 1.8 billion-gallon Hurshtown Reservoir. It is mainly a refuge for injured geese these days.

We get our water from the river. Here, our main problem with water is getting it to stay in the river and not flood our streets and homes. I think it’s safe to say we often have too much water, and if I turned my water off at the curb it wouldn’t help Los Angeles, Phoenix or the Sudan one lick.

I don’t mean to sound cynical or knock this tour, but my capacity for things to worry about is just about exhausted.

I talked to Greg Irish, who is in charge of the tour. He seemed to understand my point of view. The goal of the tour, though, isn’t to get everyone to convert to some water-saving behavior instantly.

He’s just saying, “Hey, if you get a new showerhead, get a low-flow one. It feels exactly like the high-flow one” and it will save you some money – $220 a year in water and sewage bills if you convert a faucet, showerhead and toilet.

If everyone conserved a little bit, it could help a city avoid having to eventually build a new $50 million water treatment facility.

OK. In an area with a money shortage, not a water shortage, I can buy that.