Email: watercasa@watercasa.org
RECOMMENDATIONS & OPPORTUNITIES
Though this white paper is written at the request of the City and County’s Water Infrastructure, Supply & Planning Study, it speaks to the entire region.
1. Chart a path to full utilization of indirect potable reuse. Continuing
to ignore wastewater as a future source of supply could cost our
community hundreds of millions of dollars. And, because the
Groundwater Code enables local water utilities to engage in the indirect
recharge of wastewater, and recover that recharge under the same
rules that apply to CAP recharge, there is simply no alternative,
regardless of expense, that is as remotely reliable for balancing our
supply and demand. On top of everything else, this is one of the least
expensive alternatives available to our watershed.
“From a technical and chemical perspective, public health
and safety aren’t issues. Even so, convincing the public
and politicians that the end product of a water
reclamation facility can meet drinking water standards
requires extensive public relations efforts.”
AWWA Opflow, February 2009
2. Develop a plan to achieve the elimination of potable water for
outdoor use in a five to ten year time frame. This means all outdoor
water use must be from harvested rainwater, graywater reuse or
reclaimed water.
3. Institute retrofit upon resale ordinances as an equitable method
to bring existing properties up to the water efficiency standards of new
14
construction. Target among other things, toilets, hot water heaters,
and irrigation systems.
4. Establish water efficiency messaging and media campaigns on a
regional basis. We are all in the same media market and coordinated
efforts create consistency throughout the region and increase the
impact of our efforts.
5. Strive for rate adjustments and ordinance development every
year. Just as rate increases should be regular, adoption of increasingly
stringent water use restrictions, coupled with incentives, should be
done regularly (every year something should come forward in every
municipality and utility) and in increments that are meaningful to
customers but not so burdensome that a backlash is created.
Additionally, a long-range plan for these additional requirements or
restrictions should be implemented comprehensively, not piecemeal,
and laid out for a certain time frame so the general public and the
business community know what is coming and when.
6. Embrace a requirement that by a certain date, all toilets sold
and installed in this county be High Efficiency models rated 500 gramsper-
flush or higher by MaP testing.
7. Incorporate the concepts of STRUCTURED PLUMBING including
trunk, branch and twig piping systems, and pipe insulation into the
plumbing code.
8. Fully enforce all the conservation requirements and ordinances
already in place.
9. Establish a method to implement consistent conservation and
water related ordinances throughout the region.
10. Institute addition training and certification requirements for the
entire range of practitoners in water using fields. This includes all
facets of the landscape industry, plumbing industry, water auditors,
managers, etc. as well as field service and customer service staff in our
water utilities.
11. Analyze the outcomes of existing and previous efforts as a way
to inform our next generation of efforts. Has the expected decrease in
water use been realized, have the desired changes in water use
patterns occurred, has the maximum water savings relative to dollars
savings been achieved?
12. In this region we have done all the cheap and easy things to
save water and extend their supplies so everything done from here on
out must be justifiable fiscally, environmentally, and socially (triple
bottom line) and must be weighed against any and all other engineered
or acquisition solutions to water supply issues.
15
13. Use each and every one of the tools discussed in this paper.
Decide, how and when and to what extent each tool can most
effectively be used.
14. Target areas of actual high inefficiency rather than just overall
high water use.
As long as it is cheaper in dollars, environmental and social terms to do increased
conservation than to find the next source of water, we have more work to do. The
difficulty rests with the public will. How do we want to be identified? Will we rise as
the Solarcon Valley? Will we be the absolute leader in water use efficiency for this
nation?
And, regionally we need to make a conscious shift from a growth-based economy to
one that is more sustainable: we have entered the uncharted waters of limits and
drastically changing priorities. So, we better pay attention and get busy.
More News...
